HUGE gas bill... help!

Lisa_c31

Hi,

I’ve had a gas bill for over £2000 staying that we have used approx 74,000 units this year!

We only have a combi boiler and a gas hob, nothing else works on gas. We have a 2 bedroom house which consists of a total of 8 radiators. Considering we’ve had the hottest summer on record I just don’t see how this can be the case. The average usage for our house last year was circa 13,000 units. We moved in in November and we changed our gas supplier to SSE in December.

We’ve turned the boiler off for 2 hours and the meter doesn’t show any usage so I’m thinking the meter may not be the fault. The gas company are far from helpful saying we must have used the gas (I don’t think we could actually physically use that much gas if the boiler was on full all year!). They have said that they can test the meter but if no fault is found we then have to pay the £300 charge for testing plus the £2000+ gas bill!

I’m at a complete loss as to what to do and where we stand. Can anyone offer any advice.... please!?

Thanks in advance.

System

Hi - welcome to the forum. What type of gas meter do you have: does it record volume in cubic feet or metres? Check that you are being billed for the right volume to kWh conversation. The conversion formula will be on your bill?

The cost of a meter check looks to be extraordinarily high, check your contract terms and conditions for additional charges.

Finally, are you reading your meter correctly? For example, a cubic metre meter might show a reading of 10676.454. You give the supplier a reading of 10676 and ignore the .454.

Mr.Generous

The other possibility is that you have a gas leak, very easy for any engineer to test for in minutes.

elsien

Have you checked the initial readings from when you changed suppliers to see that they are working from the correct figures and are they working from readings or estimates on your current bill?

System

Mr.Generous wrote: »

The other possibility is that you have a gas leak, very easy for any engineer to test for in minutes.

Unlikely I would have thought, as the OP has confirmed that the meter stopped when everything was turned off.

Robin9

Are you related to Danny12345 who has a similar post ?

Lisa_c31

Hengus - thanks for your reply, it is a metric meter. Turns out we have a smart meter which shows the usage peaking (as in off the chart) for February all the way through to July when it drops back down.
Could it possibly be that there was a fault with the meter that has corrected itself? If so how on earth do I prove that?!

MrGenerous - this was why we turned the boiler off to test this theory. We also are having our boiler serviced again in the few days to confirm the boiler is working correctly.

Elsien - unfortunately we have and all the readings are correct, that’s the most worrying bit.

Just to clarify as well, my error in the original post where I said 74,000 units, it is in fact 74,000 kWh with our previous year being circa 13,000 kWh.

Lisa_c31

Robin9 - turns out my husband has also posted on here today! We had no idea we were each doing it. Sorry to double up on everyone’s efforts.

System

Just to be clear. The supplier is billing you on readings that you are taking from the smart meter. I don’t have a smart gas meter but from posts on this forum some of the meters are not easy to read. What make of meter do you have, and what are you taking as a meter reading? Again to be clear, I am talking about the actual meter not the In House Display.

Lisa_c31

Hengus - the reading is definitely correct, they have also come and read the meter and get the same usage. Ours is very simple to read, you just press a button and it provides the figure.

Streaky_Bacon

You have turned the boiler off and there was no gas use.

How much does it use if you put the thermostat up (so that it runs continuously) and run it for an hour?

How much is used if you run the gas hob for 20 minutes?