UK Is this electricity meter wired correctly?

[ECampbell]

Hello,

Last year we started getting really high readings over the colder months (we'd expected this but not 5x the amount of electricity being used) We contacted a family friend who was an engineer who said that our meter is incorrectly wired up. We then spoke to our energy provider with this information but they said the meter was fine and they would send out their own electrician to "show us how the wires worked". When their electrician came wound he said the wires were installed incorrectly and replaced the meter. The energy readings then went down. We have therefore disputed the amount charged but our energy provider isn't having any of it.

I'm no engineer so I apologise if this sounds very complicated but I was wondering if something is plausible. The flat we are renting changed from storage heaters to electric heaters around 2-3 years ago (before we moved in). Prior to this the storage heaters would turn on during the night time (12am-7am). When the newer electric heaters were installed I'm guessing someone came and changed it so the heaters (and seemingly a water heater) can be turned on at any point of the day (like the other electrics in the flat). I have a suspicion (hence why I'm asking if it's plausible) that when the heaters were changed from the old storage to new electric the engineer changed the wires over he didn't disconnect them from the 12am-7am related system, and as a result they've been read twice. This is backed up by the fact when we moved into the flat we could turn the heaters on at any point, since the engineer changed the meter (i.e. "fixed" the wiring) the heater sockets only now work 12am-7am.

The energy provider is saying because our readings from a year ago are similar to this year (without the heating on) that the old meter was fine and we need to pay. The energy bills only went up when we started using the heating.

If anyone UK based would be willing to help us investigate this further, I would be more than happy to hire you to help. I have of documents and photos ready to share.

 

[James]

If the flat is heated electrically, it would not surprise me if the energy usage went up by a factor of 5 to 10 times as much during the winter as it is in the summer.

 

[littlespark]

you have been paying for an E7 or off peak tariff when you didn’t need one. Hence a higher “day rate” when the heaters were in use.

That is, if the original storage heaters were replaced by 24hr ones, then yes, the off peak board would need to be connected to the 24hr supply, but at the same time, the energy supplier should have been contacted to remove the off peak tariff… bringing the day rate down.
If they are 24hr type, then putting them back on the off peak supply was wrong.

to advise further, can you upload photographs of one of the new heaters or manual (to confirm it is a 24hr type) and a picture of your distribution board, main fuse etc… as much as you can fit in one photo.

 

[snowhead]

It's unlikely that the heaters would have been wired such that they are metered twice in fact impossible of it was a single 2 rate meter.
As Littlespark, unless the new heaters are storage type then they need to be on the normal supply and available 24hrs.
If the water heating had ended up on normal rate then the bill would be higher, probably not 5 times tho.

What is expensive is using electric heaters during the daytime on normal rate.
The high tec high efficiency electric heaters are not quite what they claim to be.

Do you also have any photos of how the meter(s) was connected previously and now?

 

[Lucien Nunes]

As per the above, referring to your key question, I agree that it is impossible for the meter to register the same load twice, once against each rate, due to incorrect connections. That could only really happen if there were two separate meters, incorrectly connected so that one was feeding the other.

 

[ECampbell]

Hello everyone,

Firstly thank you for your replies. I haven't got a photo to hand of the heaters but this is a link to them: https://www.electricradiatorsdirect.co.uk/haverland-inerzia-tts-dry-stone-electric-radiators/. From some research I did last night after reading the initial conversation with an electrician, he said that the contactor is the wiring issue, not the meter as I previously stated. Is the wire going into the correct port? He said that it should be in the right most port. I have attached the requested photos.

 

[DefyG]

Not so sure the photos tell the whole story, but if meter is now wired correctly, moving the L on the contactor wont make the slightest difference.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

It's not switching anything at the moment, only its coil circuit is connected. To control the off-peak board, the line cable of that board would need to be connected to the load terminal of the contactor.

 

[ECampbell]

Hello everyone,

Firstly thank you for your replies. I haven't got a photo to hand of the heaters but this is a link to them: https://www.electricradiatorsdirect.co.uk/haverland-inerzia-tts-dry-stone-electric-radiators/. From some research I did last night after reading the initial conversation with an electrician, he said that the contactor is the wiring issue, not the meter as I previously stated. Is the wire going into the correct port? He said that it should be in the right most port. I have attached the requested photos. View attachment 89763View attachment 89762
View attachment 89764

It's not switching anything at the moment, only its coil circuit is connected. To control the off-peak board, the line cable of that board would need to be connected to the load terminal of the contactor.

Would this account for the high day time consumption? The energy company are saying that because the night rate is going up that this couldn't be the issue hence my confusion.

 

[UKMeterman]

If you have anying like say storage heaters, they are intended only to have a live feed in the cheap rate or else they eat electric like elvis eats burgers... Could explain the big bill...

 

[pc1966]

The high tec high efficiency electric heaters are not quite what they claim to be.

Exactly! All electric heaters are 100% efficient.

What differs is how much you use them (thermostat setting, insulation, period of use) and what rate you are charged for the electric (with "cheap rate" at nights when the grid has less demand and it pays to have an incentive for storage heating).

Heat pumps, either air-source or ground-source, are over 100% "efficient" though it is normally called the coefficient of performance as you are not getting more energy out than in on the grand scale (which is impossible or we would have working perpetual motion machines), but rather for every kW of electric in you pump 3kW or whatever in to the area you want heated, sucked from the outside like a fridge in reverse.