Pre-pay gas meter- amounts seem high

AdviceSought

Currently seems to be costing about £25 - £30 per week in gas for a small two bedroom house.

Is this normal?

Any suggestions as to how to reduce?

molerat

You need to give how many m3 you are using and interrogate your meter to find out what you are paying and if there is any debt allocated. £25 - 30 is maybe a bit high but not totally unreasonable at this time of year.

https://www.eonenergy.com/for-your-home/your-account/prepayment/prepayment-buttons-displays/prepayment-display-gas

How to reduce - insulate, stop draughts, wrap up, turn the heating down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEBr_PKZGB0
shows the screens in the above link and a lot of others that are not on the list.

anfieldred

Having a similar problem here - moved into a house where previous owners had a pre-payment meter. Getting off it has been a nightmare so far, everyone wants to charge us for it first; but since Christmas eve we've used £55 on the gas, with the heating only being on for 3 hours a day.

I've turned our boiler down so its not on full, and set the heating so its only on in the morning for 1.5 hours, same in the evening yet we seem to be using more than ever

Anyone else having similar issues with British Gas?

Nada666

anfieldred wrote: »

Having a similar problem here - moved into a house where previous owners had a pre-payment meter. Getting off it has been a nightmare so far, everyone wants to charge us for it first; but since Christmas eve we've used £55 on the gas, with the heating only being on for 3 hours a day.

I've turned our boiler down so its not on full, and set the heating so its only on in the morning for 1.5 hours, same in the evening yet we seem to be using more than ever

Anyone else having similar issues with British Gas?

What is the problem? Have you applied for your own card and ensured you aren't paying off the previous occupiers' debts?

If you would rather have a credit meter (a sensible idea) then it is very straightforward - what is the nightmare? Being charged for engineers' time is reasonable - do you work for free? Would you rather higher prices years later for every kWh you use even though you have no need for a meter to be changed? A one-off charge is far more sensible and cheaper.

If you had applied (and paid) the week you moved in you would easily make your money back from any charge this first winter. Your hawing and humming is just costing you more money.

Are you reading the meter's usage in meter units rather than money? Make sure you are only paying attention to consumption rather than money put in. (Of course you have to check for debts etc.)

If the kWh is unusual then you may have to study the boiler - but that is not British Gas' responsibility. Turning a boiler down is not necessarily going to lower its consumption (that is if you do mean the boiler's operating temperature rather than room thermostat.)

£55 over eight days? Ignoring possibility of debt (which may include accumulated standing charge debt from a void period or even all summer) that's say 150 kWh per day. Your gas boiler is unlikely to be rated at 50 kW or more so your usage is not your usage. So your consumption is not your consumption. Work that out before worrying.

anfieldred

Nada666 wrote: »

What is the problem? Have you applied for your own card and ensured you aren't paying off the previous occupiers' debts?

If you would rather have a credit meter (a sensible idea) then it is very straightforward - what is the nightmare? Being charged for engineers' time is reasonable - do you work for free? Would you rather higher prices years later for every kWh you use even though you have no need for a meter to be changed? A one-off charge is far more sensible and cheaper.

If you had applied (and paid) the week you moved in you would easily make your money back from any charge this first winter. Your hawing and humming is just costing you more money.

Are you reading the meter's usage in meter units rather than money? Make sure you are only paying attention to consumption rather than money put in. (Of course you have to check for debts etc.)

If the kWh is unusual then you may have to study the boiler - but that is not British Gas' responsibility. Turning a boiler down is not necessarily going to lower its consumption (that is if you do mean the boiler's operating temperature rather than room thermostat.)

£55 over eight days? Ignoring possibility of debt (which may include accumulated standing charge debt from a void period or even all summer) that's say 150 kWh per day. Your gas boiler is unlikely to be rated at 50 kW or more so your usage is not your usage. So your consumption is not your consumption. Work that out before worrying.

Thanks for the reply,

I've spoken to BG who say there's no debt from the previous owners, however they agree the amount we've used is fairly high.

With regards to this bit: Being charged for engineers' time is reasonable - do you work for free?

They want to charge for the meters, not for an engineer's time.

Are you reading the meter's usage in meter units rather than money? Make sure you are only paying attention to consumption rather than money put in.

Not sure how to measure the consumption properly, will go through the above posted youtube video when I get home and see if it gives something on there

MeterMan

Is it a combi or system boiler?

anfieldred

its a worcester combi boiler

Horseunderwater

We are on BG PPM meter & get 9 & a bit days for £49, but boiler is new baxi condensing solo 15 - it is programmed 2 B on 14 hours/day for both heat/water. So yes I'd say you have a problem somewhere.
Is boiler older than 10 years - you might get a replacement grant/deal. When was it last serviced? Lower temp on upstairs rad's a bit.

anfieldred

Horseunderwater wrote: »

We are on BG PPM meter & get 9 & a bit days for £49, but boiler is new baxi condensing solo 15 - it is programmed 2 B on 14 hours/day for both heat/water. So yes I'd say you have a problem somewhere.
Is boiler older than 10 years - you might get a replacement grant/deal. When was it last serviced? Lower temp on upstairs rad's a bit.

It's a fairly new boiler (within last 5 years) so not sure whats going on. There's no debt on the meter so not sure where it's going

Not sure when it was last serviced, could do with getting it done

anfieldred

Just checked and £4.50 has gone since yesterday afternoon, despite hte heating being on for 4 hours total in this time (2 hours last night, 2 hours this morning)

On the phone on hold to BG now to see if I can get someone to come and look at it/switch us to a proper meter

Horseunderwater

The Tariff on the meter must be wrong then. Take gas card with you - pop it into meter - press button A until you get 2 tariff screen note down number it says on there - lots of meters have been set up wrong & most BG customers are getting refunds back - we just got a letter giving us £17 - in our case it may because we keep getting money taken for a debt that does not exist. OH would need to check the tariff as I am too ill to get there now. Once U have that number ring BG & ask what it should be. I bet that will be the answer.