Massive gas bill jump...correct??

vigman

Hi

I have just had my Dec 11 - Feb 12 gas bill from British Gas.
This is £391.56. Having picked myself off the floor, especially as we are out all day with the heating off and use electricity for cooking, I rang British Gas (especially as a new meter had been fitted) to check readings and consumption.

Our almost identical consumption last year for the same period (both actual readings) resulted in a bill for only £261.

Is this really the level of price increase that can be expected??

TIA

Vigman

PS What deals should I look out for if exchanging our 25 year old floor standing boiler?

HappyMJ

50% is a very big increase so my question is were you on a special deal last year and now that deal has expired and are you now paying the current rate? Cooking with either gas or electric uses very little energy compared to heating and hot water.

If the boiler is working then you need to calculate what it would cost to replace and what savings that could generate to see if it is worth it. For example most very old boilers are about 65% efficient and new condensing boilers are around 90% efficient. If the energy usage was 10,000kWh then mulitplying by 65% means you got 6,500kWh of heat and then dividing that by 90% means you would need 7,222kWh of energy to get the same heat. This would reduce your kWh usage by 27.7%. As your bill is £391 you could save £108 depending on your unit rate as standing charges (or higher primary rate charges) still apply. You need to work out your own annual usage and savings. A new boiler will cost a few thousand to install but could also save a small amount in maintenance costs. Do you have the money in a savings account or will you be borrowing the money to replace the boiler? You would need to figure out the cost of either the lost interest or the cost of borrowing as well.

vigman

Many thanks.

No, I checked and was still on their standard tariff last year (they have advised me of their online tariff saving of 4%)

The consumption was nearly the same so I just don't understand the huge increase.

The only difference is the replaced meter......can these be faulty.....do they calculate usage in a different way that may have led to a faulty calculation?

I am just about to get my pension on ill health grounds, so will have the money to buy outright......I need to carefully check the figures to see if the sums add up?

Vigman

lithopsian

Have you still got a bill from last year? You must have or you wouldn't know the consumption was the same, right?

Double check the actual consumption last year and this. Ideally post them here. Then post your unit prices last year and this, plus the standing charge if you have one. What you think of as "nearly the same" consumption might be a 20% difference, plus a 20% price hike and suddenly you are lying on the floor in shock.

You should be able to do much better than a 4% saving from any of the major company standard tariffs. Use one of the online comparison sites and you should expect to find tariffs that will save you around 20%. Read the small print, as you may have to manage your account online, or they might try to stiff you with exit penalties, but you ought to be able to find something better than the standard tariff.

spiro

There are 3 things you need to do to check the bill are:
1) Check yor latest bill is based on an actual reading and was the previous based on an estimate (could be catchup bill).
2) Check the meter exchange is correctly shown on your bill including readings (these should be by meter).
3) Check how the meter measures gas (ft3 or m3) and that the bill is based on the same measurement quantity (ft3 or m3).

vigman

Thanks for that. I don't have last year's bill. There was a graph of gas usage comparison on this bill and the BG representative agreed they were very similar (but in fact I did not ask for the exact figure from last year on the phone...but have now written to them)

BG confirm only a 4% saving with their online tariff.......

I was thinking about a 'small' increase in use plus a 'small' increase in tariff = LARGE increase :mad:

I'll post any replies I have from them here.

Thanks

Vigman

Moneybot

Just another quick thought, as I am currently having problems with British Gas and my gas bill, is your new metre reading in metric or imperial? Its just mine is metric and they charged me as if it was imperial thereby doing a completely inaccurate calculation.

vigman

spiro wrote: »

There are 3 things you need to do to check the bill are:
1) Check yor latest bill is based on an actual reading and was the previous based on an estimate (could be catchup bill).
2) Check the meter exchange is correctly shown on your bill including readings (these should be by meter).
3) Check how the meter measures gas (ft3 or m3) and that the bill is based on the same measurement quantity (ft3 or m3).

1.) Both read
2.) These readings were both on the new meter starting at 00239
3.) Metric meter and metric bill.

I'd understand if I had used much more, but have the same timer settings as last year and BG confirm similar usage...?

Thanks

Vigman

jalexa

vigman wrote: »

I don't have last year's bill.

Either the current quarterly bill is correctly calculated according to the tariff and opening and closing reads or it isn't. If the bill closing read is actual (and approximately what the meter reads today) then the next question is whether the bill opening read is actual? It may not be "last year's" bill you need to refer to but "last quarter's" bill.

You would get more meaningful help here if you relied less on the £££s (and assumptions) and more on posting meter readings (and facts). Gross meter error is extremely rare, but if you suspect it there is no excuse for not taking daily readings from the moment you first suspected the meter.

Regarding the "metric/imperial" issue, from your post you seem to be satisfied it is not present but my expectation would be that the previous meter was imperial. When was the meter changed? Double check that the change has been correctly calculated.

vigman

My original posting was really to find out what was a reasonable increase on standard tariff on a 12 month period to expect from British Gas with similar use in each period, from other users here, given the 'large' energy cost rises quoted.

However, for facts, from my current bill:

2 Dec 11 actual reading 00239
27th Feb 12 actual reading 01034 [confirmed, as now slightly higher reading]

= 795 metric units used over 88 days (actual)
gas units converted = 8830.07 over 88 days

First 646.00KwH x 8.429p = 54.45
Next 8184.07 kWh x 3.935 = 322.04

Gas units are converted to Kilowatt hours using the following formula:

795 metric units used x 39.1 calorific value x 1.0226400 volume correction divided by 3.6 to convert to kWh = 8830.07 gas used in kWh

There is then a 'your consumption' graph of the two periods twelve months apart and they are nearly identical (certainly within 100 kWhs) and this was confirmed on the phone by BG.

Do the calculations above use the correct figures in the formula?

TIA

Vigman

lithopsian

British Gas gas prices rose by 18% "on average" during the summer and there was also a smaller increase partway through last winter. Your current bill appears to be correctly calculated but I don't think that was ever in doubt. The consumption is actually quite high for this mild winter, but then you have an old boiler and maybe you have a large house too. The 88 day billing period is at the low end of average for a quarter.

However you're still relying on a graph that you are assuming is to scale, and the word of some unknown person on the phone, to say that last year's consumption was "about the same". Until you can get a better grasp of what you were actually billed for last year, any further speculation seems pointless. You are looking for about 20% less gas than you used this year to match the bill, which could easily just be the 100 units you think you see on that graph plus a bit more. Last year was colder but a failing boiler could increase your consumption, or maybe an estimated reading or a slightly different billing period.

The meter might be wrong (running a little fast) but this is rare. It is unlikely to be an imperial/metric issue which would inflate your gas use tenfold. So far I can't see anything other than a normal and correct bill that you weren't quite prepared for.