Gas usage has gone through the roof

jrh20

Hi.

I wonder if anyone can help. Npower requested that my gas meter was changed in the summer and now i seem to be useing twice as much gas as i was before. Before i go through the long winded (and expensive) process if puting in a meter dispute i was looking for other peoples opinions. Last year i measured my central heating usage over an hour. I have my boiler set relatively low and it used 0.37m in an hour, last night i did it again (similar cold night) and it was 0.84m (26kw). Given that my boiler stayed on constantly to warm the system up for around 15 mins then came on intermittantly does this sound right? My boiler manual says its output is 10-22Kw. Does that mean if it was on constantly at full power for an hour it should use 22KW? Also i have noticed my pilot light using a massive amount since the meter change. If i dont use the boiler at all (the light is always on) it used 0.5m a day?

Any help will be handy before i fight this

notbritishgas

I would say that your meter was changed from an Imperial one measuring in 100's of cubic feet to a metric one measuring in cubic metres.
You say you used "0.84m" I presume you mean cubic meters which is only about 9.5 kwh.

jrh20

I used to do my kw conversion by x the figure by 31.6, it was a dial meter with digits for full metres, the new meter is just digits, i've read elsewhere people seem to x theirs by 11.2, i'm confused now!

notbritishgas

No do not be confused. As I said earlier I am sure you had a imperial meter before and quite rightly you converted the readings to kwh by multiplying by approx 31.3.
Now you will have a metric meter where the conversion figure is approx 11.2.
So no need to worry.

jrh20

Thank god for that, had a major panic on!! Cheers. Just wait for the first bill now and Npower to $%^ it up and me spend 6 months trying to sort it out!

Premier_2

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/consumer_advice/latest_meters_pic.shtml