£5000 Gas Bill

ottersarebest

Hi All,

Apologies for registering just to post a query but I wondered if I could get some help/advice from you lovely people.

We moved into our 3 bedroom house in May last year and I'm not sure what has happened but after taking a meter reading this morning if my calculations were correct we'd owe British Gas £5000 for our gas consumption for the quarter.

I last took a meter reading back on October the 28th:

28/10 - actual reading 16260
04/02 - estimated reading 16608
16/02 - actual reading 19515???

It isn't possible for us to have used this much gas is it? British Gas have advised us to taken a 7 day reading and I will start recording every day our usage but is there anything we can do in the meantime?

It's quite possible I've calculated the above wrong but I'm thinking this would still be a rather high bill?

Thanks for your time

tripled

Can you find out from your gas meter:
- Does your gas meter read in cubic feet or cubic meters?
- Are all those numbers in the black (not red or surrounded by red)?
- Are there any zeros in front of those numbers?

The figures on the meter are not kwh (what you get billed in) but the volume of gas. This gets converted to kwh by a formula which also takes into account something called "calorific value", which relates to the average quality of the gas you have recieved (it might or might not surprise you to know that this can fluctuate, so the same volume of gas could supply more or less enegery on different days).

lisa110rry

That does sound like a huge amount of gas to be using. My recent readings and the dates they were taken are below:

21/04/2014 9151
15/10/2014 9248
14/11/2014 9318
11/12/2014 9420
10/01/2015 9544
09/02/2015 9704
You will notice there are only four figures, I wonder why you have five?

We keep our home quite warm, with the gas central heating on 24/7 due to illness,but as you can see we're using nothing like what you are.

Is the meter inside or outside the house? Is there a smell of escaping gas?

ottersarebest

Thanks for the replies

- it is measure in cubic metres (m3)
- the actual reading is 01951 (black) . 50 (red)
- So really the reading should be 01951 rather than 19515 which is my misunderstanding of how to read a meter!

The metre is in our porch behind a locked door, no smell of escaping gas and we have a carbon monoxide monitor.

I think we have 5 digits as it's an older style meter?

JJ_Egan

Converter,
http://www.energylinx.co.uk/gas_meter_conversion.html

tripled

For domestic supplies, newer meters (not that new any more!) measure in m3 and generally have 5 digits, old imperial ones measure in hundreds of cubic feet and generally have 4.

Here is how you work out your gas bill...
https://www.gov.uk/gas-meter-readings-and-bill-calculation

Step 1:
01951 - 01626 = 325 m3 used
Step 2:
N/a as you have a metric meter
Step 3:
Using 39.5 as the calorific value (so should be correct to within around 5%)
325 * 39.5 = 12837.5
Step 4:
12837.5 * 1.02264 = 13128
Step 5:
13128 / 3.6 = 3646.7 kwh

Then multiply that by your price - using BG's standard tariff at 4.96p per kwh would give £180.88 (+/- 5%), plus their standing charge of 26p per day (110 days?) would give £180.88 + £28.60 = £209.48. So roughly between £200 and £220.

If you're on a different tariff, have a direct debit discount, or any other incentives, then adjust the final calculation to suit

CashStrapped

Beat me to it tripled! Although you used British Gas Standard tariff.

So to do the calculation for you:

in 111 days you have used 325m3 worth of units

That averages at about 2.92 m3 units per day, which is very low usge.

In KWH that equates to 3640kwh which based on a 3.25p per kwh rate works out at approximately £118 + your standing charge.

Which is very low use for this time of year.

The difference between my and tripled calculation just shows why being on the cheapest tariff is so important at this time of year.

tripled

I hope the OP isn't on the BG standard tariff, but thought I'd better use that for my example so they don't get a nasty shock if they are!

ottersarebest

Thanks for everyone's responses - so am I worrying about nothing then?

If our bill for the estimated reading of 01660 is £200.47, surely that means an actual reading of 01951 means that it will be very high?

CashStrapped

Good idea, I just plucked KWH figures out of my head lol.

Even the best British Gas tariffs are pretty poor though.

Based on my current tariff, that bill would have been £130!!

So the OP may want to consider looking at comparisons based on their usage and area to see what is best for them!

CashStrapped

ottersarebest wrote: »

Thanks for everyone's responses - so am I worrying about nothing then?

If our bill for the estimated reading of 01660 is £200.47, surely that means an actual reading of 01951 means that it will be very high?

The calculations both tripled and I made are based on your actual reads. So that is the approximate cost of the bill.

Latest actual reading minus last actual reading = usage inbetween

1951-1626 = 325m3 units used



I would now look at your tariff and see how competitive it is