Surely this is wrong???

toby_puppy

Gas Meter

My mum changed to this Price Protection March 2012 with British Gas Energy Smart Online where you submit monthly meter readings online so as to avoid over or under paying.

As she doesnt use PC, I have entered readings and I daren't tell her what the outcome is - previously she paid £40 per month dd to British Gas and this covered her throughout 12 months.

Just entered a reading that the meter man took on 23 November which was 7027 and today I've taken the reading and it's 7133! Thats 15 days and I've looked on that Smart Meter site and it says she's using an average of 48 kwh per day at around £5per day.

I tried my readings (Scottish Power online energy saver 7) and my average was 16 kwh per day at just over £1 per day.

I would say we use our heating at approx 4 hours per day in this sort of weather. We both have gas hobs and gas fires probably used no more than half an hour per day altogether.

I'm wondering how these meter readings are taken by accuread - are they ever incorrect? I know if they took a reading of 7027 and it should have been higher for example that they would have given her a larger previous bill so it "all comes out in the wash" so to speak, but I'm concerned that if I get an email of £40 bill for 15 days she's going to freak out and keep it switched off most of the time and she is 65 with asthma and I don't want that.

Just wondered if anyone could advise how accurate readings are and could there have been an error -wish I'd checked it on 23 November.

I have advised her to keep a notebook and take a daily reading each morning over the next week and note down length of time heating is on etc but is seems ridiculous.

Just want to compare the usage and see what it will average out to per day to see what's happened!

Can anyone advise if this seems wrong.

HappyMJ

Is that a gas reading or an electric one? If it's electric then 7133-7027/15 is about 7kwh per day multiplies by what looks like your electric rate of 10.5p it'll then be about 73p per day. Quite good for winter.

toby_puppy

Sorry, I meant to say its a Gas reading

macman

Metric or imperial meter please (it's marked on the front. m3 or cu ft)?
I don't follow your price calc, as you can't be paying 10.41p per gas kWh-that is the sort of rate you pay for a kWh of electricity-gas is about a third of that.
If it's imperial, which I assume it is, she is using about 7 units a day, which is about 80kWh (say £2.40 per day)-where do you get 48 kWh from?
Check your figures here:
http://www.energylinx.co.uk/gas_meter_conversion.html

toby_puppy

hi macman

just been on the online chat with british gas.

its cubic meters.

theyve looked at my mums average consumption for the same period in 2009 and have come to conclusion that the 7027 reading was possibly a meter readers error.

they also told me that 1 unit of gas is approx 11kwh

first 7kwh = 6.886p per kwh
then 3.172p per kwh after that.

they told me that one unit of gas on the meter would cost approx 60p, but that still doesnt make sense as that would make 106 units cost even more than £40.

All I know is its price protection march 2012.

all she really wanted a rough idea was how much it's costing to put her heating on for four hours a day, it's not on a timer, she puts it on and off manually.

he's told me to monitor how many units she uses in the next week to see if we can fathom it out.

toby_puppy

macman wrote: »

where do you get 48 kWh from?
Check your figures here:
http://www.energylinx.co.uk/gas_meter_conversion.html

Hi macman,

I checked it on
http://smartmeter.ukpower.co.uk/

postcode LL12 7SH
British Gas Price Protection March 2012
Monthly dd
opening reading 23 nov 10 = 7027 (by accuread meter man)
reading on 8 dec 10 = 7133 (by us)

i'm sure it said 48kwh hour per day!
Tried my own and it was 16kwh per day.

macman

106 metric units converted is 1,206kWh (approx x 11). That's over 15 days. So average daily usage is 1206/15 =80kWh. At 3.17p per kWH that is approx £2.50 per day (plus any daily standing charge if applicable). That's really not high given the extreme weather conditions. And of course a fixed or capped tariff (not sure which this one is) is more expensive than a variable one.

toby_puppy

Thanks macman, would you think they are right saying 1 unit on the meter is around 60p?

macman

jostenning wrote: »

Thanks macman, would you think they are right saying 1 unit on the meter is around 60p?

No, it's about 35p. 1 metric unit is approx 11kWh, at 3.17p per kWh.
The meter measures units of volume (100m3), the bill is for units of energy (kWh)-the conversion between the 2 is not constant and varies with the calorific value and the correction factor.
However using a factor of 11 is near enough for your purposes.

toby_puppy

thanks again macman.

I think i'm getting confused because he said 1 unit on the meter is 11kwh BUT the first 7kwh per day is at 6.886p then it drops to 3.172p per kwh after that.

so it's as if it's not easy to asecertain which rate you're on just by looking at the units on the meter going up.

so i will go by your figure above

oellph

Usage seems appropriate for this time of year. We're ranging from around 85-140Kwh per day depending on how cold it is! That's between 7-15 m3 units. So at our lowest, over 15 days we'd use 105 units of gas.