Abnormally high gas bill

Gerry1

This is how you read this unbelievably stupid meter.  Start at 1:16.

Now it's time to look at Citizens Advice and 'Which? Switch' to get better tariffs !

Separate suppliers may well be cheaper.

Phones4Chris

I have thought for some time that the people that wrote the firmware for these "not that smart meters" are not that smart, in fact I think they are thick. Do they not realise that the regular people that will be likely reading them are not geeks. There should be no need to press any buttons to get the default readings - ie. m3 for Gas, and Rate 1 for Electricity.
Button presses should be only required to get the other information eg. Rate 2 on Electricity meters and kWh on Gas.

tim_p

Gerry1 said:

Good news: you've sent the wrong gas reading.  Should be m3 not kWh.

Send the correct reading and the bill will be dramatically lower.  Solved !

Whilst I hope you are right for the OPs sake, how can this be the case?  Surely the readings used by the supplier are totally independent from what the meter might be displaying locally so how can they mess up and use kWh instead of m3?
I must be missing something! (Not for the first time)

niktheguru

tim_p said:

Gerry1 said:

Good news: you've sent the wrong gas reading.  Should be m3 not kWh.

Send the correct reading and the bill will be dramatically lower.  Solved !

Whilst I hope you are right for the OPs sake, how can this be the case?  Surely the readings used by the supplier are totally independent from what the meter might be displaying locally so how can they mess up and use kWh instead of m3?
I must be missing something! (Not for the first time)

No, you're right.
The bill the OP has posted does have the correct m3 readings. Looks like it is actually working as a smart meter, and providing the correct readings. I think people just got confused with the meter pictures posted which were showing kwh readings.

The gas usage is incredibly high. It probably warrants looking at further. Yes its extremely cold currently so usage is going to be high but he used 388m3 of gas in one month, thats 4420kwh. Even at a unit rate of 2.5p thats £110 for the month (excl standing charge) His reading was 5157m3 yesterday, meaning in the last 10 days he's used 150m3, so 1703kwn - so £42 in 10 days on an average tariff of 2.5p.
Now, this may be ok for him/her depending on how they are using their gas. (he does state he has a modern combi boiler, so shouldn't be an efficiency issue.) However, i've worked out i've used approx half that amount in a slightly bigger house, whilst hammering the heating in the last 10 days.

May be worth while checking there are no leaks in the gas. Like i said originally, turn all gas appliances and heating off for a couple of hours and see if there is any impact on your readings. Also, ensure there are no gas smells anywhere. It may all be working fine, but worth while checking. Is your home well insulated? Do you get drafts from the doors and by the windows....if so maybe your heating is working overdrive to fight against these?

BooJewels

I was just trying to fathom the numbers too - if it was kWh taken in error, then the amount used since 16th December would only be around 47m3 - a bill of around £25 for over a month when it's been cold, so that seems implausibly small too.  And if it's a smart meter and they've taken the readings, then it seems unlikely that they'd get the wrong units.  That's a mistake a consumer might make, but presumably the meter readings are done one machine to another.

niktheguru

BooJewels said:

I was just trying to fathom the numbers too - if it was kWh taken in error, then the amount used since 16th December would only be around 47m3 - a bill of around £25 for over a month when it's been cold, so that seems implausibly small too.  And if it's a smart meter and they've taken the readings, then it seems unlikely that they'd get the wrong units.  That's a mistake a consumer might make, but presumably the meter readings are done one machine to another.

That and the readings from the bill, and the latest customer read reading (after using the meter correctly) are in the same ballpark suggest its a high usage issue rather than a meter read issue.

macman

If there was a gas leak within the property on that scale, then it's unlikely that the OP would still be in one piece to post the issue in the first place,,,

jbuchanangb

What is vitally important now, as the OP is switching suppliers, is to expect that the smart meter will go dumb, and the new supplier will NOT be able to read the smart meters remotely, so the OP should submit manual readings in m3 for gas and kwh for electricity when requested by the new supplier to start with and then monthly. This along with identifying the apparently high gas usage. In my 5 bedroom detached house with the gas fired heating on 16 hours per day I used 219m3 in month to 2 January (2457kwh)

Beeboo23

jbuchanangb said:

What is vitally important now, as the OP is switching suppliers, is to expect that the smart meter will go dumb, and the new supplier will NOT be able to read the smart meters remotely, so the OP should submit manual readings in m3 for gas and kwh for electricity when requested by the new supplier to start with and then monthly. This along with identifying the apparently high gas usage. In my 5 bedroom detached house with the gas fired heating on 16 hours per day I used 219m3 in month to 2 January (2457kwh)

Thanks I’ll make sure I get the metre readings. Interestingly eon said that they can’t tell me what the previous owners bills were but our usage was less than theirs so their bills must have been even higher!
Ive put the thermostat on a timer as well to make sure the heating isn’t coming on during the day when we’re not here, hopefully that reduces things a bit. Still think it’s excessive though. 

Phones4Chris

BooJewels said:

I was just trying to fathom the numbers too - if it was kWh taken in error, then the amount used since 16th December would only be around 47m3 - a bill of around £25 for over a month when it's been cold, so that seems implausibly small too.  And if it's a smart meter and they've taken the readings, then it seems unlikely that they'd get the wrong units.  That's a mistake a consumer might make, but presumably the meter readings are done one machine to another.

You are quite right, I think we have been confused by what the meter display was showing. You do need to find out why you are using so much gas though.

Beeboo23 said:

Ive put the thermostat on a timer as well to make sure the heating isn’t coming on during the day when we’re not here, hopefully that reduces things a bit. Still think it’s excessive though. 

Well, that's a good start