Overpaying electricity + gas

start with a very simple test. shut down all the computers, fridges, tv, stand-by red lights, lamps etc, absolutely everything. Check if your meters are still running, both gas and electricity. If so, you definitely have a problem.
Do you have by chance electric heating or something that might consume much electricity?

FYI : 110 sqm in apt block, 2 people out all day like you, gas and electricity 35 EUR a month. (but we have central heating provided by the building and that is expensive)

In any case you wouldnt be the first case where you are paying for other people consumption, maybe it might be worth investing on thos 500 euro

Just a thought: if you change your provider to a well-known one- ie Octa or Engie- perhaps they could help you..they could read your electricity meter to see your real consumption and you could take it from there AND i doubt they would charge you..

maybe you can buy some energymeters ( 10 euro ) , they plug in on your fridge , and other appliances , so you can check .
Also , on some websiets like engie or other , you can check how your heating , and electric consumption relates to the normal pattern.
Do you have an EPC , for your place , it gives an indication .

Your bills are always based on the meter reading so unless you can show that there is usage when you have turned everything off, you have got to risk the €500 to have the meters checked.
You could also check what the balance is between your electricity and gas bills. Mine is about one third for electric and 2 thirds for gas but I've no idea whether that is normal. My point is that it would be very odd indeed if BOTH meters were faulty.
You could also try reading the meters on a daily basis to see what that tells you. Does your usage plummet on a Sunday when the shop below is closed? Indeed, was the whole building originally a shop and home for the shop owners which was later separated into two properties. If that is the case, will Luminus/Iverlek tell you whether the shop gets a bill. (This was a situation I encountered in a previous place - we were paying for the water used by the folk downstairs.)

You can monitor electric and gas usage by ensuring that everything is turned off, ideally actually physically unplugged, when you leave the house every day. Read the meters before you leave, and when you get back.

Electric meters read kilowatt-hours (kWh). So if you have to leave the fridge on, a typical fridge is rated at something like 100-200W, so for 8 hours while you're out during the day, with nothing else plugged in apart from the fridge, you should very roughly use something between say 1kWh to 2kWh. If you're using significantly more than this, then you may have a problem.

There are other things you can also do to really significantly reduce energy consumption, such as lower the temperature of your hot water. You can easily lower it to 50C and still have perfectly good hot water.

Another thing to check is if you have a circulating pump in your hot water system. Ensure that it is on a timer, and active when you are likely to need instant hot water, such as in the morning when you get up. Otherwise you are just constantly heating water and circulating it around your hot water system for no reason.

Many people don't realize that stuff on standby like TV's or computers when they're "off", or phone chargers that are plugged in but not being used, are still consuming electricity. You can easily use 5-10 euro's of electricity a year just by leaving a few phone chargers plugged in around the house, even if you don't use them. It's only a small amount, but as they say, watch the pennies and the pounds will watch themselves.

The other thing to remember is that they are charging you for your annual usage. Although you may not be using much right now, during the winter, you may be using massively higher amounts of energy to keep your house warm. Is your house properly insulated? When was your boiler last serviced, and have you asked them to look at and explain the various timer and temperature settings?

So, to sum up, unless you have some sort of data to back up your claim, the electricity company isn't going to really listen. Read gas and electric meters every day for 2 months, and put the results in a spreadsheet, then you'll have something to talk to them about.

Another though which might answer your question very simply.
If you have a mains power switch next to your electric meter, turn it off when you know that the shop downstairs is using power - lights and so on.
If it shuts off power to the shop you know that you are paying for their usage; if it doesn't, you have lost nothing.

I used to pay a lot for electricity, finally we discovered that the neighbors (flat above us) were using ours as well.

Hi all,
Came across this discussion as am in similar situation with my electricity company - thanks for all information shared, very useful.

In my case, after living for 3.5 years in a flat, have received a "recalculation" electricity bill for 4.5k eu (having paid monthly 35 eu before). Am living alone / working late & very often away from brussels in weekends, hence assumed there must be a mistake.

The electricity company is claiming not having received my yearly actuals (which is not true as have been sending them by mail, with (unfortunately) no trace left. Hence cannot prove have been doing it.

Have investigated how to check my meter and it costs 330 eu, on my expense if proven that it is correct. Have left the flat for a weekend and unplugged everything except boiler & fridge, consumption increased by 5 kw, which is correct.

My last try to decrease the bill would be:
1. asking the electricity company to recalculate the amount charged as per 3.5 years (instead of just 2017 consumption as stated in the invoice). Am I eligible to ask for such recalculation (hence applying cheaper rates of 2014 / 15 & 17)?
2. asking for a split of payment over a period of time as clearly 4.5k eu is am amount I was not planning to pay out of a sudden.

Thank you for your advise or any thoughts of what else can be done.