EDF Energy

paul2hoots

I am currently with EDF under their 2010 price guarantee. They have just sent me a bill after I read my own meter for gas (we are on the dual tariff but this is just about gas) saying that they wanted to increase my monthly direct debit from October by a whacking 50%. Their statement preceded receipt of my current month's direct debit into my account with them by one day. They therefore used just two months payments and anticipated that if I continued at that rate I would need to increase the payments by another half. When I phoned to complain they withdrew and kept the payments the same. I also worked out the formula they use for converting the units of gas used on the meter to Kilowatt hours (KWh). It has changed in the last eight months - in their favour of course. This is the calorific value and it seems that this can vary practically every time - the reason for which escapes me and was not explained when I phoned. Widely used in the industry apparently, which does not in my view give complete openness in bill calculation. Beware and question - especially as we are now entering the cold months of winter.

myhooose

Some 18 years ago I did my work experience at one of British gas's scientific departments. I learnt that the calorific value of gas varies depending where it comes from. For example the Morecambe bay gas has a lower value than the North Sea gas.

So guess they must measure the calorific values and create an average value for the period of the bill.