Help! Incredible Electricity Bill from British Gas

Aki123

Hi,

I wonder if anyone can help please? My cousin moved into a 2-bed first-floor maisonette at the beginning of November. She took meter readings which she gave to the supplier, British Gas. She has no gas in the property, so only receives electric.

When she signed up, British Gas advised her to set up her DD for £50 per month, based on the previous user's bills. Being cautious, having 2 daughters living with her, and previously having paid £112 per month on a 3-bed semi, she set the bills at £60 per month. They are out most of the day every day except at the weekend. As she likes to stay on top of things, she rang British Gas to check that the £60 per month was covering what she was using and was totally shocked to hear she owes £900!!

The landlord fitted a new type of electricity-based heating system which he told her was energy efficient. I'm not exactly sure what it is called. Even so, she hardly ever has the heating on as the elderly couple below seem to keep her place warm enough with their heating!

How can this happen? What should she do next? British Gas have been pretty unhelpful, as has her landlord.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

victor2

If she's regularly taken readings, then she should be able to see when she's been using significant amounts of electricity.
She needs to get a breakdown of the bill and make sure correct readings have been used. Could be something as simple as a transposed digit somewhere.
Assuming the bill reflects actual use, she should determine what the big users are, by taking readings daily for a few weeks and noting what has been running.

Edit:
Is she on economy 7 or something like that? It could be that she's been using electricity during the expensive times and the heating isn't properly set up.

Aki123

Thanks very much, I'll ask the questions and see if we can sort this out.

I do know that she has an Economy 7 meter, but that she's not on Economy 7. (I have to be honest and say I'm not quite sure how Economy 7 works, but apparently her new heating system isn't set up for it.)

penrhyn

Unless she has night storage heaters then Economy 7 is not the best option. Sounds like she is heating the property with panel radiators using day rate electicity, this is always going to be expensive.

There are a lot of con artists around perporting to sell super economical electric heating systems.
The truth is that all electrical heaters are 100% efficient, its how you control them that make a difference the cost of ownership.

Aki123

Thanks for the info - you are all so quick!!

I'm going to tell her to join the site and update the post with anything relevant.

Thanks again.

lithopsian

That seems a lot even to heat the flat entirely using standard rate electricity.

penrhyn

Indeed, we need weekly consumption figures in Kwh for a start.

Aki123

Okay, as soon as I can get hold of her I'll try and post some figures.

Thanks all.

Beth7820

HI, I am said cousin - Thanks for comments so far. Apologies if this seems a bit long, need to get it off my chest.

I have had numerous conversations with British Gas since Saturday. One helpful agent explained in great detail how the meter readings work (as I have never needed to worry about Kws before) he also asked exactly what type of boiler my landlord had fitted and what type of radiators etc etc..

With all this info I now know that I have a very cheap boiler called an Amptec that sells for £357 online for the whole system (inculding water tank) that this is being used to heat normal gas style radiators. Also he has linked this up to the original meter which was set for Ecomomy 7 from when the flat had storage heaters. The low (or night) reading has not moved at all since I moved in, in November, which means that I am being charged a higher day rate! This being said, the £900 for 4 months is still way too high.

According to British Gas I have used 6000 Kw in 4 months (which they say is the average household consumption for a year!). I was advised to do a test taking a meter reading, then using everything as normal and taking the reading again the following day at the same time. During this time the central heating was on for about 5 hours as it was a Sunday, and the washing machine and tumble drier both did one cycle. In this 24-hour period 52 Kw were used. They then asked me to do the same with the heating and hot water switched off, just to check that it wasn't a faulty meter. Doing this 6 Kw was used (also doing one wash & dry) proving that the meter is okay except for the fact that it should have been changed for a normal day-rate meter.

I'm not sure what I should do next. My landlord keeps saying he was told it was an 'economical system', but I believe he fitted it because it was cheap. I can't afford to move again at the end of this lease (April), and I can't afford to keep paying such astronomical bills! Anyone have any ideas where I might stand legally on this? Does a landlord have to have any kind of consumption certificate (like when you are selling a house?)

Thanks for reading!!!!!!!

victor2

Welcome to the forum!
As you have discovered, anything involving heating uses a lot of energy and is expensive to run, especially if it is electric.
I don't know anything about Amptec boilers, but the good news is you'll not have the heating on in the summer, so costs should fall dramatically.
Using 46kWh to heat a house over a 24 hour period doesn't sound particularly excessive to me. However, you could look at reducing your usage by controlling the heating a bit more. Do the radiators have their own thermostatic controls and do you know how to use the timer control for the heating?
The cost of heating is a difficult thing to monitor as it is heavily dependant upon the outside temperature, but it's worth looking at what adjustments you can make without sacrificing too much in the way of comfort.

[Deleted User]

Hi Beth7820 , could you post the meter details such as meter make and how the readings are showing on the meter, eg 1 =read,2=read and total reading.any blinking readings or curser will point to which reading is in progress for the time of the day. eco 7 night rate is usually around 12.30 am to 7.30 am. One of British Gases favourite tricks is not only to transpose a digit but whole readings night and day mixed. I have seen and photographed many peoples transposed bills in the past.I believe they have a department called the transposition dept. I have seen many examples of people getting away with extremely low electric bills due to transposed night and day then Brit Gas suddenly get it right and then in comes the whopping bill to catch up