Gas statement saying used 70,000 kWh

nick1archer

Hi,

Looking for some advice. We just got our yearly statement from EON. Our electricity usuage was as expected but our gas bill seems to me to be huge. They claim in the past 12 months we have used 70,000 kWh and that our bill for the coming year is £2200.

From the little research I have done, and I admit I know nothing about this, that seems extremely high.

I have a 2 bed house, only put the heating on as required in the winter, have electric oven etc and think the gas is purely running our heating and hot water.

Should I accept this bill or be challenging it, and on what grounds can I argue it? Is it possible our meter is faulty (they took a reading recently)

Any help will be massively welcome

Thanks

Nick

Nada666

Have you checked if you have a metric meter but are being charged for an imperial meter? That would take you down by two-thirds to a normal usage.

1 metic meter unit is 11.2 kWh but 1 imperial meter unit is 33 kWh. What do you get if you divide the 70,000 by the number of meter units? You really want your meter to have "cubic metres" written on it and the result of that sum to be about 33.

But if your meter does have ft^3 then it's your boiler and insulation you have to investigate (or the starting read).

MillicentBystander

Yes, sounds very much like a meter charging error. If it is then you can divide that 70,000 by approx 3 so 23,000/yr. Sound plausible?

matelodave

Why does it come as a total surprise to people when they get a big bill - a bit of proactive meter reading and working out what's being used should ensure that high usage can be investigated and corrected, standing orders can be adjusted to reflect what's being used and big unmanageable bills don't drop through the letterbox.

It's not hard to read the meter and compare it with your bill to see if it's correct and that you are actually paying for what you use- if it isn't right because the reading is wrong or you aren't paying enough to cover your use then get it sorted out. Don't wait hoping that it will go away because it doesn't and it gets worse.

There could be a couple of reasons for your big usage, the one referred to above, ie that you've been billed in the wrong units or alternatively, you might have had a few low estimates that you haven't corrected and they've now caught up by reading the meter (is it based on an actual reading rather than an estimate?)

If you read your own meter regularly (at least once a month) and give the supplier a reading as well you'll see if there's a big jump in use or cost that doesn't look right and, more importantly you can do something about it and you won't get caught out

dogshome

All looks very strange.
Supplier mix-ups with which type of meter you have are not common, but do still happen - If your supplier thinks you have an Imperial meter, (Marked ft3) which delivers close to 31.5kwh of gas for each meter unit, when in fact you have a Metric meter, (Marked m3), which delivers close to only 11.2 kwh per meter unit, you will be paying 181% extra in overchargeing.

BUT on the assumption that there has been a Meter mix-up, your present 70,000 Kwh billing when corrected for a Metric meter, still works out to an Annual consumption of 25,000 kwh a year which is a huge amount for a 2 bed house, even if it's poorly insulated.
So it's possible that you don't have just one problem, but two

Check all the bills that have been issued to see that they begin with the Start reading you gave when moving in, and then that the Start & End readings on each bill follow on conscecutively

Have you had a meter change and did the fitters leave a card showing the reading on the old meter as it was removed and the reading on the new meter as it was installed - Meters are re-conditioned so the new one may not have read zero - Do the bills reflect the readings on the card?

CRISPIANNE3

matelodave wrote: »

Why does it come as a total surprise to people when they get a big bill - a bit of proactive meter reading and working out what's being used should ensure that high usage can be investigated and corrected, standing orders can be adjusted to reflect what's being used and big unmanageable bills don't drop through the letterbox.

It's not hard to read the meter and compare it with your bill to see if it's correct and that you are actually paying for what you use- if it isn't right because the reading is wrong or you aren't paying enough to cover your use then get it sorted out. Don't wait hoping that it will go away because it doesn't and it gets worse.

There could be a couple of reasons for your big usage, the one referred to above, ie that you've been billed in the wrong units or alternatively, you might have had a few low estimates that you haven't corrected and they've now caught up by reading the meter (is it based on an actual reading rather than an estimate?)

If you read your own meter regularly (at least once a month) and give the supplier a reading as well you'll see if there's a big jump in use or cost that doesn't look right and, more importantly you can do something about it and you won't get caught out

And thats why unlike some of the muppets on here I never have issues with any energy company. i leave nothing to chance and check my meter every day and forward a reading every month.

brewerdave

CRISPIANNE3 wrote: »

And thats why unlike some of the muppets on here I never have issues with any energy company. i leave nothing to chance and check my meter every day and forward a reading every month.

DAILY meter readings??? Thats a bit OTT:) - I check monthly,keep the readings on a spreadsheet which calculates current balance in ££s -provided that figure shows a modest credit or debit then I don't contact the supplier.Past experience has taught me that supplying unnecessary readings to a supplier can cause headaches over DD setting due to their c**p computer programmes.!!:rotfl:

CRISPIANNE3

brewerdave wrote: »

DAILY meter readings??? Thats a bit OTT:) - I check monthly,keep the readings on a spreadsheet which calculates current balance in ££s -provided that figure shows a modest credit or debit then I don't contact the supplier.Past experience has taught me that supplying unnecessary readings to a supplier can cause headaches over DD setting due to their c**p computer programmes.!!:rotfl:

I only forward meter readings once a month but a record on a daily basis myself.

E.ON_Company_Rep_Chris

Hello nick1archer

That gas use does seem exceptionally high for the property you’ve described.

The others have given some great advice in checking if your gas meter is metric or imperial as this affects the conversion into kWh for billing. Your gas meter should be labelled to indicate whether it records your use in M3 of hcf.

Another possible explanation is as matelodave has suggested, perhaps you’ve had a large catch up bill after an extended period of estimates.

If the charges on your last bill are from a low estimated gas reading to the reading we took recently, it can make it look as though you’ve used a lot of gas over a short period. This would affect the way we calculate your annual use. It’s easily fixed by omitting those estimates and reissuing your bill.

If you call the number on your bill with another up to date gas reading , our advisors can help determine if either of these are the cause or if there’s something else we need to be looking at.

Hope this information helps

Amanda

DragonQ

CRISPIANNE3 wrote: »

And thats why unlike some of the muppets on here I never have issues with any energy company. i leave nothing to chance and check my meter every day and forward a reading every month.

I submit monthly meter readings and have had problems with energy companies. Not every problem is to do with estimated bills you know.