Gas bill up five fold- Advice needed!

teaandcakeordeath

Hi, I'm posting on behalf of a family member who is brilliant at burying her head in the sand!

Basically 2 years ago our old, terminally ill/ condemned boiler finally died. Prior to the boilers demise the house was like a furnace- it's a three storey, non double glazed, edwardian semi-detached house and her yearly gas bills were approximately £900.

My relative (Lets call her X) didn't have the cash available to buy a new boiler so had one fitted through a British Gas boiler loan scheme. (approx value £4000) British Gas sold her the boiler and told her at the point of purchase that as it was SO energy efficient that within the length of the loan term she would have earned back the money spent as she would lower her gas bill considerably- they predicted between 35-45% savings.

The boiler was fitted and has consistently broke down- the pilot light goes out, the radiators don't seem to radiate any heat etc. etc. (they used to be so hot that you couldn't touch them with naked skin). In addition to that her gas bills have risen five fold from about £900 to over £4000 yearly.

We've had British Gas and E-On out numerous times to check supply etc. but they just keep shrugging their shoulders and telling her that her previous bills must have been wrong. This doesn't make any sense to me as she doesn't change suppliers so if those bills were wrong then surely British Gas/ E-On would've figured that out years ago? Also the ONLY differing factor in her consumption is the new 'energy efficient' boiler- nothing else has changed at all.

Every time she rings E-On the operatives she speaks to are horrified at her bills and refer her through to the consumption team advisers who don't seem to be able to do anything.

Has anyone else been in this situation or is there any advice on who I can contact as it's getting to the point now where she is in real financial hardship paying for a gas boiler than eats gas, provides no heat and has pushed up her gas bills five fold. British Gas and E-On are effectively washing their hands of her.

Sorry for the long post- we just don't know what else to do! :eek:

HappyMJ

What boiler these days has a pilot light? Is the £4,000 annual bill based on actual readings? Do you have them and can post them here to check?

teaandcakeordeath

You can tell I live in an electricity only property can't you- not sure if it has a pilot light or if that's just what X calls it- she's worse with technology than I am.

I don't have the exact bill details but will get them over next couple of days. I do know that they are based on actual readings as she nearly had a heart attack on the first bill rise thinking it was just based on an estimate- it wasn't. I'm off for the next week and am going to try and sort this out- her last bill was for £1600 and she can't continue like this for much longer.

HappyMJ

teaandcakeordeath wrote: »

You can tell I live in an electricity only property can't you- not sure if it has a pilot light or if that's just what X calls it- she's worse with technology than I am.

I don't have the exact bill details but will get them over next couple of days. I do know that they are based on actual readings as she nearly had a heart attack on the first bill rise thinking it was just based on an estimate- it wasn't. I'm off for the next week and am going to try and sort this out- her last bill was for £1600 and she can't continue like this for much longer.

You will also need to know that the units on the bill that are being charged for are correct. i.e is the bill is in cubic metres but the meter itself is in (100) cubic feet which will make the bill almost 3 times bigger.

If she's resetting the boiler too often then there may be a problem with the boiler but if's she's resetting it it means it isn't using any gas at all as it's off. Is it a combi? Are all the hot water taps not leaking. If there is a leak (more than just a drip) on any taps then the boiler will run continuously. If she turns the heating off does the boiler go off too?

macman

Make and model of boiler?
If it's less than two years old then it should be still in warranty-, so get the manufacturer's engineer out under a warranty claim to have a look-forget about BG.
Telling us how much the bills have gone up is not relevant though (everyone's bills have soared in the last 2 years)-what needs to be proven is that kWh consumption has gone up x-fold. So get the old bills out and get the comparative consumption data for the last 3 years (before and after).

teaandcakeordeath

I will do. As soon as I've got all the information I'll post it and hopefully one of you helpful people can point me in the right direction.

Thanks for all of your responses!

cattie

I don't know how the boiler loan scheme you mention works, but she isn't paying back the loan along with her bill is she?

Some questions that might be relevant to an increase in bills; How many rooms in this big house is she heating? Only the ones she uses or does she have all the radiators on full blast? Does she have the heating on a timer for a short while during mornings and evenings or is it on constantly? How many units is she using on average now compared to when she had the old boiler? Does she have the same amount and size of radiators that she had before or are the new radiators now double instead of single and some rooms that didn't have radiators before now have them?

teaandcakeordeath

HappyMJ wrote: »

What boiler these days has a pilot light? Is the £4,000 annual bill based on actual readings? Do you have them and can post them here to check?

Actual gas meter readings available online are as follows:
04/02/2011- 2042
29/07/2011- 2815
26/01/2012- 3609
22/10/2012- 4650

The meter is cubic meters.


The last paper bill received states the following:-

How much do I use every day?
Electricity:
13.9 kWh last year
20.5 kWh currently
Gas:
74 kWh last year
78.8 kWh currently

What will I spend in the next 12 months?
You've used 5,943 kWh of electricity and
53,345 kWh of gas in the last year. In the next
year we estimate you'll spend:
Electricity £903 Gas £2,190

teaandcakeordeath

cattie wrote: »

I don't know how the boiler loan scheme you mention works, but she isn't paying back the loan along with her bill is she?

Some questions that might be relevant to an increase in bills; How many rooms in this big house is she heating? Only the ones she uses or does she have all the radiators on full blast? Does she have the heating on a timer for a short while during mornings and evenings or is it on constantly? How many units is she using on average now compared to when she had the old boiler? Does she have the same amount and size of radiators that she had before or are the new radiators now double instead of single and some rooms that didn't have radiators before now have them?

The boiler scheme is separate to her bills so that doesn't account for the hike.

The top floor of the house does not have (and has never had) GCH. She is heating 5 radiators downstairs (Hall, front room x 1, living room x 2 and kitchen x 1) Upstairs she is heating 5 radiators (3 x bedrooms, 1 x hall, 1 x bathroom). This is the same as pre-new boiler. None of the radiators have been changed.

With the old boiler the heating used to be on none stop (the boiler was that ricketty that it couldn't be switched off for fear of never working again- even summer times were tropical). The new boiler is now on a timer (due to the ever increasing gas bill) so the house has heating on for approximately 9 hours a day (3 in the morning and 6 in the evening). Because the ceilings and windows are so high/ big the house as a consequence never feels warm.

I have written to her supplier to ask them to give me yearly consumption breakdowns since 2008 alongside actual bill payments. The new boiler was fitted in late 2009 and has had numerous visits by manufacturer engineers, the energy supplier and British gas as it consistently broke down for the first 15 months or so with each of the above blaming one another for how rubbish it was...

I appreciate that utility bills have gone up drastically but this seems ludicrous! I've checked if the supplier is the cheapest (It isn't- she can save £260 moving her supplier at the current consumption) but we can't do that until we get her account in credit and with these ever increasing bills it doesn't seem likely!

teaandcakeordeath

Thanks for all of your input so far though- it's appreciated!

closed

based on the highest of those readings, from the period 4/2/11-29/7/11

you would average 4.41 units/day or 1612 units per year

if the meter was imperial this would be about 52000kwh/annum (which is similar to the annual estimate on the bill, suggesting the bill is based on imperial readings).

if the meter was metric this would be about 18000kwh/annum (which is a reasonably amount for a typical house)

if the actual meter is really metric (look at it), check the bill is billed as metric.

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electricity use has gone up 50%, which suggests more things are turned on or using power, go around the house switching off things that don't need to be on, could be half of the current usage.

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the figures multiplied by 365 don't come to 53000, they come to half that, what are they based on?

Gas:
74 kWh last year
78.8 kWh currently