Airtricity N Ireland Gas - Meter Reading & Usage - Help Needed!

psychosamba

Hi,

Hoping someone can help me. I've recently moved into a house in Belfast, N Ireland with gas. I chose Airtricity as the supplier as they were the cheapest per unit vs Firmus Energy.
To cut a long story short, I'm trying to figure out how much gas in Kilowatt Hours I've used and thus my current bill position. Tried ringing Airtricity, but they're shut today and trying to get information from their website is futile as an example bill they are supposed to have as a pdf to view, won't download.

I have used 188 units, and I am basically certain this is 188 metres cubed, according to the type of meter.

I am trying to figure out how many Kilowatt Hours this equates to under the regular Airtricity NI Gas DD tariff, but I cannot for the life of me find any conversion procedures, other than a random Airtricity page for UK Pay as You Go meters (don't have one - regular DD account).

Using this ridiculous conversion process, my bill seems to currently equate to £121.16 - and is working out at 2,093 Kilowatt hours.

This is worked out under the old tarriff, just for simplicity (before price changes that have already taken effect on 1st October 2018), whereby the 1st 2000 Kwhrs is charged at 5.871p per Kwhr (inc VAT at 5%), and after that the remaining 93 Kwhrs is charged at 4.023p per Kwhr (inc VAT at 5%).

Apparently though, there is a simple conversion number called an 'Energy Factor' on NI Airtricity gas bills that negates the need to use the above conversion system, and quickly converts the metres cubed to Kilowatt Hours.

Would anyone know from their recent bills, am I close to the correct amount for the Kilowatt Hours/what I currently owe? Bit taken aback, considering this is only 1 month's usage, and would like to get a handle on what I owe quickly....

Many thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide!

molerat

A metric unit of gas is roughly 11 kWh so 2093 kWh for 188 units is correct. You need to check that the opening and closing reads on the bill are correct.


The exact calculation is
meter units x 1.02264 x calorific value (which is measured daily and the average shown on your bill) / 3.6


There is no "instant conversion" as the calorific value is variable and can be anywhere between 37.5 and 43

Robin9

What are you basing the 188 units on? Are these actual readings as taken by yourself ? or is one (or both) estimated ? ?

psychosamba

Thanks Molerat & Robin. These are exact meter readings taken by myself (before any gas was used and the system was only partially installed and had not yet been switched on for the first time - taken on September 4th) and now, again today.

188 units used in 1 month and 2 days is quite shocking to me, and roughly equates to the £121 or thereabouts for 1 month's use I mentioned. It is an old, large house with brand new gas and new radiators installed and had a damp problem that has been definitively fixed, so I was running it a fair bit at the start to help dry out the fabric of the house, though I realise this will happen anyway over time.

Additionally our shower and cooker are running off the gas, but I'm still quite shocked by the amount.....

molerat

If you have been running the heating a lot to dry out the house then 6 units per day is not an inconceivable amount. One problem you have is the 4p unit cost, I am not happy with my increased cost of 2.93p ! You also need to check what period the higher 2000 units cover, it is normally a year which would equate to a 10p daily charge - £1.23 daily, which is what it works out at over a 30 day period, is very high - and would bring your bill down to something around £87.


edit: just checked the Airtricity site and that 2000 kWh is over a year so about 5.5 kWh a day multiplied by the number of days in the billing period so for 30 days it would be 164 at the higher rate.

[Deleted User]

Quick back of a fag packet , 188 x 11.2 to get metric units to kwhs , x approx 4p /kwh add 5% Vat + about £85
Multiplying metric units by 11.2 is close enough for me to get accurate kwhs, same for Imperials at 31.6
Meter is a metric meter if its got 8 numbers on it. Imperial meters have 5 or 6

psychosamba

Just been told by Airtricity to multiply the units used x 11.5, then multiply x 0.04734. This then gives you the amount owed, including apparently the VAT included....

Thanks for all the replies.

System

psychosamba wrote: »

Just been told by Airtricity to multiply the units used x 11.5, then multiply x 0.04734. This then gives you the amount owed, including apparently the VAT included....

Thanks for all the replies.

I wish suppliers would not use fixed multipliers, as they imply the use of a fixed calorific value when the gas supplied does not have a constant calorific value. Bills from my suppliers always show a calculation as follows:

Units used x 1.02264 x CV* /3.6 (where *CV is the average caloric value for the supply region during the billing period TRUNCATED to one decimal point).

Over the year, the calorific value of the gas supplied to my home has varied from 38.3 to 39.8.

That said, the terms of gas supply in Ireland may well be different from those in the rest of the UK.

psychosamba

Hi Hengus,

I suspect you are correct in your assumptions, from everything I have read and learned so far, and that the customer service representative I spoke to was making a sweeping statement that would not bear much scrutiny.

I would be fairly certain one or possibly both of the above multipliers I mentioned are subject to change according to whatever factors influence these things - the daily fluctuations in the wholesale gas price taken as an average over a set period, etc.