Is my meter faulty? Huge gas bill!

FlakeHC

From the 6thJune till 7th March I have used 41,568 KWh

insanegloss

If you can't smell it, it's highly unlikely to be a leak. About £1 worth of gas is enough to flatten a couple of houses.

Quick calculation on that... 25kWh @4p/kWh = £1
At 11kWh p/m3 =2.727..m3 of pure gas at atmospheric pressure. Explosive mixture with air is about 5% so 2.727*20 = 45.45m3 of explosive gas mixture.

So yes if it was leaking in the way you are thinking in terms of your bills, you should definitely be able to smell it.

As it's a LCD display type meter (usually an E6 meter), these measure gas consumption by ultrasonic pulses as gas travels through the meter. It's usually this has gone wrong to generate the issues you have. An accuracy test won't give a definitive % result of how wrong it's is as it's an electronic fault and the issue varies over time. Do you have accurate bills in the past to use to compare the usage over a year?

macman

insanegloss wrote: »

Woah, not so fast there! You have remember that mechanical meters cannot clock up any usage without fluid (gas) flow, unless you have found a way of breaking the laws of physics and a solution to the worlds energy issues.

Same principle goes that they cannot clock up vastly more usage than you really use, sure there can be inaccuracies in the order of +- a few percent which isn't what the OP is suggesting.

There are much simpler and much likely explanations that aren't meter accuracy related. Metric imperial mix up, large (in terms of power, kW) boiler and not realising it, crossed meters, etc etc. Having been heavily involved in meter accuracy tests in my time at BG, the vast majority (especially gas) we're correct and within tolerance, and those that weren't, were not much over the tolerances.

None of your alternatives explain why the meter is still moving with the supply switched off. And, as the OP has now revealed, it's an LCD meter. The metric/imperial conversion is a separate issue entirely.

macman

FlakeHC wrote: »

From the 6thJune till 7th March I have used 41,568 KWh

Which is an average 3 years use in just 9 months. Get the meter changed.
If gas was leaking on that scale, your entire neighbourhood would no longer be standing.

[Deleted User]

FlakeHC wrote: »

LCD display. Spoke to gas engineer and he says figures are ridiculous. Thinks I my usage is nuts. 35000kwh since December. He also thinks it's most likely I have a gas leak. He is coming round tomorrow to check. I can't smell gas though

There are LCD display gas meters E6 Ironbridge, prepay and credit, which have been known to go bonkers on the digital display. digital displays are not as reliable as mechanical ( 2 blank screens found this week alone )

FlakeHC

Now I'm really confused. Things are never straight forward. Personally I can't smell gas so am doubtful of the leakage theory. the meter dial turns when boiler switched off at wall but it is intermittent. Ie yesterday I did this chech 3 times the first 2 times the meter turned almost immediately. When I did it later to show my husband it did not do it for 20 min. If it was a leak I would have thought this would be a constant?

Thanks for helping I got no help from BG. They obviously knew there was an issue and were less than helpful. They did not even mention the possibility of a gas leak. I may have some old bills somewhere from a previous supplier

Checked it is an E6 meter

km1423

When you say using a coal fire, do you mean an "open fire"? If so then this will cause your heating bills to rise. The open fire will be pulling the warm air out of the room, up to 70%, making your central heating work more. Open fires are more style than function - sorry to say.

In the longer term you may be better off investing in a solid fuel appliance, or a modern gas appliance they are a lot more efficient than open fires.

Your readings are high, and a gas leak is possible, but wait and see what the gas report indicates. I would definitely get the meter replaced too.

Good luck and keep us informed.

macman

Given that the current meter is billing you at around £550 per month, the bill for a meter change (should it prove to be accurate, which it won't) would be just small change...

insanegloss

It's simply a fault with the electronics. I've seen them go spazzy occasionally, rare that is. My first point was around mechanical meters, given that they constitute the vast majority of meter types. Electronic meters are whole different ball game, I apologise for not inculding them in my first post.

Simple resolution, speak to Complaints at BG. Explain your gas meter is recording usage when physically shut off and it's an E6 meter. They should arrange an exchange and then agree to work out your reading upon removal based on your previous correct usage profile.

FlakeHC

Hi Guys
The gas safe engineer came round this afternoon and did the load test. The meter registered 141 kW over the test period which I'm told is impossible as it's a 42 kW boiler. When he watched the meter during the test it would blank out then jump 100 units at a a time. Just have to convince BG now.
Problem is I don't know how long it has been doing this as last year we only submitted one reading and had the nasty shock when they put our bills up to £225 a month to clear our debt.