Could the meter be faulty?

Christopher7

Hi All

We have an empty house in County Durham that we have been trying to let since September 2011. We have received a gas bill from SSE for them period between February and May, which is for £128.81. We paid a similar bill for November to February. We did leave the boiler on so that the heating came on when the temperature dropped below1 or 2 degrees.

However, our gas bill at our new address for roughly the same period was £151.04, where we had the heating on, were using hot water and were cooking using gas.

We have double checked the meter readings and they are accurate. Could the meter be faulty and over registering usage? Or are SSE right to expect me to pay this bill?

Any help would be appreciated.

Kind regards
Chris

headache5678

Chris,

I must be missing something here.

Why should you not pay for gas used and correctly recorded on your meter ?

Do you use SSE for both properties ? are you concerned that you have overcharged on the old property or the new property ?

Are the properties similar in terms of size, energy efficiency, number of outside walls etc ?

victor2

While it's not impossible for your meter to be faulty, it's unlikely.
Are both properties with the same supplier and on the same tariff? Does the empty property have a tariff with a standing charge? Is the boiler set to provide hot water as well as heating? Is the boiler an older type with a permanent pilot light? Have estimated readings been used for the billing?

So many questions.... Provide as much information as you can.
In a nutshell, if you've used the gas, knowingly or unknowingly, SSE are quite entitled to expect you to pay for it.

Terrylw1

Meters can be faulty but its you have to rule other issues out first such as billing errors.

So, first...is the bill an estimate since its empty?

If its an actual, what caused it? So, take some readings now and turn all appliances off for a couple of days. Then read the meter again. Any advance? If so, anything else connected? If no advance, its likely its the appliances using it so check to see how much they use.

Then if the appliance usage just doesn't seem to match the gas usage, it could be tested.

Christopher7

headache5678 wrote: »

Chris,

I must be missing something here.

Why should you not pay for gas used and correctly recorded on your meter ?

Do you use SSE for both properties ? are you concerned that you have overcharged on the old property or the new property ?

Are the properties similar in terms of size, energy efficiency, number of outside walls etc ?

I have no problem paying for the gas we have used, but like i said the property has been empty for the entire period of the bill.

It is just surprising that the gas bill for an empty house is 84% of the gas bill of the house where we are living now, and we have been using gas for the heating, cooking, and hot water in the new house!

rogerblack

Christopher7 wrote: »

It is just surprising that the gas bill for an empty house is 84% of the gas bill of the house where we are living now, and we have been using gas for the heating, cooking, and hot water in the new house!

It depends.
Firstly - '1 or 2 degrees' - really?
Are you sure the temperature was this low?
Most thermostats won't go much below 10C.
10C heating, with a poorly insulated property, from Feb-May may well be similar to heating to 20C a better insulated one.

Christopher7

victor2 wrote: »

While it's not impossible for your meter to be faulty, it's unlikely.
Are both properties with the same supplier and on the same tariff? Does the empty property have a tariff with a standing charge? Is the boiler set to provide hot water as well as heating? Is the boiler an older type with a permanent pilot light? Have estimated readings been used for the billing?

So many questions.... Provide as much information as you can.
In a nutshell, if you've used the gas, knowingly or unknowingly, SSE are quite entitled to expect you to pay for it.

Hi,

The empty property is with SSE. Our new gas supplier is Eon. The boiler at the empty property is a three year old combo boiler. If it helps we have used (apparently) 2500 kWh of gas at the empty property and 3500 at our new house. The empty house is a 2 bed house and our new house is a 3 bed house.

I have no problem paying for the gas we have used knowingly or unknowingly but i am asking is it possible that the meter could be over registering?

Christopher7

rogerblack wrote: »

It depends.
Firstly - '1 or 2 degrees' - really?
Are you sure the temperature was this low?
Most thermostats won't go much below 10C.
10C heating, with a poorly insulated property, from Feb-May may well be similar to heating to 20C a better insulated one.

Not sure, but the thermostat is well below the 10c setting.

DVardysShadow

Christopher7 wrote: »

.... It is just surprising that the gas bill for an empty house is 84% of the gas bill of the house where we are living now,

Christopher7 wrote: »

If it helps we have used (apparently) 2500 kWh of gas at the empty property and 3500 at our new house. The empty house is a 2 bed house and our new house is a 3 bed house.

That is 70%, not 85%. If you are going to have any discussion about meters being faulty, you have to provide information in terms of gas consumption, £££ is irrelevant.

victor2

Christopher7 wrote: »

Hi,

The empty property is with SSE. Our new gas supplier is Eon. The boiler at the empty property is a three year old combo boiler. If it helps we have used (apparently) 2500 kWh of gas at the empty property and 3500 at our new house. The empty house is a 2 bed house and our new house is a 3 bed house.

I have no problem paying for the gas we have used knowingly or unknowingly but i am asking is it possible that the meter could be over registering?

You haven't said if any of the bills used estimated readings. That is the first thing to check, as estimates will assume occupied property.
Assuming actual readings have been used, you can then do some fairly simple tests yourself to get an idea how much gas is being used.

Christopher7

DVardysShadow wrote: »

That is 70%, not 85%. If you are going to have any discussion about meters being faulty, you have to provide information in terms of gas consumption, £££ is irrelevant.

The bill in £'s terms was 85%, but in KWH's it was 70%.