Discrepancy in gas charged vs meter reading on prepayment or is it just my bad maths?

HeadingSouth

This may well be due to me making a stupid maths mistake but here goes...

We went away for two weeks and turned off the heating and hot water. We are with Utilita PrePayment and topped up just before end of March. The Updated Prices email stated that prices were rising to:

First 2kW per day = 25.806p (matches with 09 on meter)
Remaining kW per day = 7.308p (matches with 10 on meter)
"Don't forget our tariffs have no Standing Charge"

So with no one in the house and no gas used that we could think of, we expected the remaining credit to be the same as when we left. We returned to find it approximately £18 less.

So the following day we kept an eye on the meter over the next 12 hours - no change to credit used, no change to meter reading - except in the evening when we used 12p to boil some vegetables. The following morning at 5.50am - the numbers read the same as 10pm the night before. Then the hot water came on and was scheduled for 2 hours and then I took a ready at 11.06 and the remaining credit had gone down by £3.31.

The meter had read: 06592.469m3 and now read 06593.619m3 which I make to be 1.15 cubic metres. The meter says the CV is 40.100. 

Following the calculations I found on the government website - I made this to be about 13.1KWh - (1.15 x 40.100 x 1.02264)/3.6

Which according to the above post 1st April tariff with no standing charge should be approximately £1.32. Shouldn't it?

Am I just completely misunderstanding the calculations (which is entirely possible) or has Utilita just added £2 that isn't accounted for in the meter usage? I'm trying to reach Utilita but no luck so far and if this turns out to be me not doing the calculation correctly - hopefully someone will gently put me right here first.

In case it's important:
1) We've only recently moved in so are still using the previous supplier - I'm hoping ultimately that we can get goodwill with the landlord and he'll let us move away from prepayment
2) I've checked the meter and there is no debt on it (meter 27 GD Remaining £0:00)

HeadingSouth

Hi - the email said there is no daily standing charge with utilita's tariff. That's why I'm so confused.

pochase

Your calculation looks good to me.

The 18£ in 14 days look very strange to me. To get ton this amount you would have had to use a whole unit every day, and even that would only be 16.63.

I think you need to contact them, I can see no logic here.

TheMilkmansDad

did you set up a new account and new key or are you using the previous users key? Hopefully its new and yours and you're not paying of someone else's debt!

MWT

TheMilkmansDad said:

did you set up a new account and new key or are you using the previous users key? Hopefully its new and yours and you're not paying of someone else's debt!

Looks like that has been checked...

HeadingSouth said:

2) I've checked the meter and there is no debt on it (meter 27 GD Remaining £0:00)

HeadingSouth

MWT said:

TheMilkmansDad said:

did you set up a new account and new key or are you using the previous users key? Hopefully its new and yours and you're not paying of someone else's debt!

Looks like that has been checked...

HeadingSouth said:

2) I've checked the meter and there is no debt on it (meter 27 GD Remaining £0:00)

It is the same key but yes but I did ring up and create a new account and was told to use the same key. Also the meter does seem to suggest no debt on. Thanks both.

HeadingSouth

Thank you all - looks like its not my maths then and I'm not misunderstanding the calculation. It's an old meter in a listed building - we don't have a smart meter and may not be allowed one so I don't have that to check the kwh usage but it seems I'm doing the calculations right. 

I'll keep trying to get hold of utilita then. Thanks again.

BUFF

check that they don't think (& are billing) that your gas meter is in 100s of cu. ft. when it is m3. the difference is roughly a factor of 2.83.

HeadingSouth

BUFF said:

check that they don't think (& are billing) that your gas meter is in 100s of cu. ft. when it is m3. the difference is roughly a factor of 2.83.

That did occur to me - if I ever get through I'll definitely check that they have the correct information for this.

pochase

That would still not explain why during your absence every day more than 11KWh gas was used.

How did you switch off the boiler? 

HeadingSouth

pochase said:

That would still not explain why during your absence every day more than 11KWh gas was used.

How did you switch off the boiler? 

Our water and heating is controlled by the electric timer which we switched to off. I didn't turn the boiler itself off but all that would have been on is the pilot light. Which doesn't generate 1m3 of usage in 12 hours because I was monitoring the meter all day yesterday and the numbers didn't change from about 10am when I got up until 6pm. Then the 12p for a tiny bit of a usage for the gas hob and then from 10pm to 6am - no change in meter numbers or in the credit being spent.

With regard the money in our absence, I think there are two options. We were in the flat for about 30 hours after we added the top up and before we left so we could have spent that money then - if we are being massively overcharged for usage. Or there is a standing charge when there shouldn't be - I noticed someone else had posted about that a few threads back and have commented there also.