Gas usage seems excessively high

ariddell1984

Hi

I'm hoping someone will be able to give me some advice on a gas bill I have recently received which was far in excess of what I expected. Some background...

We moved into our new house on 26th August last year, a three bed mid terrace house with double glazing, loft insulation and gas combi boiler. As far as I remember I sent in opening meter readings for gas and electric but of course can't find the bit of paper I wrote them down on.

Unfortunately npower used an estimated opening reading for the gas which was 3485 (m3). All our bills up to the end of May were based on estimated readings (I know, I know) but I wasn't too concerned as the bills were broadly in line with what I expected based on what our usage was compared to our previous house (3 bed detached) - the most expensive bill being the Dec-Feb quarter with a combined gas/electric charge of £470.

We paid all our bills on time as and when so imagine my horror when the latest bill, for the May-July quarter and based on an actual reading, came to £940. On further investigation what npower appear to have done is recalculate all previous bills with new estimated readings, so for example the new Dec-Feb charge is a whopping £780 i.e. we still owe £310 for that quarter according to npower.

I did some analysis and on the revised figures we owe an additional £1,100 on gas but £150 less on electricity (so every cloud etc.).

It turns out that the gas reading taken for the July quarter bill was 6722 (m3). Looking at the analysis on the bills we have been sent, this works out at 37,000 kWh of gas per year. This sound huge for the property we own. There's only two of us plus a baby living in it, heating hasn't been on since April and when we were using the heating it was only on for an hour in the morning and maybe 3-4 hours of an evening, plus it would occasionally go on during the day for a couple of hours at a time if we were in. Other than that we're having a shower every day and the baby has a bath at least every other night depending on how much mess he makes when eating, and there's a gas hob which we use most nights to cook with.

Can someone give me some advice on whether this usage sounds right, how we can challenge it if it isn't, and if it is correct, what could we be doing to cause this to occur?

I'm now checking the meter religiously every day and weirdly since the meter reader came round and took the measurement a couple of weeks ago it hasn't moved from 6722.

Could there be a problem with our boiler causing it to munch through too much gas when the heating is on? I've noticed that when we have a shower or run a bath some of the radiators near the boiler get warm but I'm not sure if this is normal or not.

Sorry for the brain dump - if anyone needs me to clarify any of the points a bit better let me know!

dogshome

The 3237 Gas units, (appx 36245 Kwh), over 11 months seems very unlikely for the household you describe, and leads to the thought that 3484 estimated Start Reading is highly suspect.
Unfortunately, with no evidence as to the Start read being right or wrong and no proper readings in between, it's impossible to challange unless you can find the previous owners and they still have a copy of their Final Bill from n'power which will show the End Reading.

Radiators close to the boiler warming up when Hot Water is being used is nothing to worry about - It's a sympton of a little wear on the the 3port valve in the boiler, and unless the boiler is due for a complete overhaul, the cost of replacing the valve far outweighs the cost of the wasted gas.

Gas meters going rogue is a very, very rare event, but it has been known and the fact that your meter hasn't advanced after 2 weeks in a family household is very odd - I suggest you keep a daily record of it's readings.

It is unfortunate that you are with n'power, a company who's entire systems were heavily compromised by a botched software upgrade, and who's billing requires close checking.
Go through every bill you have with a fine toothcombe:
Check for consecutive dates
Check for End/ Start meter reads following on
Check that they have included every single payment you have made

ariddell1984

So I've been keeping a daily record of the gas meter readings since I found out about the charges and they are as follows. I've gone down to the four "sub-units" as well.

20th July 06722.970
21st July 06722.970
22nd July 06722.970
23rd July 06722.970
24th July 06722.970
25th July 06722.975
26th July 06722.984
27th July 06723.041

So no movement for 5 days then a sudden burst in the last three. We've been in the house all week and in that time we have used gas for hot water, cooking etc.

npower are sending someone round to investigate the meter on the 2nd August.

[Deleted User]

ariddell1984 wrote: »

So I've been keeping a daily record of the gas meter readings since I found out about the charges and they are as follows. I've gone down to the four "sub-units" as well.

