Ridiculous gas usage figures - faulty meter or boiler?

squirrel

I hope someone can help me out on this. Recently checked my meter as I had been getting huge gas bills despite not having the central heating on very much. To my horror I found out it is using gas at a rate of 8.4 units (cubic metres) an hour, which relates to roughly around 90kwh or so. Previously I thought it was my old inefficient boiler causing the high bills, but from asking around and looking on the internet it seems impossible that my boiler is capable of using that much. The question is should I get my supplier (npower) to come out and check the meter and risk them charging me if there's nothing wrong with it, or is it more likely to be the boiler that's at fault. I have a limited budget so want to make sure I don't waste money.

I have a glow worm swift flow 80 boiler, max heat input 19.71kw - does this mean it is impossible for it to use 90kw per hour? Appreciate help from anyone who knows anything about boilers, etc.

(BTW there is no gas leak, and the pilot light is also using quite a lot of gas at 0.5 cubic metres per day. And yes these are the correct readings have been double checked)

Thanks in advance for any help.

rogerblack

It's quite impossible for a properly functioning boiler to use 4* the normal amount of gas.
However.

It's possible you're misreading it.
A pilot light using 0.5m^3/day - this would be 6kWh - or 250W.
This is quite a lot more than any pilot light in a most domestic boilers.

victor2

The pilot light on my 20+ year old boiler uses around 0.4m3 per day. The boiler burners use the equivalent of 0.2m3 per hour when actually burning gas, so that kind of consumption is hard to believe.
Do you have any other gas appliances, like a gas stove, so that you can check what your meter says they are using?

Cardew

No it is not possible to use 90kWh an hour.

A leak of that magnitude would be noticed - by people hearing the explosion!

Faulty meter seem the most plausible reason.

squirrel

Cardew wrote: »

A leak of that magnitude would be noticed - by people hearing the explosion!

Thanks for the feedback folks. I don't have any other gas appliances I can test. I have checked and double checked the figures because I thought it was impossible when I first noted it! As soon as I switch on the heating the numbers on the meter start to whizz round at a ridiculous speed.

energysavingexp

squirrel wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback folks. I don't have any other gas appliances I can test. I have checked and double checked the figures because I thought it was impossible when I first noted it! As soon as I switch on the heating the numbers on the meter start to whizz round at a ridiculous speed.

Hi can you take a photo of the front of your meter

pls

squirrel

Hi energysavingexp, here is a pic of meter. I took a reading 3 days ago (Tues night) it was 9330 now 9341, going up 11 cubic m - in that time the central heating has been on about 1 hour 10 mins!

Cardew

took a reading 3 days ago (Tues night) it was 9330 now 9341, going up 11 cubic m - in that time the central heating has been on about 1 hour 10 mins!

What about hot water?

squirrel

Stopped using the hot water when I realised how much gas the boiler was using so none at all used in that period. Thankfully I have an electric shower!

DVardysShadow

Do you live in a flat or a house? Because it looks like some gas is going somewhere else. I might be wrong, but I am under the impression that gas meters cannot over read.

chanz4

they can run fast, take reads same time everyday and use the timer on your boiler. Take the reads over 5 days and they should be around the same, if stupid far between maybe meter but doubt it