Units of energy on gas/electric meters

chrismeekin

A very very long while ago i remembered seeing Martin explain about gas and electric meters and there unit measurements of energy usage. I recall him saying that one of either imperial or metric units was bad and that you could be spending more money if your meters are running on it. I am trying to help my mum out saving money on her utilities as she spends an awful amount on them every day and it worries me. Her electric meter is running in imperial units (800 Imp/kWh to be precise), can anyone tell me whether this is the right meter to have or does she need to change to metric to save money? Thank you

SwanJon

The units on an electricity meter are all kWh, the same as the units on your bill. You don't get imperial electricity meters.
Is the 800 imp/kWh next to a red flashing light? If so this possibly means 800 impulses (flashes) adds up to 1 kWh.
I'm afraid you need to look elsewhere to save money. Have you tried her supplier for energy efficiency advice?

For gas,
Older gas meters may register in hundreds of cubic feet, aka imperial.
New gas meters measure in cubic meters, aka metric.

There are 2.83 cubic meters in 100 cubic feet. so if your energy supplier thinks you have an imperial meter, but you actually have a metric one they'll charge you for 2.83 times as much energy as you actually used. If they have it right, then there is no issue.

macman

The type of gas meter you have makes no difference to your billing!
The meter units are different (since it measures only volume), but the billing units (energy) are the same (kWh).

ValHaller

chrismeekin wrote: »

A very very long while ago i remembered seeing Martin explain about gas and electric meters and there unit measurements of energy usage. I recall him saying that one of either imperial or metric units was bad and that you could be spending more money if your meters are running on it. I am trying to help my mum out saving money on her utilities as she spends an awful amount on them every day and it worries me. Her electric meter is running in imperial units (800 Imp/kWh to be precise), can anyone tell me whether this is the right meter to have or does she need to change to metric to save money? Thank you

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. Without knowing exactly what Martin said, you are charged exactly the same for your energy whehter you have an imperial or a metric meter.

What he probably said was to check that you are being billed for usage in the same units as your meter measures. So if your meter is metric - measuring m^3 - and you are billed in imperial - 100ft^3 - you will be overcharged. It is not much better the other way round because you will be undercharged and have to play catchup.