Help calculating from m3 to kWh please!

Santiago99

I currently live in a house with a prepayment gas meter. I’ve lived here less than a year so haven’t received an annual statement with my usage in kWh. I’m hoping to move soon and my potential house has credit meters, so I’m trying to work out my consumption for the Cheap Energy Club (because there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that I’m sticking with the current supplier) and because I’m going to be switching, I’d like to get an estimate that’s fairly close to what I actually use instead of being wildly off the mark.

In the last (just under) six months I’ve used 153 m3 of gas. Double that to 306 for the annual use and then round up to 320 to be on the safe side.

1) 320 x 39.0 (today’s calorific value) = 12,480
2) 12,480 x 1.02264 (from the gov.uk website, to correct differences caused by heat and pressure) = 12,762.5472
3) 12,762.5472 / 3.6 = 3,545.152 kWh

For simplicity let’s stick to 3,545 kWh. That’s well below what the annual estimate is on the CEC so I’d really appreciate someone confirming that I’ve done the maths right and I’m simply a low user (which would be a surprise) or correct me if I’ve made a mistake before I use this figure to work out what my future bills are likely to be.

Thank you.

Gerry1

https://www.businessenergy.com/business-gas/gas-bill-calculator/

Are you sure you have a metric meter?

Have you been relying on any estimated readings?

Does the meter have rotary pointers and you've misread a reading, e.g. entering 0 when the pointer had just passed 9?

Doubling your Feb - July consumption isn't valid. February had a heatwave, and four of the six months are summertime.

[Deleted User]

Its not spot on but close enough for me. Simply multiply your metric units used by 11.2 and you re as near as dammit, then multiply by your tariff ( which may be with or without Vat.).. add 5 % Vat if the tariff does not include it. and your daily standing charge if you want the total charges .There may be dual fuel discounts to take into consideration.

D_M_E

For a simple conversion, use a multiplier of 11.5 - this allows a bit of slack and gives a small buffer for future payments. Use for metric cubic meter meters only.

For imperial cubic foot meters use 33.5 as the multiplier.

Yes, I know the result will be a bit more than the actual bill but that's the point - I do this in order to make sure I have enough set aside for the eventual bill.

As for comparison sites - ignore their suggestions and just enter your own figures, click on "I know how much" etc etc and put your own consumption in the box.

Santiago99

Gerry1 wrote: »

Are you sure you have a metric meter?

Have you been relying on any estimated readings?

Does the meter have rotary pointers and you've misread a reading, e.g. entering 0 when the pointer had just passed 9?

Yes, it says m3 on the meter. The meter was changed in March, so I’ve calculated the use as:

Old meter final read — start read from when I moved in = A
Today’s read — new meter start read = B
A + B = 153.

(The old meter was also metric.) Both are/we’re digital meters so had no dials at all, only numbers on a green screen with A and B buttons to cycle through options. I have my balance, money owed to supplier, and the meter index; there are no other screens.

Houbara wrote: »

Its not spot on but close enough for me. Simply multiply your metric units used by 11.2 and you re as near as dammit, then multiply by your tariff ( which may be with or without Vat.).. add 5 % Vat if the tariff does not include it. and your daily standing charge if you want the total charges .There may be dual fuel discounts to take into consideration.

I’m letting the CEC calculate the estimated bills for me, but their maths is only as good as the numbers I give. If I give them a annual kWh consumption that’s far too low, they’ll calculate a bill that’s far too low (or far too high, but that’s unlikely to be the case here) which is why I want to make sure the conversion from cubic metres to kWh has been done correctly.

Santiago99

D_M_E wrote: »

As for comparison sites - ignore their suggestions and just enter your own figures, click on "I know how much" etc etc and put your own consumption in the box.

I’ve done this, but they’re asking for the consumption in kWh, which I don’t have — only consumption in the cubic metres used — which is why I need to do this first in order to input the correct consumption.

Gerry1

Why not ask the occupier of your new property? Unless it's an identical property, your new consumption is likely to be different.

Robin9

Santiago99 wrote: »

....................... I’d like to get an estimate that’s fairly close to what I actually use instead of being wildly off the mark.
.....................)

It's not a good idea to compare your usage in one house with another. There will be differences in the type of construction, its insulation, your use.

Having said that its better to use kwh (even if its out) than number of rooms or amount spent type of figures.

When you do move keep those meter readings going and look at your bills - and don't forget that many of the newer suppliers take a monthly DD shortly before you've signed up.

Santiago99

Gerry1 wrote: »

Why not ask the occupier of your new property? Unless it's an identical property, your new consumption is likely to be different.

It’s a rented property and currently vacant. Also, the last tenant might have used their gas completely differently to me, so that wouldn’t be accurate either. I appreciate that consumption might be different, but basing calculations on what I use now means any differences can be minimised.

Robin9 wrote: »

It's not a good idea to compare your usage in one house with another. There will be differences in the type of construction, its insulation, your use.

Having said that its better to use kwh (even if its out) than number of rooms or amount spent type of figures.

When you do move keep those meter readings going and look at your bills - and don't forget that many of the newer suppliers take a monthly DD shortly before you've signed up.

That’s the plan, thank you.

[Deleted User]

Hi,


why not just do a 'what if', just bung in 5000 kwh and search.

Santiago99

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi,


why not just do a 'what if', just bung in 5000 kwh and search.

Some tariffs have low standing charges and high pence per kWh for low users, and the opposite for high users. So I might be worse off if I ended up on a tariff with a high standing charge and low pence per kWh and realised my consumption is lower than expected so I’m actually worse off. :think: