We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
Consistent problems with British Gas
Hi there.
We've got a bit of a problem. We've recently moved into a new house with all electric heating, and our energy bill has jumped up MASSIVELY from our last rented property. Before we would spend about 120-200 pounds a quarter on our combined energy bill, and over the winter this year we apparently used 470 pounds in a month. We have the radiators on bare minimum to keep the house at a reasonable level for a 2 year old, and have made no other lifestyle changes. Our house is a small 2 bedroom bungalow with around the same floor space as our small 2 up 2 down we used to rent. The radiators are supposed to be very economic (Gabarron EcoSeco in every room) and we have them programmed to only be on at certain short spaces of time during the day. We have an immersion heater for our hot water, and only use it to heat as much water as we need, 15 minutes for washing up etc. We genuinely cannot understand the huge difference in energy bill, even allowing for the fact that we have moved from gas heating to electricity. We have a big problem with condensation in our house, to the point where the landlord is fitting a PIV system to deal with it, and damp air takes more to heat than dry air. We'd like to know where we stand and what we can do, as we are racking up debt with British Gas that is becoming harder to pay.
British Gas have overcharged us twice, due to an error on their part, and after being told to cancel the direct debit they have now told us that we cannot set up a new direct debit without going through a debt agency. We have also requested that they send out an engineer to check over the property to ensure there are no faults with either the meter or the property itself that would explain the astronomical energy consumption. An engineer failed to turn up and we now have to wait another month for one to come out.
We are both incredibly worried about our situation, and don't really know what to do. Any advice would be hugely appreciated as we want to get this matter resolved as quickly as possible - we have never missed a payment and do everything we can to save electricity and save money. We love our house and don't want to move, but we are really struggling.
Sorry for the huge wall of text, and thankyou so much in advance if you can help.
We've got a bit of a problem. We've recently moved into a new house with all electric heating, and our energy bill has jumped up MASSIVELY from our last rented property. Before we would spend about 120-200 pounds a quarter on our combined energy bill, and over the winter this year we apparently used 470 pounds in a month. We have the radiators on bare minimum to keep the house at a reasonable level for a 2 year old, and have made no other lifestyle changes. Our house is a small 2 bedroom bungalow with around the same floor space as our small 2 up 2 down we used to rent. The radiators are supposed to be very economic (Gabarron EcoSeco in every room) and we have them programmed to only be on at certain short spaces of time during the day. We have an immersion heater for our hot water, and only use it to heat as much water as we need, 15 minutes for washing up etc. We genuinely cannot understand the huge difference in energy bill, even allowing for the fact that we have moved from gas heating to electricity. We have a big problem with condensation in our house, to the point where the landlord is fitting a PIV system to deal with it, and damp air takes more to heat than dry air. We'd like to know where we stand and what we can do, as we are racking up debt with British Gas that is becoming harder to pay.
British Gas have overcharged us twice, due to an error on their part, and after being told to cancel the direct debit they have now told us that we cannot set up a new direct debit without going through a debt agency. We have also requested that they send out an engineer to check over the property to ensure there are no faults with either the meter or the property itself that would explain the astronomical energy consumption. An engineer failed to turn up and we now have to wait another month for one to come out.
We are both incredibly worried about our situation, and don't really know what to do. Any advice would be hugely appreciated as we want to get this matter resolved as quickly as possible - we have never missed a payment and do everything we can to save electricity and save money. We love our house and don't want to move, but we are really struggling.
Sorry for the huge wall of text, and thankyou so much in advance if you can help.
0
Comments
-
Do you have meter readings the forum can look at ??0
-
British Gas have made mistakes on incorrect billing due to getting charged for the old Imperial meter rates when you have a Metric meter. I know this to be true because as a meter reader for them I ve found quite a few over the years and some of them have gone on for a long time.
When this happens the occupiers will receive a bill approx 2.8 times more.
Edit, (Thats the danger of reading small text whillst walking ) so no gas meter can be blamed, firstly look to the Eco 7 meter which i presume you have and make sure that the cheap night rate has not been transposed and they are billing you it at the expensive day rate.BG have a habit of transposing the Eco 7 day/night reads.
Transposed Eco 7 is extremely common.Night storage users spot it instantly because they receive a much inflated bill.0 -
British Gas have made mistakes on incorrect billing due to getting charged for the old Imperial meter rates when you have a Metric meter. I know this to be true because as a meter reader for them I ve found quite a few over the years and some of them have gone on for a long time.
When this happens the occupiers will receive a bill approx 2.8 times more.
So firstly check this before looking for other causes.
Look at your meter is it marked M3 or ft3 (also note your serial number);; now look at your bill -is the info the same ?Never pay on an estimated bill. Always read and understand your bill0 -
Why are you two giving advice about gas meters when the OP states they are using electricity for heating and hot water?0
-
-
-
iammumtoone wrote: »Even with that £470 per month doesn't seem right. OP is not living in a castle.
I don’t see why not. It’s winter & the OP says there is a problem with damp & their previous bill when they had gas was nearly £70/month.0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 351.7K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.4K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 454K Spending & Discounts
- 244.7K Work, Benefits & Business
- 600.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 177.3K Life & Family
- 258.4K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.2K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards