Gas Meter check?

Gareth56

If you think your gas meter may not be accurate is it possible to get someone [from the utility company] to check to see if it's measuring correctly?

Thanks
G56

pboae

Yes, I thought our meter was wrong and my gas supplier came out and checked it. The crazy bills actually turned out to be due to a leak in the pipe to the back boiler, with a 4 ft flame constantly burning away in the chimney. :eek:

Gareth56

pboae wrote: »

Yes, I thought our meter was wrong and my gas supplier came out and checked it. The crazy bills actually turned out to be due to a leak in the pipe to the back boiler, with a 4 ft flame constantly burning away in the chimney. :eek:

Thanks, so all I need to do is contact EDF (who supply my gas)?

Terrylw1

Yes, you contact your Supplier. However, there could be a very simple billing issue over inflating your bills so they will need to check on that first.

Why do you think it's not accurate? Worth noting that inaccurate meters are rare so it could be a problem with readings at your Suppliers end which is 99% of the cases where customers think their meters are speeding.

pboae

I presume so, I was with scottish power at the time I think.

KarenG

Gareth56 wrote: »

Thanks, so all I need to do is contact EDF (who supply my gas)?

Terrylw1's advice is spot on.

What will also be helpful to your supplier (if they can't resolve the problems by looking at your billing history and current meter reading) will be the number of appliances you have using gas eg in the winter "5 normal sized radiators on for four hours per day Mon-Fri, eight hours on Sat-Sun and hot water delievered through a combi boiler" (or whatever!)

They might not need this but if they do it's useful to think beforehand roughly how many and when they are on

KarenG

***double post sorry ****

Gareth56

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Yes, you contact your Supplier. However, there could be a very simple billing issue over inflating your bills so they will need to check on that first.

Why do you think it's not accurate? Worth noting that inaccurate meters are rare so it could be a problem with readings at your Suppliers end which is 99% of the cases where customers think their meters are speeding.

Thanks Terry et al

As you say it may be a billing issue but I give all my readings to EDF they never estimate my readings. I use gas for my central heating/hot water and cooking. As you say inaccurate meters are rare but I have to say when I look at the little pointer going round when the boiler is on it does seem to be going round at rather a pace. Perhaps my boiler uses a lot of gas when it is on, I don't know, but it just seems that little pointer seems to sweep round rather fast.

Terrylw1

Hi Gareth,

It might be worth you reading this thread and the link in my post in there too. It may explain why the meter is moving fast. If you changed between imperial & metric then this may help explain it.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=596859

So, after reading those does your bill appear very high or is it just the dials that look like they are going to fast to you? If your bill seems reasonable, maybe those threads tell you what you need to know about the calculation on these meters.

If not, your Supplier will look at the energy efficiency side first with you. You can work out what your appliances are using on your own which will make them more open to a meter test.

Gareth56

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Hi Gareth,

It might be worth you reading this thread and the link in my post in there too. It may explain why the meter is moving fast. If you changed between imperial & metric then this may help explain it.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=596859

So, after reading those does your bill appear very high or is it just the dials that look like they are going to fast to you? If your bill seems reasonable, maybe those threads tell you what you need to know about the calculation on these meters.

If not, your Supplier will look at the energy efficiency side first with you. You can work out what your appliances are using on your own which will make them more open to a meter test.

Hi Terry

It's the same meter I've had for a few years now. It's a cubic feet meter so the calculation is presumably :-
reading x 2.83 x conversion factor x calorific value/ 3.6 = kWh

As stated the boiler supplies our central heating radiators and provides hot water. What's bugging me is that when the boiler turns on the little dial on the right hand side of the display seems to be revolving rather quickly. It also states on the meter that 0.071ft^3/REV (that is 0.071 cubic feet per revolution). There are 4 white numbers and a red number so do you know(or anyone) what one division in the red number equates to e.g. going from 4 to 5 in the red column means in volume of gas used?

espresso

Gareth56 wrote: »

There are 4 white numbers and a red number so do you know(or anyone) what one division in the red number equates to e.g. going from 4 to 5 in the red column means in volume of gas used?

The white numbers are hundreds of cubic feet, therefore the red digit is displaying tens of cubic feet. Why don't you take weekly readings to check what your actual consumption is.