Hi, Hoping for some suggestions/advice please. All help appreciated. Strap in... I live in a 2 bed apartment. There is 1 neighbour upstairs. My energy usage is steady and low. I spend 6/7 nights away per month. This week I submitted a reading from my gas meter. It was massive: over 400 units since my reading a month previously. (Equivalent, my statement tells me, to 16 quid a day.) It's simply not the case Since I submitted that reading I've been taking daily readings and it appears to be back to normal, having used 2 units over 4 days. My supplier, Bulb, are confident that the meter is mine, although they do recognise the huge jump. My neighbour above moved in around March. I know they have had problems with their supplier, EDF, who apparently don't recognise that there are 2 properties in the building. (Mine is Number 1, theres Number 3.) I don't think they've been using my supply or that the meters are crossed. I might be being simple here but a pipe from my meter goes into my apartment, while a pipe from their meter goes into theirs. When I turned my gas off, my hobs/heating stopped working. Theirs didn't. I'm convinced it's something to do with their ongoing problems with EDF and have a feeling I've somehow been lumbered with their usage. Bulb assure me that no other property is linked to my meter. I'm flummoxed and would be grateful for any suggestions/ideas/theories please. Incidentally, our electric meters were crossed, something I discovered after 7 years of paying someone elses bill. Ta very much!
You've confirmed that your meter seems to be only supplying your property, and that you are submitting exact readings. I guess high usage can only be down to either actual usage, the meter not reading correctly, or that it's supplying another property. It seems you've covered all those options. Maybe turn off all your gas appliances (but not the supply) and see if it uses any gas for a couple of days.
Thanks for the suggestion. I was away one night last week and when I returned the reading was the same as when I'd left. I have a hunch that all those extra units came on in one go. I'm a complete novice: could the neighbour's supplier, who haven't been paid and who maybe mistakenly have linked my meter to the whole property, decide to bung on a few hundred units as an estimate of their usage since moving in?
Unfortunately I can't make out any of the details on 'my' meter. I've been alerted to a story in the Guardian from a few years ago about the make of my meter being linked to a bug causing 'phantom readings'.
There should be a "meter number" on your gas bill, and the same reference should be written on your meter. If it is written on your neighbours meter, then there has been a mistake somewhere. It is not unknown for numbers to get transposed, usually due to flats being re-numbered before the first person moves in.
Thankyou. There's a label on my meter with spaces for those details to be written in. Unfortunately the spaces are empty. It did turn out that our electricity meters were crossed but when I turn the supply off at my gas meter my gas hob/central heating don't work. Presumably that means they're not crossed?
No, but it turns out it's the same Siemens model that others have reported for providing 'phantom readings', which is interesting.
It does, as long as your supplier has the correct meter associated with your bill. It isn’t as easy to spot without meter readers - they would write thee meter serial number, the property address and the reading - it made it easier to spot one was wrong.
My supplier has asked me to book a gas engineer to ensure there isn't a leak. (There isn't ) And then they'll do a meter accuracy test which is a process I don't entirely trust given it has been accurate, it's just this one blip that seems suspicious. So, all at a cost to me even though they can surely agree that a 400+ unit increase within a month is "suspicious". I'm not sure how to put the onus on them to work with me on this.
A quick update on this. I took a picture of my reading this morning: 21840 019 I then turned off my supply. When I got home this afternoon I took another picture of the reading: 21841 978. This despite the supply being turned off?