Faulty Gas Meter?

akira181

I've been wondering if my gas meter has been faulty for a couple years now.

My partner are extremely frugal when it comes to heating, preferring a house coat or blanket over cranking the thermostat if possible. The flat has 2 bedrooms, an office, and we only use 4 radiators in the house. Kitchen, spare bedroom, and main bedroom (rad is broken) are unheated. We replaced the 16 year old boiler shortly after moving in. Only other gas appliances are the kitchen hob (oven is electric) and shower. We rarely take baths.

Despite all this, our annual gas usage is 16,000 kW. Our electricity is 2,200 kW, which is below the national average but over on gas. Is 16,000 kW high or normal for 2 people?

I've always thought gas use was higher than usual in this flat but I can't get previous usage as my last few suppliers (pure planet, green network, bulb) have all gone under. I'm considering making the "upgrade" to smart meters and then monitoring my usage closely to see what the drain is.

 

Is it worth asking them to inspect my current meter to see if it's faulty? I know there's a charge if they find nothing wrong, any idea what that charge might be? Also, how likely are they to be thorough in their inspection considering they'd need to foot the bill and issue a refund if faults were found?

victor2

Is it a combi boiler or do you have a hot water tank?

As it is getting warmer now, you presumably don't have any heating on. Try reading your meter at the same time each day, for a week or so, and see what your usage is. You'll have to convert the units used to kWh, but there should be a formula on your bills showing how that is done. The CV tends to vary slightly between bills, but not enough to make much difference to the kWh.

Faulty meters are not very common, but it is a possibility. Contact your supplier to see what the charge would be if they check your meter and find no fault. I'd be looking elsewhere for an explanation first.

If you are now with a supplier who is installing smart meters, you might want to register for that. Won't necessarily solve the problem, but will get you a new meter for free.

Edit:

Another thought... Is it definitely your meter you are reading? If it is inside your flat it almost certainly is, but if it's outside, it could be supplying a different flat, despite you being billed for it.

Robin9

A few double checks - is the serial number on the meter the same as on the bill ?   Is it marked as m3 or ft3;  what does the bill say ?

Zandoni

akira181 said:

I've been wondering if my gas meter has been faulty for a couple years now.

My partner are extremely frugal when it comes to heating, preferring a house coat or blanket over cranking the thermostat if possible. The flat has 2 bedrooms, an office, and we only use 4 radiators in the house. Kitchen, spare bedroom, and main bedroom (rad is broken) are unheated. We replaced the 16 year old boiler shortly after moving in. Only other gas appliances are the kitchen hob (oven is electric) and shower. We rarely take baths.

Despite all this, our annual gas usage is 16,000 kW. Our electricity is 2,200 kW, which is below the national average but over on gas. Is 16,000 kW high or normal for 2 people?

I've always thought gas use was higher than usual in this flat but I can't get previous usage as my last few suppliers (pure planet, green network, bulb) have all gone under. I'm considering making the "upgrade" to smart meters and then monitoring my usage closely to see what the drain is.

 

Is it worth asking them to inspect my current meter to see if it's faulty? I know there's a charge if they find nothing wrong, any idea what that charge might be? Also, how likely are they to be thorough in their inspection considering they'd need to foot the bill and issue a refund if faults were found?

Part of my job as a government appointed meter examiner was to test or observe the test of disputed meters, I would test the meter for accuracy and I’d also dismantle the mechanical index to check that it didn’t accidentally jumped forward. I would issue a certificate for the consumer and the gas supplier, if the meter was found faulty the supplier had to treat the consumer fairly. I have no reason to suspect that the system has changed too much.

akira181

victor2 said:

Is it a combi boiler or do you have a hot water tank?

(*snip)

Edit:

Another thought... Is it definitely your meter you are reading? If it is inside your flat it almost certainly is, but if it's outside, it could be supplying a different flat, despite you being billed for it.

It's a combi boiler, haven't used the heating for the last month, maybe two.  The meter is inside, I'm in a top floor flat and the meter near the ceiling so presumably noone is on my supply. 

I'm planning to upgrade the entire heating system soon as one radiator is blocked and there's a notable amount of magnetite in the system so more of the microbore pipework will block soon too I imagine. Might be able to trace out the gas pipework in that case.

Robin9 said:

A few double checks - is the serial number on the meter the same as on the bill ?   Is it marked as m3 or ft3;  what does the bill say ?

I haven't checked the serial number but I have had problems trying to switch provider in the past, at least twice. Something to do with the gas meter not being registered to my address and having to get the national database updated or something like that.

The meter is in ft3

victor2

As you have an imperial meter, the units are hundreds of cubic feet (HCF). A quick way to get an idea what your gas consumption is in kWh, which is the units you are billed for, is to multiply the difference between two readings by 32.

Do check that the meter number on your bills corresponds with that on the meter itself - if it's difficult to read, take a photo with your phone and zoom in on the image to read it.

akira181

I give my supplier meter readings every other month so I assume I'm getting billed for what my meter is reading. I don't think I'm getting billed for a different meter although I haven't actually checked now that you mention it.

I get my annual kWh usage from bills when it was time to renew to a new fix (remember them?). The last couple times, my gas usage was always around the 14,000 kWh mark. Can't seem to figure out what is using so much gas

Alnat1

Would it be possible for you to not use any gas at all for 24 hours and see if the meter is still going round?

Two of us in a 4 bed detached (heating off in 3 beds) tank is heated by gas for 40 mins a day for hot water, gas hob. Living room, dining room, kitchen, hall all heated, TRVs on rads and we heat living room to 18-19C. We use 10,500KWH a year. Yours definitely seems a bit pricey.

akira181

I'm going away next weekend and there'll be no-one in the flat. Heating has been off for over a month now.  I'll take a meter reading before I leave and see what it says when I get back.

victor2

akira181 said:

I'm going away next weekend and there'll be no-one in the flat. Heating has been off for over a month now.  I'll take a meter reading before I leave and see what it says when I get back.

If you have a relatively new boiler, it probably doesn't have a pilot light, so no gas will be used there. If it has a "preheat" option, make sure that is off when you're away, otherwise it will use a little gas maintaining that.

pochase

Remember to also switch off hot water.