British gas help please

Shelldean

Hi,

wonder if anyone can help me please?

Have just got my latest bill from British gas and it is a lot higher than previous years, even if you take into account of the price increases, it's still a big jump.

But forgetting the actual costs I've looked at the actual useage.

My online a/c says we used the following...

1 Jan - 31 Mar 2011 - 2186.97 Kwh
1 Jan - 31 Mar 2013 - 1982.78 Kwh
1 Jan - 31 Mar 2013 - 3439.92 Kwh

the readings for Apr - Jun, Jul - Sept, Oct - Dec, for both 2011 & 2012 are all similar the biggest difference being appox 200Kwh.

I want to know why the huge increase in usage when nothing in the house has changed.

I tried calling BG but the daft bloke just kept telling it was a winter bill so of course it was going to be higher. I simply couldn't get him to see my point that I was comparing like for like, winter for winter. I wasn't comparing winter to summer.


So I tried emailing the complaint dept trying to get an answer.
And got an email back tell me it was a winter bill and it would be higher than a summer bill!!!! They also told me how much i'd used and how much each unit cost. None of which I wanted to know as the amount used and the costs where clear on my bill.

I want to know why my usage has increased so dramatically??


Any ideas what to do next?

chanz4

Myn has gone up a lot, we have had a very very cold winter

Shelldean

but I've used my heating in the same way as I did last year.
My usage hasnt changed honestly if anything I turned the heating on later this yr, I actually put extra jumpers and a blanket over my feet instead of putting the heating on.
I was trying to save money as OH was given redundancy and money was tight.

And that is a huge differance in the amount of Kwh used

SwanJon

Even if you have the boiler settings on for the same times and at the same temperature it can use a vastly different amount of gas.

As above, this has been a very cold few months. If it is 0 outside and you are asking your boiler to heat the house to 20 it is going to use more gas than if it was 10 degrees. It will then need to turn on more often to maintain the temperature as the heat leaks outside faster. The same is true with heating water.

Were the start and end reads of all 3 bills actuals? An estimated bill could exaggerate any other changes.

Shelldean

SwanJon wrote: »

Even if you have the boiler settings on for the same times and at the same temperature it can use a vastly different amount of gas.

As above, this has been a very cold few months. If it is 0 outside and you are asking your boiler to heat the house to 20 it is going to use more gas than if it was 10 degrees. It will then need to turn on more often to maintain the temperature as the heat leaks outside faster. The same is true with heating water.

Were the start and end reads of all 3 bills actuals? An estimated bill could exaggerate any other changes.

I am going by the usage chart when I look at my account online,

So for
1 Jan/31Mar 11 2186.97Kwh
1 Jan/31Mar 11 1982.78Kwh
1 Jan/31Mar 13 3439.91kwh

The actual bill was for 1 jan to 25 March and it says I used 3283.56 Kw.
thats a HUGE increase from 2012 and 2011, for NO apparent reason???


Sorry jsut realised am just repeating myself


let me get some facts

NowRetired

For the past 4 years my gas usage for the 3 months from Dec to March has never been higher than 7301 kWhs.

This quarter it has been 8099 kWhs and that includes a weeks holiday where I never used any gas.

My heating is normally on for 15 hours a day, been like that since my wife retired 5 years ago.

We are a couple of SAHOAPs

I blame the cold weather.

Shelldean

right,

Winter 2013
1 Jan (we read your meter)
25 Mar ( we read your meter) 84 days
3286.56 kwh used.

Winter 2012
6 Jan - 3 Apr ( meter read both days)
1881.14kWh over 89 days actual

I cant see the first bill of 2011, i can only see the usage on the graph chart.

So five days less in 2013 and the bill is over 50% more usage than the previous yr???

Shelldean

now retired why dont you have a thanks button???

it's returned and I have used it

Shelldean

Nowreitired

your bill must be HUGE??? with that amount of usage?

NowRetired

your bill must be HUGE??? with that amount of usage

My usage goes down in the summer.

I have used between 17,500 and 21,000 kWh of gas in a year.

This last quarter has been the highest for that time since I started keeping records on my computer.

SwanJon

Ok, so actuals - that's a big jump.
I did manage to find a comparison with temperatures over the last few years, but it's for Newquay - need to see if there are others similar:
http://www.newquayweather.com/wxtempsummary.php

It does show that March this year was colder than Jan, Feb or Mar last year.

Take a daily reading this week and check that it seems to make sense. If the meter is faulty it will remain faulty so this should help identify that.