Gas Bill Unexpectly triple price

patch12

Hi
I am new to the forum and wondered if anyone would have any advice for me. I recieved my gas and electricity bill today and can not understand how I have used the amount of gas. My partner read the meter and those figures have been used ofr the bill. My bill shows I have used 295 hcf/9244 kilowatt-hours.
The bill is for a quater (May-Aug), I have gas central heating and a gas hob but the heating has only been on twice since May so I do not understand the usage does anyone have any ideas? My previous quaters usage Feb-May was 69 hcf/2191 kilowatt-hours when the heating was on daily. If anyone has any ideas or advice it would be greatly appreciated.
In addition I dont understand what the terms hcf and kilowatt hours mean and any direction would really help.

Thank you in advance.

penrhyn

You are billed in Kilowatt hours. Think of a one bar electric fire running for an hour.

hcf is an abbreviation for 100s of cubic feet, i.e the volume of gas you have used.

This would be for an older style imperial gas meter.
Modern gas meters are metric, measure cubic metres and are marked M3.

The conversion from cuft to kwh, and cubic metres is different so its important to check that you are being billed correctly.

PS are any of these readings estimates?

mattcanary

Has your gasd meter been changed before this latest bill? Maybe you previously had an imperial meter wheras now you have a metric meter.

Maybe your supplier has not amended their records since the meter was changed, and therefore think that you still have an imperial meter.

The bills is calculated in a different way for a metric, compared to an imperial. meter. You have to multiply a fiugure by about 3 when you bill an imperial meter. No such calculation is done for a metric meter.

That may ewxplain why your bill is so much higer. If this is the case, the bill is wrong.

paulsad

You sure its not been read wrong in the first place ie entered a 9 instead of a 2? Its easy to misread in a dimly lit cupboard

patch12

Thanks guys,
your information has been helpful especially the explanation of the terms. My meter has not been changed and I have been living in the property for 9 months.
Unfortunately the readings were correct. The reading in May was estimated but I checked it and it was only 2 units out so that couldn't explain it.

Could there be a problem with the meter? Or a leak that I havn't noticed?

Cardew

Is it a digital meter or the older dial meter?

It is very easy to mislead the latter as the pointers rotate clockwise and anti-clockwise on alternate dials.