Extortionately high gas bill - even before the hike!

Huxley71

Hi,

I've just discovered that my mum, who lives alone in a one bedroom flat, is paying £200 a month to British Gas. She's been submitting meter readings and her bills appear to tally with the meter but it seems her usage for December alone was 3878.61 kWh - given that she barely even has the heating on I'm incredulous that this can in fact be correct. Looking back at her bills there was a reading in February 2020 of almost 5000 kWh!

I'm inclined to think that she has somehow been paying for the consumption of the entire building rather than just her own property, but I'm unsure how to go about ascertaining if this is indeed the case. If anyone rather more knowledgeable than I am could shed any light on how to clarify why her bills are so staggeringly high I'd be hugely appreciative.

Thanks in advance.

QrizB

Can you check that her meter and her bill are both measuring the same units?

It's not unknown for a metric meter - measuring in cubic metres - to be billed as though it was an imperial meter - measuring in hundreds of cubic feet. The "cubic feet" bill will be roughly 3x larger than it should be.

If you have a photo of her meter and an anonymised copy of her bill, post them here and we can work it out for you.

See this post for an example of the two calculations:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6339280/missing-2-83-in-gas-bill

Benny2020

3800 kwh is only 11 units a day, that is not unbelievable in a winter month, is this gas or is it electric?

Robin9

@Benny2020   I believe OP is saying her mum used 3800 KWh in a MONTH rather than year.

Benny2020

11 gas units

Ultrasonic

Benny2020 said:

11 gas units

Meaning what exactly? 

The quoted consumption is VERY high and my bet is @QrizB has mentioned the most likely issue here.

Benny2020

OP didn't say whether it was gas or electric, 3800 kwh in a month is 11 gas units a day.
I can easily use 11 gas units in a day although i have a 4 bedroom house not a 1 bedroom flat.

Ultrasonic

Benny2020 said:

OP didn't say whether it was gas or electric, 3800 kwh in a month is 11 gas units a day.
I can easily use 11 gas units in a day although i have a 4 bedroom house not a 1 bedroom flat.

What do you mean by 'gas unit'? If you mean kWh then no, it's 122 kWh per day for a 31 day month.

Ultrasonic

Benny2020 said:

OP didn't say whether it was gas or electric.

This is a good point though.

Benny2020

My meter reads 1 unit on the meter for 11.2 kwh of gas as do most i thought?

Benny2020

Still don't know whether the flat is gas or electric.