Gas consumption seems high for a 2-bed with 2 people

weaselone

Hi everyone,

Seeking some advice about what seems like unexpectedly high gas consumption. We (2 occupants) live in a 2-bed house (2 up, 2 down, 1 bathroom). Gas central heating and combi boiler (hot water on demand). We have the heating on for around 2 hours per day at the moment, and over the winter about 3 hours per day. Maximum of 2 showers total per day. Our house was built in the late 1800s, and we have double glazing throughout. We do not have a thermostat.

Our gas consumption from 28 Oct 2014 to date is 1038 units, which converts to 11588kWh. This covers a period of 174 days.

Prior to taking over the supply, we were paying British Gas for gas. When we closed the account, they contacted us to say that they'd never officially been supplying the property. This was due to a mix-up with the meter serial numbers, in which (IIRC) our meter serial number was linked to a different house, and theirs to ours. This was why we never got any correspondence/bills from BG. Bills were also uploaded online, but because we never got any correspondence from them, we never got the login details/ref numbers required to create logins and therefore access them. Repeated calls to BG to rectify this were unsuccessful.

I have 2 questions:
1. With the information I've provided, does the gas consumption sound reasonable?
2. Given the confusion over which meter is linked to which property, is it possible that other properties' gas supply is connected to my meter?

Any advice is welcome.
Thanks.

macman

Gas CH, combi and no room 'stat? Then you presumably have TRV's on the rads instead? An install without either would be in breach of the building regs.
11,588 kWh over a 6 month period including the whole of a cold winter is not particularly high. The national average is 13,300kWh pa. However it is quite normal to use up to 80% of that during the coldest 3 months. Once the heating goes off, your consumption will plummet.
If the meter were supplying two properties (which can easily be checked by tracing the pipework on from the meter), then you'd be using a lot more gas than that.The transposition of meter serial nos. is commonplace, and has nothing to do with any physical misconnection.
I'm unclear why you think the usage might be high.

weaselone

Thanks macman - I appreciate the advice and reassurance

I wasn't aware that 80% is normally used during 3 months. I know that gas usage drops once we turn the heating off during warmer months, but wasn't aware that we should normally expect to use only 20% of our annual gas consumption over 9 months - that's why I thought the usage was high

footyguy

weaselone wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Seeking some advice about what seems like unexpectedly high gas consumption. We (2 occupants) live in a 2-bed house (2 up, 2 down, 1 bathroom). Gas central heating and combi boiler (hot water on demand). We have the heating on for around 2 hours per day at the moment, and over the winter about 3 hours per day. Maximum of 2 showers total per day. Our house was built in the late 1800s, and we have double glazing throughout. We do not have a thermostat.

Our gas consumption from 28 Oct 2014 to date is 1038 units, which converts to 11588kWh. This covers a period of 174 days.

Prior to taking over the supply, we were paying British Gas for gas. When we closed the account, they contacted us to say that they'd never officially been supplying the property. This was due to a mix-up with the meter serial numbers, in which (IIRC) our meter serial number was linked to a different house, and theirs to ours. This was why we never got any correspondence/bills from BG. Bills were also uploaded online, but because we never got any correspondence from them, we never got the login details/ref numbers required to create logins and therefore access them. Repeated calls to BG to rectify this were unsuccessful.

I have 2 questions:
1. With the information I've provided, does the gas consumption sound reasonable?
2. Given the confusion over which meter is linked to which property, is it possible that other properties' gas supply is connected to my meter?

Any advice is welcome.
Thanks.

If British Gas were not supplying the property prior to your switch, you owe them no money. (and should receive a full refund of any money you have paid them)

You need to find the correct meter for your property, and whoever was supplying you for that period.

macman

I said 'up to' 80%. But the vast majority of gas used is for heating, then hot water. Then cooking, if you use it. But the first two are far and away the biggest.
If you don't cook with gas, then your only combi use for the next 5 or 6 months will be when you turn the hot tap on.

katejo

Your figures sound a bit high. I live in a similar 2 bedroom terraced house and have a lodger here. I do have a remote control thermostat and some of the newer radiators have their own TRV's but not the older ones. my boiler is also a combi and is in good condition/regularly serviced. The following figures are slightly low and I contacted them today with a more accurate reading. I don't yet have the corrected version. They gave me 566 metric units/6286 KWh. The period covered is roughly the same. How much do you currently pay as a monthly DD?

weaselone

katejo wrote: »

Your figures sound a bit high. I live in a similar 2 bedroom terraced house and have a lodger here. I do have a remote control thermostat and some of the newer radiators have their own TRV's but not the older ones. my boiler is also a combi and is in good condition/regularly serviced. The following figures are slightly low and I contacted them today with a more accurate reading. I don't yet have the corrected version. They gave me 566 metric units/6286 KWh. The period covered is roughly the same. How much do you currently pay as a monthly DD?

Hi Katejo, thanks for your comment. We pay £74/month (edit: for gas and electricity), and are currently in credit as they've never been able to bill us. This is because the final reading BG provided was 9999, and the actual current reading is lower than that.

weaselone

footyguy wrote: »

If British Gas were not supplying the property prior to your switch, you owe them no money. (and should receive a full refund of any money you have paid them)

You need to find the correct meter for your property, and whoever was supplying you for that period.

Thanks. BG actually contacted us to say that they weren't supplying us, and repaid everything we'd paid them. Until the end of March, no company was registered on the national database as supplying the property. EDF now are registered. I'm not sure whether that means that they're unable to bill us between 2 Nov (contract start date date) and the end of March. Something I'll look into before asking their take on it. My hunch is that we had, during that time, a deemed contract which would allow them to bill us without them actually supplying.