How can I ascertain if I am paying for someone else's electricity? Help!

[Danielle]

My electricity bills are 1.5-2.5k per month for a 5 bedroom house. My heating was running off ? electric so while this figure is extremely high it (kind of) made sense, as the house is large. I had an electrician calculate the space and electric consumption. As it was so high, I decided to go down the route of Air Source, and have had 4 Mitsubishi air source heat pumps installed to make my electric more affordable... having been told this would take them to half or a third. But my first bill have come in and it is £2300, for ONE month!!. I wonder if I am paying for the electricity for the farm shop next door or something like this. My provider, utility warehouse will only check that my meter is working and the wires inside my house.
Does anyone know how or who can I ask to check that the wires going into my house are only providing electricity for my property. Utility warehouse refuse to do this. is there ANY service I can pay for to prove what is going on. Even if just for me! I am in a lot of financial difficulty now! Thanks

 

[Danielle]

But did he know about the other supply?

he knew there were two 3 phase. one have tiny consumption, the other massive.

 

[Danielle]

he knew there were two 3 phase. one have tiny consumption, the other massive.

i made him focus on the massive one

 

[DPG]

Surely when the house was built the dual supply would have been spotted? It is new build right? Who built it and when?

 

[pc1966]

i totally agree. my house used to be part of a farm, i think i am paying for their farm shop freezers and lights. would there be a way they could leech off me from inside my wire network, ie so it looks like from inside the house?
or would turning it all off solve this? would the meter stay on if no power? its digital

If one of those supplies did everything on that site in the past and is still connected up then yes.

They may not know it, but it is a definite possibility.

 

[Danielle]

Not sure except for monitoring it. That said, 1600 quid a month is a gigantic, enormous electricity bill. My last house we paid 110 euro a month and we had electric hot water, electric hob and electric oven and my wife cooks from scratch at least 3 times a day if she doesn't do any bread or desserts. Our house before that (before we had kids) was 35 quid a month. Even my old man's house, which never sleeps, stuff running constantly, his bills are only just over 10% of yours and his house is 135sqm. I've known people with small grows on that use less than you.

You've either got a problem with someone tapping off you, a problem with the meter (which i would demand be changed) or you use way too much electricity.

I will ask for meter change, but they did this already, its not the meter, that's whay i don't understand if somone is going through my meter, or how that is possible

 

[DPG]

I will ask for meter change, but they did this already, its not the meter, that's whay i don't understand if somone is going through my meter, or how that is possible

No point changing the meter again if it's been done already. You've had some good advice on things to do.

 

[7029 dave]

i made him focus on the massive one

What was the outcome

 

[Danielle]

I would look into hiring a power monitor and leave it connected for a few days/weeks. See what usage it shows and compare it to the kwh/units on your electric bill.

so i have tried this, and it matches, but i cannot see how this much usage is possible... i make toast , have a cuppa in the morning, nothing crazy!! and all my heating and hot water are now all on air source. i had assumed that maybe that was right is all my heat and water were on electric , but it has gone UP since having air source installed...

 

[Electrics]

so i have tried this, and it matches, but i cannot see how this much usage is possible... i make toast , have a cuppa in the morning, nothing crazy!! and all my heating and hot water are now all on air source. i had assumed that maybe that was right is all my heat and water were on electric , but it has gone UP since having air source installed...

Turn the meter with the massive consumption off at the mains and see what still works inside your house.

 

[DPG]

Turn the meter with the massive consumption off at the mains and see what still works inside your house.

Or in the farm shop

 

[Danielle]

What was the outcome

he reported on the usage, which added up to the same as on the meter, (as he had clamps on each of the three phases on the meter) but couldn't explain why so high... so i'm thinking has someone managed to recently (or historically, given that my house was part of a bigger farm) get inside my wiring or my feed, so their stuff is going through my meter so usuage appears to be from inside my house, but is this possible?

 

[Danielle]

Or in the farm shop

ok, i'm putting kids to bed now, will try that in morning. THANK YOU

 

[Electrics]

Or in the farm shop

Yeah it's almost certain that the one with normal consumption on it is her houses meter (three phase is still weird imo especially as it looks new) and the other one is powering someone else's gaff. I mean they could say they didn't realise but they must realise they never get a bill.

 

[James]

Do you have an EICR? electrical installation condition report?

If you do, post it up, it might give us some insight into where you are using all this power.

If not, the best course of action would be to employ a local spark, maybe someone here will offer there services?

What i would be doing is taking a snapshot of usage on each circuit to see where the electricity is being used.

it will help you narrow down what is costing you the most.

I.e.

db 1

circuit.................usage.........capacity..............max...............10 min average........per hour cost
1..........................lighting...........6A......................3A............................1.5A.............................6p
2..........................heating..........32A....................28A...........................20A........................ £7.36
3...........................sockets..........32A.....................8A..........................0.95A.......................4p

if you are lucky then a circuit will be identified that is feeding a shop or cannabis farm that you dont know about that is using more than half of the total electricity you are using.

If not, then it will certainly give you some good information about what devices/circuits are using the most power and therefore give you a good idea as to where you can make savings.

 

[Electrics]

I mean even two 2500w heaters in each bedroom running at 8 hours per day only brings her leccy bill out at just over a grand if you add in everything else she uses. Deffo something else going on especially as the heating is now apparently been put on heat pumps.

I don't know about a small farm shop' usage but i would suspect it's even massive for that.

I reckon we'll see Giles on ThisMorning getting piled into the back of a jam butty for growing some wacky tobaccy for his gentleman friends.

 

[7029 dave]

If circuits are being feed of your distribution boards etc, unfortunatly that won't be your supplier's issue. Good luck with your investigations

 

[snowhead]

I suspect the house is being billed from the readings on the meter in the garage or on the total of both.
Not just from the meter in the Utility room.

Logically the meter in the Utility room is the one and only one for the house.
The one in the garage is most likely for the Farm shop.

The first thing to do is establish where the bill is being generated from.
The meter readings should be on the bill and should be close to the current reading on one of the meters.

Can Danielle the O.P post a photo of the last bill with the address and name covered up.
And on the Utility room meter press the Blue? top right button to cycle through the readings and take a photo of each reading

 

[7029 dave]

Both meters will have their own MSN, the issue is who they are being billed too

 

[James]

I am miles from you, in coventry.

£37.50 per hour working
£30 per hour traveling
£0.40 per mile traveling

I could come and do a report for you, however I am busy with other work at the moment and could do without all the traveling.

SURELY there is a member here that can spend a day doing a load analysis without adding 7 hours traveling to the bill???????

 

[hasel5]

Those supplies both have different phase rotation I Think looking at photos not much help but could aid the process of find what feeds what further down the line