Rant - electricity costs!

[georgepomone]

Hi All,
The OP said he owns the flat and the Landlord is the manager. If each flat has it,s own meter why would the landlord be bothering if he is not allowed to charge for his service of providing the supply. What I,m getting at is it,s a certainty the Landlord is allowed to add service charges. Otherwise why would they bother. Hence the unit charge. I,ve lived in flats with a Landlord but they never had anything to do with the supply of electric. Sounds a bit odd to me.
George.

[superbiatch]

Originally Posted by Tali

That is something that is possible. While not common, sub-metering is a known and accepted practice. Unfortunately, the access you have to the sub-meters and rights to ask for visibility of the readings in a private arrangement is defined in the contract with the re-seller. (Additionally, the land-lord can sell on the electricity to you at a higher price if he wants to. There used to be a maximum re-sell price, but I'm not sure whether this is still the case.)

If there is a sub-metering arrangement, there will only be one 'settlement' meter point in industry systems. Anything on the consumers side of the meter has nothing to do with electricity suppliers (as long as it's not fraudulent).

Thats exactly what happens, but i'm sure the agreement is they sell it to us at the price they get it to keep costs down. I believe they buy it in high voltage and then reduce it to low voltage.

What sort of lock is on the cupboard? If it's a standard meter cupboard lock (triangular key) I can arrange for one to be sent out to you. If it's a Yale lock or any other sort of lock, I can't help with that I'm afraid.

Unfortunately its a mortice lock

One more check worth doing, to make sure you've got the right meter is to turn off everything in your flat at the consumer unit (fuse box) and then check that the meter isn't recording any usage. If it is, it's wired up incorrectly or you've been told the wrong meter number.

Good luck, hope you can sort it.

As soon as i gain access, i'm planning to do just that. I also wanted to see just how many kWh certain appliances use etc.

Thanks for your advice, i'm a fountain of electrical knowledge now

[DocDutch]

superb, I would ask your neighbours on how much they pay...sounds a bit too much 100 p/m on leccy.

I'm on gas and leccy and my bill is only 65 p/m so somewhere down the line you are getting scr*wed.

ow and my radiator is on nearly 24/7 and pc oops....

[superbiatch]

Originally Posted by DocDutch

superb, I would ask your neighbours on how much they pay...sounds a bit too much 100 p/m on leccy.

I'm on gas and leccy and my bill is only 65 p/m so somewhere down the line you are getting scr*wed.

ow and my radiator is on nearly 24/7 and pc oops....

They sent me a breakdown of 'estimated' cost except they forgot to state it was 'estimated!'. thankfully i've only had two bills above £70 per month in the 12 months i've lived here. Generally they are around £50, and thats cos i'm tight with it

I will ask my neighbour though, i'm sure she won't mind. The only difference between mine and hers is that hers is a 2 bedroom apartment, whereas mine is a 1 bed. So shouldn't be too much difference I would have thought.

Oh well, seems its warming up a bit now, so hopefully the heating will be switched off for good in a month or so - til next winter

I remember reading somewhere, that your post code has an affect on the amount you pay. I pay 11.01p per Kw. I'd like to get a breakdown of my gas and electric, did you just phone and ask for one?

[Tali]

I remember reading somewhere, that your post code has an affect on the amount you pay

Electricity suppliers do charge different prices around the country. It all depends on the distribution charges levied by the local distributor, cost to provide the meter and cost to read the meter.

I also wanted to see just how many kWh certain appliances use etc

You won't really get that from just looking at the meter because the dials move so slowly. From the rating of the appliance, you can have rough guess in the same way you did for charges in your first post.

As a rough guide, a single 100w light bulb left on for 10 hours will use 1kWh (unit) and will cost ~10p (depending on individual tarif). 10 x 100 = 1kWh

A 2000w (2kW) electric fire left on for half an hour will cost the same. 0.5 x2kW = 1kWh

Basically, the formula is rating x hours = kWh (units)

Alternatively, there are devices that you can clip around the cables that feed to and from the meter that will estimate how much an appliance uses by measuring the current running through the cable. These are available now but I'm not sure where you can buy them from.

Also, suppliers, Ofgem and the government are currently trying to decide on the roll out of 'smart' metering. One proposition is that each houehold is provided with a remote unit that can communicate with the meter and tell you how much electrivity you're using along with the cost. This is a few years away yet though.

[iain_herts]

hi superbiatch you may find that the key will be a Fire brigade key either a FB1 or a FB2 as these are what i normally use to open up these kind of places but i can not guarantee that it will be

if u want a set let me know and i will give the web addy for them they work out to
Fire brigade key set of 5 keys #1,2,4,11 and 14
£9.95 + VAT or if i have a spare set u could borrow them if you wanted

[DocDutch]

nice offer there Ian... but that in some way you can see that as breaking an entry

[iain_herts]

no its not as ANY1 can buy the FB keys the only keys your not ment to have are landlord keys and these are not classed and landlords

[superbiatch]

Originally Posted by iain_herts

hi superbiatch you may find that the key will be a Fire brigade key either a FB1 or a FB2 as these are what i normally use to open up these kind of places but i can not guarantee that it will be

if u want a set let me know and i will give the web addy for them they work out to
Fire brigade key set of 5 keys #1,2,4,11 and 14
£9.95 + VAT or if i have a spare set u could borrow them if you wanted

Thanks for the offer, but its just a normal key, nothing special about it. Its ok, i'm gonna have a week off in a few weeks (easter) and I'll make sure i get access as and when necessary