Extremely high Gas Bill

selbailey

Hi,

I am a bit concerned.. Me and my partner have recently moved into a 2 bedroom cottage.. we have only been staying their weekends due to work commitments and doing the house so.. so in the week the heating has been off - not even on timer..

we had our 1st electric bill for 6weeks.. it came to £20 (brilliant considering its only weekends we are there)

but our gas bill came to £130!?? How is this possible when we only have the heating on for a few hours on the weekend?? I am a bit confused as thats higher then my dad pays for 3months and he lives in his house full time?!?!

The thermostat is obv in the coldest room - this is the hallway.. however the hallway has the original stone walls and there seems to always be a draft and even when the house is warm the hallway is always freezing.. would this cause the boiler to work in over time - surely that still wouldnt cause a bill so high when we have hardly been there??

Any suggestions?

thanks

elaine12022

First thing I would do is check whether the bill is an estimated or actual bill.If it's estimated you need to provide your own reading. (hopefully the meter is accessible and easy to read!) Also did you provide readings when you moved in? If you didn't but can provide a couple of readings your provider should be able to do a better estimate from when you moved in.

selbailey

Thanks Elaine.. we gave them the reading when we moved in and we submit the readings.. so we subbitted both.. so it should be actual?

amcluesent

>surely that still wouldnt cause a bill so high when we have hardly been there??<

The thermostat doesn't know if you are there or not You need to check what temperature the thermostat is set for and how long the boiler programmer is set to 'on'. It's possible there is a froststat too, so the boiler will come on if the temp drop down to 5 degrees or there abouts.

dogshome

Hi selbailey - It could be that your Gas CH system is fitted with a 'Frost Watch' device that overides the interior thermostat and will turn on the CH whenever the outside temperuture drops to around 5 degrees C.
If this is the case, the £130 bill you have had for 6 weeks in winter works out to roughly £700 a year for gas which is OK.

However without a Frost Watch, your bill does seem high and it just might be a case of an Imperial v Metric meter mix-up with the billing
Look at your meter, it will be marked either m3 for Metric or ft3 for Imperial - Look at the bill and divide the Kwh charged by the Units used - If the answer is appx 11 you are being charged for a Metric meter, if it's appx 31 you are being charged for an Imperial meter. If the chargeing method does not match the meters marking, get onto your supplier immediately

Premier_2

selbailey wrote: »

Hi,

I am a bit concerned.. Me and my partner have recently moved into a 2 bedroom cottage.. we have only been staying their weekends due to work commitments and doing the house so.. so in the week the heating has been off - not even on timer.. ...

elaine12022 wrote: »

First thing I would do is ...

Second thing I would do is check is your pipework. :eek:

With overnight temperatures having dropped to -15C or lower, and daytime temperatures not rising above about -5C, those are pipe bursting temperatures for any property left unheated all week which has not had the system drained down completely (which as you were staying there at weekends, presumably you didn't spend hours of those weekends filling and draining the system)

macman

Presumably your hot water is also heated by gas-have you left the programmer on hot water 24/7 (unless you have a combi boiler)?

selbailey

Thanks.. The boiler has been set to off when we havnt been there - when we put it on the meter goes mad spinning!

elaine12022

What kind of meter do you have? I'm not sure it should be spinning (ours doesn't - it's an old fashioned one)..

Jolaaled

[QUOTE=dogshome;40393756_Look_at_the_bill_and_divide_the_Kwh_charged_by_the_Units_used_-_If_the_answer_is_appx_11_you_are_being_charged_for_a_Metric_meter,_if_it's_appx_31_you_are_being_charged_for_an_Imperial_meter._[/QUOTE]

Re: 'Kwh charged' figure.....is this the amount of money they charge, or the actual number of Kwh????
If I divide the actual number of Kwh by my number of units, then I get 13.4...is this close enough to 11???? am i working it out ok??

THANKS

Jolaaled

dogshome wrote: »

If this is the case, the £130 bill you have had for 6 weeks in winter works out to roughly £700 a year for gas which is OK.

Sorry dogshome...also forgot to ask....

How do you estimate a rough yearly gas consumption when you only have a part year of useage recorded??....would be great to know!

Thanks.