urgent help needed on gas leak and bill?

glenandemm

hi guys im desperatly looking for advice,basically i had a new boiler fitted by warmfront and when the guy come round to fit it,he did a gas leak test and found we had a massive leak inside the house,anyway he traced it and fixed it but said we was losing silly amounts of gas which was quite scary.
so i phoned the gas supplier(EON) to ask them if they could reduce the bill as we hadnt consumed the gas and explained about the leak and they said they would carry out a consumption test over a few months,now i left it at that and didnt pay the bill as i thought it would be reduced.
next thing i know the bill has been passed to brc or something like that who are a debt recovery company and the woman was really nasty to me when i explained it to her but she passed me onto a eon expert who proceded to give me transco's emergency number for gas leaks just to get rid of me!
now im annoyed because ive got a big bill,when i phone them nobody seems to know anything on the other end.
i just wondered if there was anybody on here who could advise on whether we have a case to reducing our bill as we didnt consume the gas that was leaking and the boiler man who found the leak and repaired it was a proffesional so i would of thought his company would have a record of the work etc to cover my claim?
any advice would be greatfully recieved
thanks glen

muskoka

I don't know the answer, but strongly suspect you don't have a leg to stand on. You may not have personally used the gas, but the leak was in your house i.e. between the meter & your house - as against between the meter and the road. Think you will have to pay this. Sorry & all that, but think you have little hope of any discount. You could write to them & hope they sympathise I guess

glenandemm

hi thanks for replying,i was thinking that myself as like you say it was in my house and not on the road but i cant believe that there seems to be nobody at the other end of the phone that seems to have a clue!
any other advice or people with similar experiences would be great!

Premier_2

You wouldn't have lost much gas - even very small leaks produce a massive stink.

ziggyman99

I agree with Premier. If you had a big leak you probably wouldn't have a house now. A leak will smell long before it becomes dangerous. If you couldnt smell it I very much doubt it was a bad leak.

By the way, i'm a gas engineer so speak with some knowledge

C_Mababejive

Take my word for it..your gas leak would have such a small effect on your meter reading as to be inconsequential.

Even so,it is YOUR gas that leaking as you have bought it once its passed through the meter so in effect, it has nothing whatsoever to do with your supplier.

glenandemm

hi guys,the engineer said it was quite a big leak and was suprised i couldnt smell it, think if i remember rightly that he measured the leak over a time and it was something like 50watts or whatever they measure it in,in 10-15 mins?
is this quite a lot?

ziggyman99

glenandemm wrote: »

hi guys,the engineer said it was quite a big leak and was suprised i couldnt smell it, think if i remember rightly that he measured the leak over a time and it was something like 50watts or whatever they measure it in,in 10-15 mins?
is this quite a lot?

The unit is millibars and it's measured over a 2 minute period. Plus it wouldn't be 50 mbars as the starting level is only 20mbars.

C_Mababejive

glenandemm wrote: »

hi guys,the engineer said it was quite a big leak and was suprised i couldnt smell it, think if i remember rightly that he measured the leak over a time and it was something like 50watts or whatever they measure it in,in 10-15 mins?
is this quite a lot?

The standard pressure decay test for a domestic sized meter typically of 6 m3/hr capacity is 2 minutes not 10-15 minutes. Pressure drop would be measurable in millibars (metric) or inches Water guage(imperial).

If your leak was large enough to make even the smallest difference to your bill,you would have been well aware of it and so would your neighbours and their neighbours and possibly the local fire brigade and ambulance service. This guy has obviously overstated the case.

ziggyman99

Depending on the size of the pipework you are actually allowed a small gas leak as long as you can't smell it. I had a leak once on a boiler I worked on. I got called back after the students smelt it. I struggled to see the drop on the meter. That's how small it was.
19 to 21mBar working pressure isn't a lot. The water out of your kitchen tap might be 3000mbar or more. Were talking a gnats fart. A big leak in gas terms isn't going to cost you the earth, believe me.

macman

It's your property. You are responsible for the pipework and equipment beyond the meter, nobody else.
The same applies to all the utilities: electricity, water etc.