A difficult one - gas related but my housing association's error...

Mairiphinc

I posted on here a few weeks ago about how my gas bills had always been ridiculously high. Well finally British Gas confirmed to me that I was using about as much gas as they would expect a 4 bed house to use (I live in a one bed flat). It was kind of shocking to hear it laid out like that so I started chasing it all up again. I had had a gas engineer out from them to do an efficiency test a couple of years ago and they had found no problems.

So two days ago I had the gas man round, this guy apparently had a slightly higher skillset than the previous ones, being able to test, install and repair gas systems.
Thanks to him I have finally discovered that the probably reason my gas bills have been so high for so long is that the gas pressure was set to twice what it should be (22 millibars instead of 11 or 12)and half of the gas that I was paying for was just flying out of the chimney. I feel my housing association owes me some money because of this but I don't really know where to start.

I have lived in this property for 8 years, I've been a legal tenant for 6 (I lived with the previous tenant at first but was still responsible for the bills) and all that time I've been paying near to double what I should have been.

The bills have averaged £100 a month, at the moment they are £84, but they have been as much as £120. I changed supplier numerous times because I couldn't work out why the bills were so high and thought moving might change it.

Where do I start? :eek: :mad:

Edited to add - I also have a gas safety check annually which has never picked this up.

bambibashercol

Gas pressure at meter or at the appliance? If at the meter then the gas pressure is ok. If the gas pressure was at the burner then it may need altering depending on what the manufacturers instructions state. If there is a problem then this should of been found out during your annual servicing and landlord checks.

C_Mababejive

Err...not quite.

Are you saying that you have a gas central heating back boiler and fire?

Where was he measuring this implied excessive gas pressure...? At the meter,the appliance inlet or is he saying that was the burner pressure?

Many appliances such as this are designed to be range rated..i.e they can be set to operate within a range depending on required heat output.

Regardless of that,if your appliance is a central heating back boiler,then much of your heat will fly up the chimney regardless of setting.

bambibashercol

what do you mean er not quite?
There should still be 20 millibar at the appliance, Check the inlet first, burner pressure should then be checked and altered to manufactures instructions. (range rating)
The pressure at the meter can be 60 millibars it does not matter(standing pressure) It should be 20millibar at meter when checked (working pressure).
If there a drop between meter and the appliance suspect pipe sizing incorrect.

If There was a problem then all this should of been picked up at the servicing and landlord safety checks.
22 millibar on a appliance that should be running at 11 would be causing flame lift and incomplete combustion, i.e carbon monoxide.
Did the engineer issue defect notices? Give you a written report as a appliance being that far out of adjustment needs fixing and reporting to gas safe if other engineers have passed off as ok.

C_Mababejive

Agreed...but we have yet to establish where and what pressure we are talking about.

I suspect that if an appliance which should have been running at a WP of 11mb but had run at a WP of 22mb,we would have been aware of some consequences over a much shorter time span.

Additionally, I suspect it would be difficult to obtain a WP of 22mb in your average domestic installation.

In effect,the OP appears to be developing a case for the HA to compensate her for excessive gas consumption but the evidence to support this appears,at present ,to be rather spurious and scant.

DVardysShadow

If the gas pressure was too high, then too much heat would be generated - but thermostats would ensure that the boiler would run for less time, so no significant net loss. Unless there was not enough air in which case, I would expect the appliances to be full of carbon black or the residents dead from carbon monoxide poisoning

dogshome

Hi Mairephinc - It would of help to try and find an answer if you gave your actual annual Gas consumption