Huge Gas Usage

diamond_dave

Hi everyone, first time using MSE! Can anyone help - single pensioner living in a three bed bungalow in Cornwall has used 38000 kwH since October!! This seems excessive as I only use 14500 in a much larger house.She does not have the heat on very much but with Powergen she will be paying £1450 a year.Meter is old style measuring the gas in cubic feet.

espresso

Has actually used or has been estimated to have used? Sounds very excesive unless the windows were open all winter, while the heating was full on!

:eek:

diamond_dave

I've checked the readings since she joined P.G Age concern in October.She has used 1180 units - and these are '00 of cubic feet.With the conversion this equates to about 38000 kwH.

espresso

diamond_dave wrote:

I've checked the readings since she joined P.G Age concern in October.She has used 1180 units - and these are '00 of cubic feet.With the conversion this equates to about 38000 kwH.

Are you sure that you are reading the meter correctly?

see here. What about actual bills?

HTH

diamond_dave

Thanks for the reply, Expresso.Yep, I'm reading the meter correctly as is P.G.
As a pensioner she is very frugal with all things even sitting with a blanket on to save on heating. Her last bill May to August showed her using almost 12000 Kwh of gas!! Hot weather and she was away for 3 weeks or so.Could the meter be faulty? How can I get it checked? If this continues she will be paying over £1450 this year!! Any gas engineers out there?

Cardew

You are correct about the conversion, but are you absolutely certain it is a Imperial(cubic feet) meter and not Metric(cubic metres)?

Meters are being changed to metric and this means 2.83 times less kWh per unit.

There have been plenty of cases of companies getting it wrong and charging for the wrong type of meter.

Failing that look for a gas leak, or check the boiler.

jennifernil

That is rediculous! We have a very large 5 bedroom house and our bills are about £800 per year..........in chilly Scotland!