1500 (Gas) units in 2 weeks - Oh Snap!

NoProspects

Hi all,

I recently decided to start tracking my gas usage to try and see if I could save money by being more frugal. My meter was last read by British Gas on 19th April. I read it myself on 29th May and then again yesterday 11th June. Here are the readings, in units:

19 April: 2937
29 May: 3020
11 June: 4517

units per day appear to have increased from 2 up to 115!

I spoke to British Gas first thing this morning, and though they originally tried to get me to check and see if the meter had any activity with all appliances completely off, I managed to talk them in to getting the meter tested. They said that it is extremely rare for this kind of meter (analog) to become faulty and if it does it only goes 10% too fast.

What does everyone think? I'm pretty convinced that it is a problem with the meter but I'm wary of continuing to use gas as normal just on the offchance I'll have to pay a massive bill (that level of usage is about £30/day). Before they can even make an appointment to come and get the meter they have to send a letter for me to sign and send back consenting to paying a charge in case it isn't faulty. They told me that this letter will take 7 days to get to me, by when (worst case scenario) I would have used plenty more units.

Some little tests I've done:
Used hot water for 2 minutes used 8 units
Cooking dinner using 2 burners on quite low for about 10 minutes used 3 units (proves it isn't the boiler at fault)

Any advice appreciated.

espresso

I suspect that you are reading the meter incorrectly. What type of meter have you got, imperial or metric? (hundreds of cubic feet or cubic metres) These units need to be converted into kWh before calculating the cost. It is not possible to use 8 units heating the water for 2 minutes!

Jandy123

Hi there, I don't know if it will help, but I recently went on a haggling expedition with my suppliers ( Powergen) following a greatly increased winter bill and during discussions with their ( rather Victorian sounding) Consumption Team, a nice man told me the average for a 4 bed house during the winter is 5 units of gas per day ( including the central heating). If you have any doubts about whether you have read the meter correctly, they should help you with the correct way to do it. Is an analogue meter the sort with dials on it or with numbers in a line? I had a meter with dials on my electricity account and discovered I had been reading it wrong to the tune of £235! ( I was giving the number the pointer was closest to, when I should have been rounding down to the lowest of the numbers it was in between)
Otherwise, it seems very likely that your meter has gone extremely wonky! Best of luck in sorting it out,

espresso

Well anything to report?

NoProspects

Embarassingly enough, I just read it wrong. Everything's fine