Need URGENT help please! Being charged way too much. BT won't help :(

macman

£100 used in the coldest month of the year is perfectly normal. Your average consumption will cost around £57pm, and you can expect to use 75% of your annual total in the coldest 3 months or so.
If you note your actual kWh usage over a day, or better still a week, this can be checked.
You've not given any actual usage readings that I can see-only your annual usage estimate from your supplier.

Munkee2

macman wrote: »

£100 used in the coldest month of the year is perfectly normal. Your average consumption will cost around £57pm, and you can expect to use 75% of your annual total in the coldest 3 months or so.
If you note your actual kWh usage over a day, or better still a week, this can be checked.
You've not given any actual usage readings that I can see-only your annual usage estimate from your supplier.

You appear to have missed the point about me being a single occupant in a tiny one bedroom flat and hardly using any gas compared to what might be deemed 'normal' at this time of year.

£100 a month is not in ANY way normal. In previous winters, gas has cost NO more than £15 a week and that's when I've had the heating on pretty much all day.

These days I use the microwave (it's got a convection oven and grill) to cook meals because using the gas cooker is too expensive. Showers are limited to ten minutes a day but are often less. I wear a dressing gown over my day clothes at all times whilst I'm in the flat to keep me warm and only put the heating on when my hands start going blue at around 8-9 degrees C. You still think £100 is normal?

macman

No one can tell you what is 'normal' unless you make the effort to give us your actual kWh readings over a measured period. That is what matters, not what you put in the meter. £60pm was a year ago, you are ignoring the substantial price rises we have had since then, which would certainly take that £60 to around £80.
If you are convinced that your meter is faulty, you will have to pay to have it changed. If it's then found to be accurate, you won't be able to reclaim the charge.

jalexa

Munkee2 wrote: »

I get an annual statement. The last one was Sept '11 says from Sept '10 to Sept '11 I used 13,855.54 kWh of gas and that my forecast for Sept '11 to Sept' 12 was £685.10. Does this help at all?

Yes it does. On *that* basis (and I accept it *may* be a BG extrapolation from money paid rather than actual consumption, and you think you have cut back) a reasonable estimated consumption for December would be 2770kWhrs or £100, (or 90/day, or £3.60). Note December only. That is quite normal, though perhaps a tad high for a small flat, but well within the capability of a combi boiler, hence the supplier will not see anything wrong.

To get a handle on whether the ££s are reasonable you need to check daily your consumption in kWhrs. If you post that information you will get more meaningful help.

Have you posted how many radiators you have?

markharding557

A two tier tariff is not good for a low user,you would be better on a flat rate one.

macman

markharding557 wrote: »

A two tier tariff is not good for a low user,you would be better on a flat rate one.

The OP is on a PPM...
But based on BG's estimated annual consumption of 13,855 kWH, they're not a particularly low user. Which is whay the actual kWh usage figures are required in order to make any progress.

Munkee2

OK, how do I find my daily consumption?

I have 5 radiators in the flat. Two large (6-7ft), three tiny. One of the smallest three is never switched on.

macman

By scrolling through the screens on the meter until you find the right one, take some daily readings at the same time each day..

jalexa

Munkee2 wrote: »

OK, how do I find my daily consumption?

I have 5 radiators in the flat. Two large (6-7ft), three tiny. One of the smallest three is never switched on.

As advised by the last poster, however as a very approximate rule of thumb, estimate a hot large radiator as 3kW and a hot small radiator as 1.5kW. So for your four radiators, about 9 kwHrs in total every hour they are hot or heating up.

And have you a roomstat and/or TRVs on the radiators?

Munkee2

jalexa wrote: »

As advised by the last poster, however as a very approximate rule of thumb, estimate a hot large radiator as 3kW and a hot small radiator as 1.5kW. So for your four radiators, about 9 kwHrs in total every hour they are hot or heating up.

And have you a roomstat and/or TRVs on the radiators?

The two large radiators are about 6ft long each. The three smaller ones are less than 2ft long each. One of those small radiators is in an alcove but I keep an indoor rabbit hutch there for a house-rabbit and therefore the radiator behind the hutch is never, ever switched on (I don't like hot cross buns).

I don't know what a roomstat is but I have one thermostat which is set to 11 or 12 degrees so it warms things up a bit when they drop below that. The two large radiators have individual temperature knobs and ONE of the small small radiators (in use) has a temp knob. The other small rad doesn't.

I'm really sorry, I'm not getting which reading I need to take every day. I promise you I'm not deliberately being awkward. I find the whole thing bewildering!