We can't think of any explanation. The suggestion to have an electrician come out is good one, thanks morsy. Only think I can think of is that when we switch the night heaters off in early spring, something happens? If we had a faulty appliance of some sort using lots of electricity, then I would expect to see high day usage as well. It is strange, and VERY strange that this happened at the exact same time last year as well. I suppose it will come down to our word against Southern Electric and we will have to prove that we didn't use that much electricity, which we can't. Only hope to point out that we would have to have every appliance/lights/computers/tv etc. going all night every night to get that sort of usage, and even then I am pretty sure it wouldn't amount to 5000+ kwh. But southern electric doesn't seem to want to listen to reason or common sense *sigh*

Unfortunately, these are actual meter readings, not estimates. So something must be wrong with the meter. But like last year, it is my word against theirs. Actually, looking over the previous bills, 5000 units of energy is more than we use the rest of the year in total, including winter when we have the heaters on! So frustrating...

We just received an electric bill from Southern Electric for nearly £400. This is for the period between late February and early May. We are on economy 7 and for most of this billing period we have had our night storage heaters switched OFF. So to our shock, according to our meter, we have used over 5000 units of energy at night. Our day usage has stayed more or less the same. We are bewildered as to how our night energy usage can go UP from the previous quarter, during which we had the night storage heaters ON. The funny thing is, the exact same thing happened last year in the same flat. Our May bill was £500. Again, according to our meter we used over 7000 units of electricity at night. Again, night storage heaters off during this period and again this is substantially higher than the previous quarter, during which the night storage heaters were on. It seems really suspect that this can happen in the same quarter two years in a row. Last year, I contacted Southern Electric to complain. I was told that the meter was working correctly and that there were no issues (I believe they sent someone out to look). Again, in the previous quarter and the one following the massive bill, the usage was accurate. We ended up paying the bill, as Southern Electric refused to believe that there was a mistake and assumed that we had actually used such an impossibly high level of electricity. I fear that will likely be the same result this time around, but it seems fraudulent. How can our meter reading jump so high at the SAME time each year, and yet be accurate during the rest of the year? Also, we are in a 2 bedroom flat, even if we had every appliance we own, and all the heaters on all night, I am pretty sure we couldn't use over 5000 units of energy. It makes no sense. Would love to know if anybody else has has similar problems or has any suggestions! I should note, that we have double checked to make sure there are no errors such as transposed readings or rates. It just seems as though our meter reading has jumped inexplicably.