Estimate bills and metre readings.

kara_p_uk

We changed to the new energy smart tariff a while back with british gas since then we were meant to submit meter readings, my husband just told me he wasn't actually done it since June so our recent bills have all been estimates. I have today looked online at the bills and British Gas have underestimated our bills by a whopping 10486 KWHours.

I'm annoyed with hubbie for not telling me sooner he hadn't been doing it but any ideas why british gas's estimates are so far out?

I've looked back between sept 08-dec08 and sept 09-dec 09 to get a comparison and each quarter we used about 5000KWh but over the summer quarter this drops to about 2000KWh. Which should make our bill about 7000KWHs between june - Dec 10 rather than the metres reading of 12000.

We only have a gas boiler for heating and water, no gas cooker, not used it any more than any other year.

We also had our metre changed from imperial to metric one in May 10.

I'm going to submit a metre reading today but there's no way we can afford to pay all this in one go or in increased monthly payments, do you think I could submit a reading of about half this now then half again in a few months? Does anyone think the new metric metres seem to be different useage amounts to the imperial ones?

undaunted

You can submit any reading you want - or none at all - though I'm not sure what good that will do you?

If you submit the actual reading & can't afford to pay it off you should be able to come to an arrangement with the supplier to pay it off over the same period it accrued in.

If you genuinely believe the meter is faulty you can ask for it to be tested. You should bear in mind that if it is found correct you will probably be charged for the test however

Personally I think the legal requirement for them to actually read your (more importantly their!) meter only ever two years is far too lax but that is what it is at present I'm afraid.

Good luck

victor2

Look at your bill from BG with the estimated readings. It will say if they have you down as using a metric or imperial meter. You don't want to submit a reading from a metric meter if they still believe you have an imperial one as it will produce erroneous figures.
If everything is recorded as metric, make sure you are converting your actual readings to kWh correctly - the formula used may be shown on your latest bill.
Having said that, if you've used the gas, you will have to pay for it. The best I would have thought BG could do is increase your monthly payments to catch up.

kara_p_uk

I'm pretty sure we've used that amount, so I know we'll be paying for it. By submitting only half now and half in a few months we'll be able to afford the jump in repayments by about £40 as opposed to submitting it all now and finding the payments jump by something like £70 a month.

I'm just a bit shocked at using 1200 metric units since the metre was installed at the end of May. It seems like a lot of units to use in a short space of time. Is this a normal amount for a metric metre? we live in a 1910 built 3 bed mid-terrace with double glazing but thats about it for insulation.

It's probably just been up higher than normal and we've not really noticed it. Blinking hubbie is being sacked from his job of submitting the readings now though would have been so much easier to spread the cost properly...

kara_p_uk

just checked bills, down as metric meter thanks for the advice

victor2

1200 units on a metric meter is about 424 on an imperial one, so you will see an increase in units used, although any increase in kWh may just be down to the cold weather we've had!

Joyful

Have you seen you can get free insulation from British Gas? This might help for the next winter.

molerat

1200 units is around average, I have used 1500 in that period

Premier_2

kara_p_uk wrote: »

We changed to the new energy smart tariff a while back with british gas since then we were meant to submit meter readings, my husband just told me he wasn't actually done it since June so our recent bills have all been estimates. I have today looked online at the bills and British Gas have underestimated our bills by a whopping 10486 KWHours.

I'm annoyed with hubbie for not telling me sooner he hadn't been doing it but any ideas why british gas's estimates are so far out?

I've looked back between sept 08-dec08 and sept 09-dec 09 to get a comparison and each quarter we used about 5000KWh but over the summer quarter this drops to about 2000KWh. Which should make our bill about 7000KWHs between june - Dec 10 rather than the metres reading of 12000.

We only have a gas boiler for heating and water, no gas cooker, not used it any more than any other year.

We also had our metre changed from imperial to metric one in May 10.

I'm going to submit a metre reading today but there's no way we can afford to pay all this in one go or in increased monthly payments, do you think I could submit a reading of about half this now then half again in a few months? Does anyone think the new metric metres seem to be different useage amounts to the imperial ones?

How long has this been going on?

BG are supposed to read the meter at least once every 2 years as per their supply licence.

If you typically use 7000kWh in 6 months, how come you are now over 10,000kwh short of what you'ved actually used?

I suggest you speak with your supplier now, and don't go giving fraudulent information (meter readings). If it's been 2 years since the last meter reading, they may be coming round any day now!

Your supplier will work out an agreeable repayment plan for you; if necessary they will often agree to spread the repayments over the period it accumulated.

molerat

kara_p_uk wrote: »

We also had our metre changed from imperial to metric one in May 10.

Surely that constitutes having the meter read so May 2012 for next read.

victor2

molerat wrote: »

Surely that constitutes having the meter read so May 2012 for next read.

That might make May 2012 as the latest date by which the meter must be read, but I'm sure they just read meters when they're hitting a particular area and just get a list of those that haven't been read in x months.