Do you have to have a gas account

Rain30

Hi there,

Would anyone know if you have to have a gas account? I have a combi boiler with BG, and I’m wondering if I could cancel my account and not use gas. For a single person the standing charge just for having it isn’t worth paying as i barely use it and am not usually home. I’d maybe invest in a electric one just for when I need it. 

elsien

I think you’d have to have your gas disconnected and the meter removed. There might be a charge, you’d have to contact your provider. 

Seems a bit drastic though when gas overall is cheaper than electric. 

pochase

Are you the owner of the property or do you rent? You would need your landlord to agree to removing the gas meter, and would need to pay for reconnection when you leave the property.

Ultrasonic

How much gas in kWh do you use per year? 

Chrysalis

I am considering the same myself again, according to the UK gas safety website, decisions on gas disconnection and meters are down to the "legal occupier".  The only duty to a LL would be to reconnect it when leaving the property so the property is in the same state as it was when moving in.

I expect many light gas users are in the same boat, especially when using boilers which have pilot lights, I use approx 30-40 KwH gas a month excluding pilot light, lets call it 35, so about £2.54 worth of gas per month, sounds cheap right?

However I pay £8.17 a month in a 30 day month in SC charges. Over 3x more compared to what I pay to actually use gas.

My pilot light consumes just under 3.5 KwH a day.  It costs me approx (taking the time off for when I am heating water) about £7.35 a month.  This combined with my SC cost, means I am paying roughly £15.52 a month just to have gas available, and about £2.54 a month for the gas I use.

Please tell me thats good value.

I think the people who might jump in and think us light users are crazy, some of us are not heavy gas users, and I personally dont use central heating at all.

The SC charging system probably needs overhauling.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

so what would it cost you to use immersion heater/electric shower?

Ultrasonic

Chrysalis said:

I am considering the same myself again, according to the UK gas safety website, decisions on gas disconnection and meters are down to the "legal occupier".  The only duty to a LL would be to reconnect it when leaving the property so the property is in the same state as it was when moving in.

I expect many light gas users are in the same boat, especially when using boilers which have pilot lights, I use approx 30-40 KwH gas a month excluding pilot light, lets call it 35, so about £2.54 worth of gas per month, sounds cheap right?

However I pay £8.17 a month in a 30 day month in SC charges. Over 3x more compared to what I pay to actually use gas.

My pilot light consumes just under 3.5 KwH a day.  It costs me approx (taking the time off for when I am heating water) about £7.35 a month.  This combined with my SC cost, means I am paying roughly £15.52 a month just to have gas available, and about £2.54 a month for the gas I use.

Please tell me thats good value.

I think the people who might jump in and think us light users are crazy, some of us are not heavy gas users, and I personally dont use central heating at all.

The SC charging system probably needs overhauling.

I don't really think that's a valid way to judge value. If you had a zero standing charge contract but with higher unit price such that the total cost was the same would it suddenly be better value? Of course not. To judge value you need to compare the cost of what you have to alternatives.

If you don't use central heating at all do you use alternatives to heat your home? Are you sure this isn't a more expensive option if you do?

MWT

Chrysalis said:

I am considering the same myself again, according to the UK gas safety website, decisions on gas disconnection and meters are down to the "legal occupier".  The only duty to a LL would be to reconnect it when leaving the property so the property is in the same state as it was when moving in.

It is important though to understand what that implies, and it could work out to be considerably more expensive to reco9nnect than it was to disconnect as the gas distributor is entitled to fully disconnect the supply pipe to the property from the main supply after the meter has been removed... so you could be looking at say £200 to disconnect and then several thousand to reconnect later on...

pochase

Let's have a look at the cost of removing gas from the property.

Some suppliers, for example Octopus will do it for free, whereby Octopus already states if it happens more often they will not do this any longer.

For others you will have to cover the cost yourself, minimum £396 here

https://www.gasconnections.co.uk/gas-meter-removal/

After the meter is removed there is a good chance that the GNO decides that the gas pipe to your property needs to be removed. You are no longer paying for it, but they are taking the risk of maintaining it.

The Gas Network Operator (GNO) is responsible for the gas pipe that comes from the gas main into the property. Some time after your gas has been disconnected, they’ll likely visit your property to check things out, and might decide to disconnect the gas pipe that runs into the house from the gas main in the street

The cost for this seems to start at £1300 to £1800 depending on region

https://cadentgas.com/services/household-customer/disconnections

So £1700 cost going from the cheap option and a cost of £15.50 per month means you will start to save money after a bit over 9 years.

That does not take into account that heating water with electricity is much more expensive. Lets say you heat up water in the tank every 3 days for one hour, that are 30KWh of electricity. 30KWh of gas will be soon £4.29 while electricity is £13.20, £8.91 more expensive. The monthly savings just dropped to £6.59, and we lost the possibility to use "cheap" heating with gas if it becomes necessary. Compared to a modern boiler without pilot light there is almost no savings left.

The break even point just moved up to 21.5 years taking into account hot water.

If you own the property you will need to reconnect gas before you sell, otherwise you will find it hard to find buyers, or you will lose as they will pay less. Cost should be about the same to reconnect the property to gas as it was to disconnect it.

If you are renting you also will have to reconnect the property, your landlord will insist on it. 

We are now at 43 years to break even....

What are you planning to do about the central heating? Disconnecting it for years will for sure mean it will break, and I doubt that it can be repaired. So we need a new boiler, maybe new radiators if they have been drained and even the pipes could break if not used for a very long time. 

Chrysalis

Ultrasonic said:

Chrysalis said:

I am considering the same myself again, according to the UK gas safety website, decisions on gas disconnection and meters are down to the "legal occupier".  The only duty to a LL would be to reconnect it when leaving the property so the property is in the same state as it was when moving in.

I expect many light gas users are in the same boat, especially when using boilers which have pilot lights, I use approx 30-40 KwH gas a month excluding pilot light, lets call it 35, so about £2.54 worth of gas per month, sounds cheap right?

However I pay £8.17 a month in a 30 day month in SC charges. Over 3x more compared to what I pay to actually use gas.

My pilot light consumes just under 3.5 KwH a day.  It costs me approx (taking the time off for when I am heating water) about £7.35 a month.  This combined with my SC cost, means I am paying roughly £15.52 a month just to have gas available, and about £2.54 a month for the gas I use.

Please tell me thats good value.

I think the people who might jump in and think us light users are crazy, some of us are not heavy gas users, and I personally dont use central heating at all.

The SC charging system probably needs overhauling.

I don't really thinks that's a valid way to judge value. If you had a zero standing charge contract but with higher unit price such that the total cost was the same would it suddenly be better value? Of course not. To judge value you need to compare the cost of what you have to alternatives.

If you don't use central heating at all do you use alternatives to heat your home? Are you sure this isn't a more expensive option if you do?

Indeed and thats what I have done,   I simply do not heat my home I dont have an electric heater.  So essentially the consequences would be about heating water which would require me to use an immersion heater for baths, and so I did do the maths to try and estimate the cost of using that.  As you can imagine it didnt come out cheap, but it was still cheaper than what I pay now via gas, I decided to keep the gas, but this issue is bugging me hence me thinking about it again as I know its so wasteful and inefficient on the gas costs.  Given that gas prices seem to be rising faster than electric, over time it will become more and more favourable to a disconnection.

Astria

pochase said:

Are you the owner of the property or do you rent? You would need your landlord to agree to removing the gas meter, and would need to pay for reconnection when you leave the property.

You don't actually need your landlords approval most of the time, but it's nice to tell them anyway, but yes, when you leave it must be reconnected and the landlord may insist on a gas safety check.