Gas Bill, is this correct or is meter wrong?

jezztri

Hello,

According to my latest gas bill, I have used 750 kwh of gas in 15 days, totalling £35 with southern electric. I think this is really high considering I only have the heating in for a couple of Hours in the evening, and have one shower lasting 20 min. I guess I should have shorter showers!

Today I switched off everything at the mains, took a reading, then had a shower, turned on the heating to 20 degrees for twenty min, and boiled some water for some pasta, all using gas.

The reading was 11 kwh for half hour of usage, totally 65 pence according to an online meter calculator. I've read on various forums where some people say their daily usage is around 50 pence a day, which i can't see how this could be, unless there is no heating or cooking more than boiling some water!

Is my meter wrong? The boiler seems to have some pressure problem, but I figured when it gets a lot colder, my bills are going to sky rocket.

Does anyone have some comparison figures?

Greenqueen_2

I dont see how you calculate 11kw as 65p. I was under the impression it is closer to 15p per kw so that makes it about £1.65

jezztri

There is an online calculator where you can put in two meter readings, and select the utility company, and it will work out the charge including the standing costs, it is called ukpower. If indeed your calculation was correct, that would be even more excessive for one shower, one pot of boiled water and heating for 30 min.

yangptangkipperbang

Greenqueen wrote: »

I was under the impression it is closer to 15p per kw so that makes it about £1.65

........that is the price of electricity !!!!!

Cardew

jezztri wrote: »

Hello,

According to my latest gas bill, I have used 750 kwh of gas in 15 days, totalling £35 with southern electric. I think this is really high considering I only have the heating in for a couple of Hours in the evening, and have one shower lasting 20 min. I guess I should have shorter showers!

Today I switched off everything at the mains, took a reading, then had a shower, turned on the heating to 20 degrees for twenty min, and boiled some water for some pasta, all using gas.

The reading was 11 kwh for half hour of usage, totally 65 pence according to an online meter calculator. I've read on various forums where some people say their daily usage is around 50 pence a day, which i can't see how this could be, unless there is no heating or cooking more than boiling some water!

Is my meter wrong? The boiler seems to have some pressure problem, but I figured when it gets a lot colder, my bills are going to sky rocket.

Does anyone have some comparison figures?

The average UK consumption of gas is 16,500kWh - which is 45kWh per day, and that includes the summer months when heating is not used. i.e. you would expect it to be considerably higher than 45kWh in winter.

So for 15 days in winter you have used 50kWh a day so your consumption is below average.

A gas CH boiler's maximum output is used for producing hot water. That can be anything up to 40kW (40kWh in an hour)although perhaps 25kW would be an average figure.

For you to have a shower, run heating and boil water, to use 11kWh in 30 minutes would be completely normal.

Incidentally 750kWh costing £35 prices a kWh at 4.67p. So 11kWh would be 51p not 65p.

Lastly a 20 min shower could use 8kWh or more.

oldskoo1

I think your consumption is quite low actually

dogshome

Forgive me if I am preaching to the converted, but I'm a little concerned that in your 1st Post, you refer to "....the reading was 11 Kwh for half hour of useage..."

Whilst one meter unit on an ELECTRIC meter is indeed 1 Kwh, GAS meters
measure in Gas Meter Units, not Kwh, and to complicate it further there are 2 types of Gas meter, Metric marked m3 & Imperial marked ft3

Have a look at yours, if it is marked m3 each meter unit delivers appx.11.2 Kwh - If it's marked ft3 each meter unit delivers appx 31.5 Kwh.

Cardew

dogshome wrote: »

Forgive me if I am preaching to the converted, but I'm a little concerned that in your 1st Post, you refer to "....the reading was 11 Kwh for half hour of useage..."

Whilst one meter unit on an ELECTRIC meter is indeed 1 Kwh, GAS meters
measure in Gas Meter Units, not Kwh, and to complicate it further there are 2 types of Gas meter, Metric marked m3 & Imperial marked ft3

Have a look at yours, if it is marked m3 each meter unit delivers appx.11.2 Kwh - If it's marked ft3 each meter unit delivers appx 31.5 Kwh.

Surely whilst 11kWh in 30 minutes for the load the OP described would be quite normal; 122kWh(11 gas units @ 11.2kWh) in 30 minutes is not possible; unless a faulty meter or the OP is misreading the meter and it is 1.1 metric gas units.

However you can rule out a faulty meter given that the 'latest bill' indicates that 750kWh were used in 15 days - a perfectly reasonable 50kWh per day.

dogshome

Quite agree Cardew, but as the OP seems to have confused the price of Elec & Gas Kwh I thought some basics would not go amiss