Gas AND Electricity usage tripled for no apparent reason

[LouiseSheffield]

Hey everybody,

This one has me puzzled - my gas and electricity usage has suddenly gone up by approx 2.5 times.
We've not changed anything.

A couple of things that happened around the same time:
A couple of weeks before our boiler guy fixed something minor on our water heater (I can't remember the parts name but our radiators were coming on when we turned the water on, so he replaced something and now they don't!)
4 days before one of our electric showers was leaking water, we have now replaced it
A socket in the kitchen kept tripping, we have since changed the fuse
When the other electric shower is on the lights in our bedroom dim, this has always happened since we moved in in June

We have turned the water heater off at the fuse box and our usage is still high.

I also noticed one night a sudden surge in our British Gas smart meter and nothing had been turned on and the fridge freezer wasn't making a noise.

I have phoned British Gas and they say there's nothing wrong with the smart meter.
We also live in a detached so would be difficult for someone to steal our gas and leccy I think.

Any suggestions? I'm going insane!
:banghead:

 

[assegayer]

this is why pay as you go meters are the way to go! never had any problems do it with gas aswell. that way no pesky idiots raking money out of my account. plus you will never 'owe' money in your life to any company.

 

[Octopus]

this is why pay as you go meters are the way to go! never had any problems do it with gas aswell. that way no pesky idiots raking money out of my account. plus you will never 'owe' money in your life to any company.

But you do pay a premium for that facility!

 

[assegayer]

But you do pay a premium for that facility!

Really?? i don't remember paying anything. or do you mean extra on the actual cost kwh. it seems cheaper in the long run to be honest. especially if your away just leave 0 on the meter and empty the fridge. no paying gas or electric for holidays

 

[Poptasticdave]

Wading in with my size 11's I'd say the dumb .. I mean "smart" meter is likely the problem. So far the only people I know who have had them in have either found that for years they have been having under-estimated bills and now have a huge debt to clear or that the meters are reading "fast" compared to the only ones. Three families I know are having major trouble with BG who are insisting that the smart meter is accurate and that the old meter "must have been reading slow, so you've been having cheap electricity but we won't retrospectively charge you, as a gesture of goodwill". If that theory is correct then most meters in the UK must be reading "slow" .... somehow I think the new meters reading "fast" seems more plausible to me ... would the utilities really have left meters reading slow for years and not checked or done anything?????? I can't believe that they would.