High gas bill!

simoran2

Hello

I recently called britishgas to update my meeting. previous reading (given my me) was 8006 on 5/12/08. On 25/01/09 i gave a reading of 8106 - usage of 100 units. She updated my bill and stated that i owe them £120 pounds - this despoite a £40 direct debit.

does this seem right - sounds rediculously high to me? to put into context i am one person living in a two bedroom flat, work from 8 to 5 and sleep from 10 till 6. i do not have the gas on a timer so the only time it is ever being used is from 5 till 10. oven is elec and water is elec also.

I have checked and my meter has ft3 on the front so i am assuming it is imperial however i am not sure if they are charging me the right way, here is an etract from my online bill.

04 Dec 2008 - actual 8006 We read your meter 26 Jan 2009 - actual 8106 You gave us your meter reading
= 100 metric units over 54 days
Gas units converted = 3226.94 kWh used over 54 days
Usage charge First 396.00 kWh x 6.862 p =
Next 2830.94 kWh x 3.434 p =
£ 27.17
£ 97.21


Total cost of gas used £ 124.38
Gas units are converted to Kilowatt hours using the following formula:
metric units
used
calorific value
volume correction
to convert to kWh
gas used expressed in kWh 100 x 40.1407 x 1.0226400 ÷ 3.6 = 3226.94 If your meter is imperial, we multiply your units by 2.83 to convert to metric.
The above conversion is based on your first meter read.


Can anyone tell me if they are charging me correctly?

KimYeovil

I'm afraid it's right. But it is not that expensive considering the weather - 50 imperial units per month is quite moderate.

There is a rather irritating mistake on bills (only pointed out here recently and never noticed by me before) that a lot of bills seem to label readings as metric units (in the '100 metric units over 54 days') even when they are imperial units.

notbritishgas

Kim is spot on, the bill is correct you are being billed as an imperial meter.
As for the cost/usage, to give you an idea for the same period I have been using about 21 imperial units a week, although the heating has been used more than you appear to use yours.One question if you have gas heating why do you heat your water with electricity?

Sirbendy

I've just written a spreadsheet on my google docs where I can bung in my readings myself every so often, and it runs through the calcs as they will, and gives me a bill amount that I KNOW is calculated correctly for my meter.

I intend to use it for weekly checks and bill verification. Done one for 'leccy too.

Magentasue

Sirbendy wrote: »

I've just written a spreadsheet on my google docs

Watch this space for requests . I've got spreadsheets where I can record weekly readings and calculate averages, mainly so I can keep a check on it and compare with this month last year.

Having switched to Scottish Power, one of the things I've found better about their online account management, is that you can enter your meter readings (I do them once a month for this) and it generates a bill.

withabix

I'm with Scottish Power and read my meters every Sunday morning.

Anal I know, but it lets me keep an eye on consumption AND means that they won't try and put a random and unnecessary big increase on my direct debit as they have 52 meter readings every year to model my consumption.

It only takes 2 minutes - one to read the meters and another to enter them on their website.