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

[hasel5]

Also who is your energy supplier?as one meter is covered in EDF stickers

 

[derek]

Some pictures of the fuse boards fed by the two different meters might shed some light on what is going on.
What is the electricity consumption recorded by the meter in the utility room ( the new one that says installed in 2016) I would imagine that you might find that one is more in line with the bills you would be expecting to pay.

 

[Zerax]

...and the other one is powering someone else's gaff the rest of the village.

I've corrected that for you...

 

[Danielle]

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

the main part of the house was rebuilt 2016, the dual supply is because there is a small annex attached to the house which was separate; but is now part of the house.
i had the new air source joined to the small annexe meter, which had hardly anything on it before, tiny bills. now that bill is £300, for january, which makes sense as it is powering all the heating and hot water and it has been cold.
but the other bill, which should JUST be powering my lights (90% LED), kettle, toaster, oven etc is £1900 for a month. this doesn't include any heating hot water etc.

 

[Electrics]

the main part of the house was rebuilt 2016, the dual supply is because there is a small annex attached to the house which was separate; but is now part of the house.
i had the new air source joined to the small annexe meter, which had hardly anything on it before, tiny bills. now that bill is £300, for january, which makes sense as it is powering all the heating and hot water and it has been cold.
but the other bill, which should JUST be powering my lights (90% LED), kettle, toaster, oven etc is £1900 for a month. this doesn't include any heating hot water etc.

Ok so either someone is tapping off your home supply (which fyi shouldn't be three phase, there's absolutely no need for it in a domestic property) or your meter is naffed.

First step is to turn off all power-drawing appliances in the house that are wired to the offending meter and see if it still ticks over - do this when all adjoining property is occupied and in use. If it is someone is nicking the leccy and you're paying for it. If not, the meter could be buggered.

Either way you need a qualified electrician in (check they have Testing and Inspection qualification as they're much more likely to be able to find their way around the system) and after their diagnosis you need to alert your supplier. Either way, you're clearly not using £2k a month in electric with domestic norms like toaster, lights, kettle. You couldn't use that much if you left that all on constantly 100% of the time with that set up.

As an example, you know how if you leave the lid off a kettle it will boil contstantly and never finish? Well if you did that and left a 2600w kettle boiling for 30 straight days your bill would still be less than £300.

I would hope it's a damaged meter because then you have a chance of getting your money back. If it's a horticultural expert you've got little to no chance, they'll pay it off a quid a month.

 

[littlespark]

This is an amazingly high amount to be paying every month for past 5 years. Im surprised you haven’t investigated this sooner.

 

[DPG]

I get the feeling we are missing something here.

 

[Danielle]

Ok so either someone is tapping off your home supply (which fyi shouldn't be three phase, there's absolutely no need for it in a domestic property) or your meter is naffed.

First step is to turn off all power-drawing appliances in the house that are wired to the offending meter and see if it still ticks over - do this when all adjoining property is occupied and in use. If it is someone is nicking the leccy and you're paying for it. If not, the meter could be buggered.

Either way you need a qualified electrician in (check they have Testing and Inspection qualification as they're much more likely to be able to find their way around the system) and after their diagnosis you need to alert your supplier. Either way, you're clearly not using £2k a month in electric with domestic norms like toaster, lights, kettle. You couldn't use that much if you left that all on constantly 100% of the time with that set up.

As an example, you know how if you leave the lid off a kettle it will boil contstantly and never finish? Well if you did that and left a 2600w kettle boiling for 30 straight days your bill would still be less than £300.

I would hope it's a damaged meter because then you have a chance of getting your money back. If it's a horticultural expert you've got little to no chance, they'll pay it off a quid a month.

ok so i have turned off all the power in the house, the farm shop and the farm house remain lit up. so either its not them or they have tapped into my supply outside of my house.
I only turned off for a few mins and the numbers on the meter remained the same. i will turn it off for an hour tomorrw morning and see if the numbers remain the same then. i really appreciate this advice.
any idea how much does a 3* tumble dryer would cost per hour to run?

 

[Danielle]

This is an amazingly high amount to be paying every month for past 5 years. Im surprised you haven’t investigated this sooner.

i've been paying it for 2 years, i investigated straightaway, and everything pointed to the fact that that all my heating and hot water was being powered by electricity, rather than gas/ oil. so i got a loan and had air source installed (this installation was finished nov 30th) last week i got my first bill, which i was expecting to be a third of previous bills and it was the same...

 

[Danielle]

I get the feeling we are missing something here.

ME TOO!! its driving me mad... not to mention getting me in so much debt.