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

HeadingSouth

Sorry - getting confused - I noticed that on Utilita's help forum - because of course after 1hr 45m I quit waiting on hold, there was a post about someone thinking they were being charged a standing charge when they shouldn't be.

SwanJon

[Typed this before realising it doesn't match your numbers, but figured it might be useful to someone]

Not sure if you got to the bottom of this, but I seem to remember this is the meter trying to replicate a quarterly bill.

One of the screens will tell you how long this 'bill' will be over = probably 91 days.

The meter then reallocates tier 2 (screen 10/lower cost) units in that 'bill' period to tier 1 (screen 9/higher cost) until the number of units charged at tier 1 matches the length of the 'bill' so far (or there are no tier 2 units left).

This means that you need to use 182 units over the 91 day 'bill' before any stay at the lower cost.

Edit - found some old info here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/14759919/#Comment_14759919

pochase

18£ in 14 days can not be really explained with a standing charge. 

If it is an old boiler with pilot light it could very well be an issue. At least it could generate the expensive first two KWh.

https://www.energuide.be/en/questions-answers/just-how-much-does-the-pilot-light-of-a-gas-appliance-consume-exactly/716/

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2746166/pilot-light-gas-usage

Ectophile

Is it possible that the temperature in the property got really low overnight, and the frost-stat kicked in?  Many thermostats will still come on when near freezing even when "off", and also many boilers have a frost stat built into them.

HeadingSouth

Ectophile said:

Is it possible that the temperature in the property got really low overnight, and the frost-stat kicked in?  Many thermostats will still come on when near freezing even when "off", and also many boilers have a frost stat built into them.

If that happened - woudn't it show as the meter being used though? Yet again overnight, the meter remained unchanged and the prepayment meter charged nothing. I took photos at 11pm and got the same readings at 7am this morning.

I then put the water on for one hour. 0.583m3 used at a cost of £1.27 to me. (I took meter readings immediately after the hour was up). I worked that out to be 6.7kw which should have cost approx 86p.

HeadingSouth

pochase said:

18£ in 14 days can not be really explained with a standing charge. 

If it is an old boiler with pilot light it could very well be an issue. At least it could generate the expensive first two KWh.

https://www.energuide.be/en/questions-answers/just-how-much-does-the-pilot-light-of-a-gas-appliance-consume-exactly/716/

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2746166/pilot-light-gas-usage

I had a look at this. It's not a new boiler - it's not a combi at any rate. I suspect it may be 13.5 years old. We know that the pilot light hasn't moved the dials on the meter at all over a 12 hour period though so I don't think it is using a discernible amount.

Edit: Shouldn't use 'dials' there (figure of speech)- it's a digital meter. Pics in next post

HeadingSouth

Ectophile said:

Is it possible that the temperature in the property got really low overnight, and the frost-stat kicked in?  Many thermostats will still come on when near freezing even when "off", and also many boilers have a frost stat built into them.

If that happened, I'd expect to see a change in the meter but I'm not seeing a change in the meter and a definite inaccuracy in relation to the spend on kW vs advertised tariff.

theoretica

One thing to double check is that the email definitely said those were your prices - not prices which were on offer if you signed up for them, or something.

HeadingSouth

Yesterday 11:06 - £136.11


Yesterday 11:06 - Meter reads: 06593.619m3


Today - 07:40 - £136.11 - same as over 20 hrs ago. Only gas used is pilot light on boiler.


Today - 07:40 - Meter reads: 06593.619m3. Only gas used is pilot light on boiler.


Today - 08:53 - £134.84 - water turned on for one hour using +1 hr function on control pad.


Today - 08:53 - 06594.203m3 - water turned on for one hour using +1 hr function on control pad.

Total spend = £1.27 in one hour usage
Total m3 = 0.584m3

To calculate kWH:

m3 multiplied by 1.02264 multiplied by calorific value then divided by 3.6 so...

0.584 x 1.02264 = 0.59722176
x 40.100 (according to meter) = 23.948592576
/ 3.6 = 6.652386826666667kwH

Latest tariff said no standing charges
First 2kWH are 25.806p each so that's £0.51612 
4.652386826666667 x 7.308p (Remaining day's kWH) = £0.3399964292928
Total: £0.86

So I think I'm just charged wrongly for what I'm using right?

HeadingSouth

theoretica said:

One thing to double check is that the email definitely said those were your prices - not prices which were on offer if you signed up for them, or something.

Those prices match with the tariffs saved into the meter itself on screen 09 and 10. The email itself describes them as 'Your new prices' and then has a section that says: 

"If you want to avoid this price change

If you’re unhappy, you can change supplier. We won’t charge you any exit fees. To avoid the new prices, we need to hear from your new supplier that they’ll be taking over your supply in the next 20 days. They’ll then need to take over your supply within a reasonable period of time. If your account is in debt, you’ll need to pay this off before we can let the switch go through. We’ll give you another 30 working days to pay this off and will honour your old prices during that time." So these are definitely my prices and they are significantly increased from the gas prices pre 1 April.