Going to check my power meter

When I get home I'm checking my meter readings. We got our power bill and I thought it was a bit high, but not bad for our family as I've been home since having DD2 (5 months),

My dad just got one or my Nans house which was $250. The problem nan died 6 months ago, the house is empty. He had a plumber come and switch off the hot water cylinder (4 months ago) and has only used power to clean the house (minimal). The usage at Nansen for hot water and power are very similar numbers, only 5 kilowatts difference which seems suss.

To me it doesn't make sense and I now don't trust the readings of any meters. The house is empty!!

Just noting the plumber is coming today to prove the hot water is turned off. But the water usage bill (different company) doesn't correlate with the amount of hot water supposedly used.

You know most of the time they dont actually read your meter?
They just do an average, and add a bit if the electricity prices have gone up.
I put a bit of tape on my power box to see if they check each quarter. And for the last 3 bills no one has been.

I was about to post the same thing they dont always check sometimes they go on average, kinda stupid if u ask me cos if ur in the same situation as ur in or if u went on holiday and didnt use the elect,water,gas then ur being charged for a service your not using

i dont trust them either, my partners cousin just got a bill for $3000 for under 6 months of use and they are so careful to turn everything off etc. after they called it turns out it was an error on the power companys behalf! everyone should double check there bills!

You know most of the time they dont actually read your meter?
They just do an average, and add a bit if the electricity prices have gone up.
I put a bit of tape on my power box to see if they check each quarter. And for the last 3 bills no one has been.

that is a fantastic idea! i will be doing this this quarter. our bills have been suspect too but we also get a $60 (yes i said $60) charge for meter reading every bill because we live out of town... if theyre using estimates based on previous usage and still charging us that i will be VERY peveed off. our home is family owned (we rent form inlaws as its on the market and empty anyway) and whilst its been empty with nothing but the alarm on (all heating inc hot water is gas bottles and water is tank) the bills have been over $200 a quarter, mums called then numerous times about this but they wont budge on it. cant wait until we build..we will be going solar off the grid.

im pretty sure if they give you a bill based on average and dont actually check the meter properly you can pay a small fee to have them come out on a specific day and do a proper reading. im with origin for gas and electricity, and it says on my bill whether its an actual reading or estimate. my dad also has lots of issues with not getting actual readings and only getting estimates. if it seems too high he pays $30 for them to come out again and usually gets 200 to 300 taken off the bill!

Like the others mentioned- yes generally they go off an average- but in your case you should be able to contact the electric company and organise someone to come out for a actual reading, this is normally what you can do if you have a dispute. Hopefully they should be able to credit that bill with a actual reading smile

You could always phone the meter in each month to your power company. I used to do this when I flatted so it didn't matter if people moved in/out and my brother and SIL still do it. The power company gives you a date to phone it in on. They still come out and check it as usual (every 2nd, 3rd or 4th reading), but it means you only pay for what you use - so no nasty bills where they underestimated.

Also, we have 10 days from when our bill arrives to due date which can get a bit tight when you drop to 1 income. But if you phone it through you get told what it would be and have an extra 4/5 days to sort your budget - this might help some people.

Im actually waiting on my bill for this exact reason lol We were heading out when the meter reader was in our street and I saw him check the neighbours home and walked straight past ours lazy sod...we watched him and he was only checking every third or fourth home grrr..So I will be double and triple checking ours

I was told by someone that if you don't get a letter of proof from whoever disconnects your hot water system (in this persons case, they installed gas hot water), then you still get charged, whether the switch is off or not.

We have pre-paid power so we never get a bill.

We have pre-paid power so we never get a bill.

How does pre paid power work?

We get monthly bills from Lumo for combined gas/electricity. They only read the meters every quarter and estimate in between. Then once they read the meter they adjust the bill accordingly. They over estimate so every 3rd bill we're usually in credit which is always a nice surprise.

You can also ring up at anytime and give them the meter reading and they will adjust the bill.