gas usage

kram200

Can anyone please tell me how I would know if I am on Imperial units or Metric on my gas meter, my meter itself has 4 white digits and one red and a gauge with ft mark on it. My reason for asking is at the end of last year I had a bill for over a thousand pounds, when I looked into the bill I was told it was because I had not been charged enough. We moved into 2 bed new build house in May 2006, the house has 5 radiators and we had a new combi boiler fitted. By 2007 all that live in the house were out at work all day so the heat was only put on at the beginning of day and end of day with 3 showers taken by all of us, we have no gas to cook with, in the time we have lived here we have used 1850 units, we live in the Manchester area on a Standard tariff.
As I was looking at my bills from 2006 to 2008 the units had just been changed into kilowatts per hour not saying imperial or metric. From 2009 the units started to show up as metric units, then at the end of last year we had the bill that shocked us of over a thousand pounds. When we looked at this bill it gives a run down going back to 2008 and on it we noticed in Nov 08 it said we had a meter change, this never happened. The units had said metric units before this so called meter change and after this date everthing had been changed on this one bill to imperial units, although the bills we had received through the post had been in metric .

notbritishgas

kram200 wrote: »

Can anyone please tell me how I would know if I am on Imperial units or Metric on my gas meter, my meter itself has 4 white digits and one red and a gauge with ft mark on it. My reason for asking is at the end of last year I had a bill for over a thousand pounds, when I looked into the bill I was told it was because I had not been charged enough. We moved into 2 bed new build house in May 2006, the house has 5 radiators and we had a new combi boiler fitted. By 2007 all that live in the house were out at work all day so the heat was only put on at the beginning of day and end of day with 3 showers taken by all of us, we have no gas to cook with, in the time we have lived here we have used 1850 units, we live in the Manchester area on a Standard tariff.
As I was looking at my bills from 2006 to 2008 the units had just been changed into kilowatts per hour not saying imperial or metric. From 2009 the units started to show up as metric units, then at the end of last year we had the bill that shocked us of over a thousand pounds. When we looked at this bill it gives a run down going back to 2008 and on it we noticed in Nov 08 it said we had a meter change, this never happened. The units had said metric units before this so called meter change and after this date everthing had been changed on this one bill to imperial units, although the bills we had received through the post had been in metric .

You can tell by looking at the meter, if imperial it will say something like "Cubic Ft" if metric it will say "M3".

However from what you say it looks like imperial. Also I guess what has happened is that in the past you were billed incorrectly as a metric meter and so were charged abot a third of what yuou should have been. Then they must have twigged and started charging as imperial (it must be when your bill said meter change?)

So that is why you received the massive bill, it was to pay for being charged incorrectly in the past.

Check that the meter serial number on the bill corresponds with that on the meter.

If I am correct then maybe you could negotiate a goodwill reduction?

Edit: just thought you can check if I am correct by looking at one of the earlier bills, before the massive one, and seing how many units were billed and how many kwh they were converted to. If billed for metric then the units would be multiplied by approx 11 if billed for imperial the multiply by approx 31.

jalexa

kram200 wrote: »

As I was looking at my bills from 2006 to 2008 the units had just been changed into kilowatts per hour not saying imperial or metric...

It may or may not say but as notbritishgas points out you can work it out from the conversion, x31(ish) for an imperial reading, x11(ish) for a metric reading.

Research something called the "Code of Practice for Accurate Bills". On the face of it this is industry/supplier error and in such a case back-billing is restricted to 12 months.

macman

Correct, you meter is imperial and measure in 100's cu ft. Metric meters measure in cu m.
Bill are never based on imperial or metric units though, only on kWh's, which are a unit of energy. Gas meters only record volume. The billing process converts that reading to kWh based on the relevant formula, which is shown on your bill.
No supplier changes meters from metric to imperial-all new installs would be metric.

dogshome

Hi kram200 - Well done for keeping all the bills, and it's just as well as your billing looks very odd.

The phantom Meter Change in Nov 08?
Check the number on your present meter - if you are right and no meter change took place, it should be the same as that printed on all your bills prior to Nov 08
If in fact a meter change did happen, the old meter would most certainly have been replaced with a Metric model

You say your home was newly built in 2006, if this is the case it's highly unlikely that it would have been fitted with an old fashioned IMPERIAL gas meter - Look at the meters face plate carefully, on it somewhere in quite small print, it will be marked ft3 for an Imperial meter or m3 for a Metric meter.

Check all your bills by dividing the meter units used into the Kwh charged - 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.

All in all, it's seems your gas supplier has totally lost the plot, but digging your way out will take some effort.
If the meter was not changed
WRITE to your supplier heading the letter Complaint pointing out you not being billed on the correct meter, that they inspect your meter and examine their records for it's registration to your address.
If the meter was changed
WRITE to your supplier heading the letter Complaint challanging their decision that your original meter was an Imperial model, bearing in mind it was fitted to a New Build in 2006

Later thought
The Gas figure you have given of 1850 meter units used since moving in 5.5 years ago, equates to appx 20,720 Kwh, (3767 a year), on a Metric meter, or 58,275 Kwh, (10,595 a year) on an Imperial meter.
I'm afraid that for the house you describe, the Imperial 10,595Kwh a year is the most likely - However, the complaint about your billing being based on the wrong meter since Nov 08 still stands