20th July 6722.9706
21st July 6722.9706
22nd July 6722.9706
23rd July 6722.9706
24th July 6722.9706
25th July 6722.9756
26th July 6722.9846
27th July 6723.0416

So no movement for 5 days then a sudden burst in the last three. We've been in the house all week and in that time we have used gas for hot water, cooking etc.

npower are sending someone round to investigate the meter on the 2nd August.

I am a bit baffled by those readings as a domestic metric gas meter has 8 numbers on it, the first five being units and the last THREE are one hundreths of a unit, therefore the decimal point should fall after the fifth number on your list ..eg 67229.706.
If this is the case a leading zero should not be used in your readings.
Only Imperial meters use the first 4 numbers and they usually have 2 other sub units making 6 numbers in total

ariddell1984

sacsquacco wrote: »

I am a bit baffled by those readings as a domestic metric gas meter has 8 numbers on it, the first five being units and the last THREE are one hundreths of a unit, therefore the decimal point should fall after the fifth number on your list ..eg 67229.706.
If this is the case a leading zero should not be used in your readings.
Only Imperial meters use the first 4 numbers and they usually have 2 other sub units making 6 numbers in total

I'll go home and have another look - I'm wondering if the end 6 is the rogue number as this has remained unchanged in all of my readings.

Smodlet

Good luck with npower! I am with them but I send them meter readings on the same date every single month so they have no excuse to get my bill wrong... I hope. I know every household is different but 37000 for a year is three times what we use in a three bed semi. OK, we do not have a gas cooker but your usage does seem excessive.

Only assistance I can offer is, if you get as far as making a complaint, make sure you note the reference down and I hope you get Catherine to deal with it; she's great.

Sacsquacco, if no fault is found with the meter will the OP be charged for the visit?

Edited to add: Sorry I forgot to say please, Sacsquacco, it is not like me. I apologise.

[Deleted User]

Yes, I think they charge around £65 if no fault is found so anyone bringing them out they need to be sure they are correct. The meter could still be faulty as the first four days the reading stayed the same at 67229.706 and gas was consumed so something is amiss.
If a meter reader just comes out for a look he will not have the skills or the equipment and qualifications to look properly at the meter, in that case I dont think they would charge anything .I m always going out for a simple meter check just to check for reading errors and faulty digital displays.Gas meter faults on the index are pretty rare but I ve had one or two with bonkers displays, one even had back to front digital numbers !

ariddell1984

sacsquacco wrote: »

I am a bit baffled by those readings as a domestic metric gas meter has 8 numbers on it, the first five being units and the last THREE are one hundreths of a unit, therefore the decimal point should fall after the fifth number on your list ..eg 67229.706.
If this is the case a leading zero should not be used in your readings.
Only Imperial meters use the first 4 numbers and they usually have 2 other sub units making 6 numbers in total

So I had read the letter incorrectly and you were right Sacsquacco, the meter is 5/3 with a leading 0. The "6" on the digital display is actually missing the top bar so it might really be a "B" but I'm not sure what that signifies?

The only other things I forgot to say is that we had some issues a couple of times over the winter where the boiler would cut out when hot water and heating were both running, so I had to reset it. This also happened one weekend whilst we were away as I came back to the boiler flashing to indicate it needed resetting...but this wouldn't massively increase gas usage would it, as I'm assuming a boiler that needs to be reset uses no gas at all?

ariddell1984

sacsquacco wrote: »

Yes, I think they charge around £65 if no fault is found so anyone bringing them out they need to be sure they are correct. The meter could still be faulty as the first four days the reading stayed the same at 67229.706 and gas was consumed so something is amiss.
If a meter reader just comes out for a look he will not have the skills or the equipment and qualifications to look properly at the meter, in that case I dont think they would charge anything .I m always going out for a simple meter check just to check for reading errors and faulty digital displays.Gas meter faults on the index are pretty rare but I ve had one or two with bonkers displays, one even had back to front digital numbers !

I was told by the npower representative I spoke to online that the meter check was free regardless so I'll be a bit annoyed if they do end up charging me.

kazwookie

I suggest you start taking photos as well as reading the meter.

Do you have a photo from the meter from when you moved in?

[Deleted User]

I think the "B " may stand for battery, meaning it my need changing soon.