Advice on gas usage, incorrect billing and checking please

eclareb

Hi
I recently switched supplier from Eon to another company.
I received a call from Eon retention dept to ask why - ive moved to a capped deal and also because their monthly DD has now gone up to £270 (combined) and I cant pay that!

Their rep was very helpful. She said my usage is enoromous and made the assumption that I lived with loads of people. She said that last year I used nearly twice the average household amount of gas. I asked her what I had used during the summer and she said 18000, which is half the average annual household useage. This set the alarm bells off for me. I havent used my central heating all during the summer. Even now the kids are moaning for me to put it on and because of the increase in my DD (was previously paying £170, now gone up to £270) I wont put it on.

im a single parent, 3 kids, work full time so house is empty all day.In the winter, the heating is only on 6hrs maximum per day. I only have gas boiler, everything else is elec. After many many problems with my not very old but very unreliable boiler (18mths old) I replaced it last September with a Worcester Bosch 30CDi combi (which I understood to be most economical version...) When I have looked on the Eon energy tracker, it shows that my usage is increased by over 700%!!!!! on last year.

I had an engineer call round to check that I dont have a leak. Thankfully I dont!
The company that installed the boiler have been back and checked that same thing. They also then fired the boiler and then went to check how much - and said as expected, it was using a minimal amount......

Ive been taking meter readings for a week, but to be honest, Im not really sure what to do with them.

Can anyone advise me where to do from here.

Wywth

eclareb wrote: »

Hi
I recently switched supplier from Eon to another company.
I received a call from Eon retention dept to ask why - ive moved to a capped deal and also because their monthly DD has now gone up to £270 (combined) and I cant pay that!

Their rep was very helpful. She said my usage is enoromous and made the assumption that I lived with loads of people. She said that last year I used nearly twice the average household amount of gas. I asked her what I had used during the summer and she said 18000, which is half the average annual household useage. This set the alarm bells off for me. I havent used my central heating all during the summer. Even now the kids are moaning for me to put it on and because of the increase in my DD (was previously paying £170, now gone up to £270) I wont put it on.

im a single parent, 3 kids, work full time so house is empty all day.In the winter, the heating is only on 6hrs maximum per day. I only have gas boiler, everything else is elec. After many many problems with my not very old but very unreliable boiler (18mths old) I replaced it last September with a Worcester Bosch 30CDi combi (which I understood to be most economical version...) When I have looked on the Eon energy tracker, it shows that my usage is increased by over 700%!!!!! on last year.

I had an engineer call round to check that I dont have a leak. Thankfully I dont!
The company that installed the boiler have been back and checked that same thing. They also then fired the boiler and then went to check how much - and said as expected, it was using a minimal amount......

Ive been taking meter readings for a week, but to be honest, Im not really sure what to do with them.

Can anyone advise me where to do from here.

No, that's more than the whole annual average gas usage!
The average is 16500kWh p.a. and most of this would be used during the cold winter months.

penrhyn

Post you meter readings and tell us whether it is an imperial or metric gas meter.

There is the outside chance that you have a metric gas meter but are being charged as if it was an imperial meter.

Metric meters have a big M3 on them whilst and imperial has 100 CUFT on it.

If the meter is metric and you are being charged as if it were imperial your bill would be three times more than it should be.
http://www.energylinx.co.uk/gas_meter_conversion.html

eclareb

penrhyn wrote: »

Post you meter readings and tell us whether it is an imperial or metric gas meter.

There is the outside chance that you have a metric gas meter but are being charged as if it was an imperial meter.

Metric meters have a big M3 on them whilst and imperial has 100 CUFT on it.

If the meter is metric and you are being charged as if it were imperial your bill would be three times more than it should be.
http://www.energylinx.co.uk/gas_meter_conversion.html

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.
Yes, I do have a M3 meter.
So what do I do next?

eclareb

Thanks for that. She said my useage for the last year was 55,000! :-(

eclareb

Wywth wrote: »

No, that's more than the whole annual average gas usage!
The average is 16500kWh p.a. and most of this would be used during the cold winter months.

Thanks for that she said my usage for last year was 55,000 :-( but we are out all day and I am mindful of what my outgoings are, so its not on constantly or anything like it.

macman

Well, that usage in 100's cu ft converts to about 50,000kWh, so it is almost certain that you are being billed as if you still had an imperial meter. Check your actual bills for the conversion factor used.
Have you had a meter change in the last few years? If so, the odds are that the billing has not been adjusted.
A nice fat credit is due to you if so.
PS: I don't see how your meter readings can say a usage of 17,800kWh if Eon say you are using 55,000kWh, but are apparently billing you for 18,400kWh!
Can you post the actual figures on a recent bill, so the conversion factor can be established?

molerat

retired2011 has snuck a post in there confusing the situation, please start your own thread.

penrhyn

eclareb wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.
Yes, I do have a M3 meter.
So what do I do next?

Look at you bill and see if there is an imperial to metric conversion, if you see the figure 2.83 somewhere they have.

or post the meter reading used to produce your latest gas bill.

eclareb

Information from online:
latest bill 6/6/12 (18174 ) - 5/9/12 (18361) = 187
converstion value 1.02264
calorific value 39.9
converted to 2120kwh used

During this period I know that my boiler was used for hot water only, thats hand washing and dish washing. Possibly 2 x bath for my youngest per week (we all use the shower and thats electric as is everything else in the house). So does that amount sound about right?

Then bill from 8/12/11 (16052) - 8/3/12 (17417) = 1365 units
15510 kwh used. Obviously this is the winter period and includes 2 weeks of christmas, but the heating is still kept on a timer.

Do these sound correct? I just normally leave the payments to the DD and dont really monitor the bills when they come in :-/ TBH Im running to keep up with myself most of the time. Ive just seen that my gas charge for that quarter was £581.73.

I hope there is something wrong. The kids are moaning as it is and its only going to get colder!!

My new DD is for £270 per month which is a combined gas and electric account, but as the rep from eon said, where ever you go, what ever tarrif you are on,its the usage thats the problem. But I just dont understand where it can be going.

jalexa

eclareb wrote: »

Information from online:
latest bill 6/6/12 (18361) - 5/9/12 (18174) = 187
converstion value 1.02264
calorific value 39.9
converted to 2120kwh used.

Well it is calculated correctly for metric meter. I take it the readings/dates being the wrong way round is a typo? I would say it was rather high consumption for a summer quarter but only you can tell what use you are making. I presume mainly hot water in summer.

In a previous post you said this.."They also then fired the boiler and then went to check how much - and said as expected, it was using a minimal amount"......

That is a nonsense test. They should have run the DHW at full rated output for a long enough period to measure the metered gas consumption. Are you certain you have explained the test properly?

Also in an earlier post you said this "Ive been taking meter readings for a week, but to be honest, Im not really sure what to do with them.". Post them here for comment?