Huge Gas Bill

Alan_Vickers

I have just checked our gas meter readings for last year and from 27/10 to 1/12 we used 80 units (cubic feet x 100) - about 2500 kWh. This year from 10/11 to 2/12 we used 141 cubic feet (we had a meter change earlier in the year) - about 1600 kWh but for a shorter time.

We are two people in a 4-bedroomed house using selective central heating with a quite old gas boiler and gas for cooking.

Alan Vickers.

smjxm09

Lapchien wrote: »

Is your gas measured in cubic metres or cubic feet?
cubic feet

.

It says that on the meter does it?

Alan_Vickers

The meter will be reading in 'cubic feet x 100'. Each unit on the meter will be approximately 31.2 kWh (kilowatt hour). Therefore the energy usage will be approximately 6600 kWh. Taking a Tier 2 rate of (say) 3 pence per kWh this means that the bill will be about £200 and this does not take account of Tier 1 rates or VAT.

Alan Vickers.

smjxm09

So this person with a 28kW boiler used more gas in November than I did with a 42kW boiler in the winter 3 month period? Something is wrong somewhere.

smjxm09

A unit of gas on an Imperial meter is 100 cubic feet and equates to approx 31kWh.

A unit of gas on an Metric meter is 1 cubic Metre and equates to approx 11kWh.

The price for a kWh of gas is the same regardless of the type of meter.

Are you really sure your meter is marked up as ft and not metres?

Read this thread thread on over charging http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2032011

DVardysShadow

Alan_Vickers wrote: »

The meter will be reading in 'cubic feet x 100'. Each unit on the meter will be approximately 31.2 kWh (kilowatt hour). Therefore the energy usage will be approximately 6600 kWh. Taking a Tier 2 rate of (say) 3 pence per kWh this means that the bill will be about £200 and this does not take account of Tier 1 rates or VAT.

Alan Vickers.

Lapchien, it looks like you are using 220 kWh every day. You run the boiler for 8 hours a day and at 22kW it would take 10 hours to run up 220kWh. Or at 80% efficiency it would take just 8 hours.

For your boiler to do this, it would have to be burning nearly constantly. It is just about feasible, but normally once temperature is reached, a boiler might run less than 30% of the time. This suggests to me that your consumption is out by a factor of 3

Lapchien wrote: »

Is your gas measured in cubic metres or cubic feet?
cubic feet

Please answer carefully:

1. Is the gas meter in cubic feet?
2. Is the bill in cubic feet?

I suspect your bill is cubic feet and your meter is cubic metres

Lapchien

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Lapchien, it looks like you are using 220 kWh every day. You run the boiler for 8 hours a day and at 22kW it would take 10 hours to run up 220kWh. Or at 80% efficiency it would take just 8 hours.

For your boiler to do this, it would have to be burning nearly constantly. It is just about feasible, but normally once temperature is reached, a boiler might run less than 30% of the time. This suggests to me that your consumption is out by a factor of 3


Please answer carefully:

1. Is the gas meter in cubic feet?
2. Is the bill in cubic feet?

I suspect your bill is cubic feet and your meter is cubic metres

The bill is in imperial, then converted to metric, the meter has 'ft3' on it near the dial.

espresso

Lapchien wrote: »

The bill is in imperial, then converted to metric, the meter has 'ft3' on it near the dial.

So if you are sure that you have been billed correctly for the amount used and you're still cold, what have you tried?

If your boiler stat ranges from 1 - 9, having it set to 3 may only be heating the water to 50 o C which is not hot enough!

If your rads do not heat up fairly quickly from switch on, the system may be sludged up and in need of flushing.

When was the system checked by a competent person?

Cardew

Nobody has seemed to ask the OP what style of house, what standard of insulation, how many people, baths or showers.

It would appear to be an old house(from the old style thermostat) With a 28kW boiler it should not be a large house?

Although non-condensing his combi boiler is not old - first manufactured in 2001 with an 80% efficiency.

According to the OP he has used 212 Imperial gas units so approx 6,600kWh.

Unless the OP lives in a huge old house with poor insulation and takes lots of hot baths, it is difficuly to envisage anyone using that sort of consumption.

So my conclusion!

He has one of those old meters with dials that run alternately clockwise and anticlockwise. It is very easy to get the digits out by 100 units.

OP. If you do indeed have pointers and not a digital display, when reading the meter you always read the smaller number either side of the pointer.

<H1>How to read your gas meter

Digital meters

To read a digital type meter, use only the white figures. Ignore any numbers in red. Ignore any numbers after a decimal point.
The meter reading in the example is 6653 (hundreds of cubic feet).


Dial or 'clock' type meters

When reading your dial meter, always remember that dials next to each other revolve in opposite directions.
Ignore the dials marked 100 per rev and the large dial. Ignore the red dials. Read the other dials from left to right and write down the number that the hand has passed.
This meter reads 6653.
Note - If the pointer is between two figures, write down the lower number. However, if the pointer is between 9 and 0, write down 9.
You will now need to subtract your previous reading from your present reading to work out the number of cubic feet of gas used.

</H1>

DVardysShadow

Lapchien wrote: »

The bill is in imperial, then converted to metric, the meter has 'ft3' on it near the dial.

Then we are down to 2 other areas of possibility.

• The meter you see supplies someone else {as well as / instead of} you
• The initial reading was in error
• The boiler is running when you think it isn't

What kind of property do you have? Is it possible the meter you read is not in fact yours? Can you turn your boiler off and confirm that the reading remains constant over 24 hours? Do daily readings tend to confirm your rate of consumption?