Vulnerable neighbour charged £1154 for gas by SSE

mr_stripey

littleteapot said:

pochase said:

There is no change to the standing charge, the number of days has not changed. Unit rates quoted to customers include VAT, the 7.39 is including VAT.

1210 x 11.2 * 0.0739 = £1001.49

Or does he have an old imperial (ft3) meter? Than you need to multiply by an additional 2.82 and we get almost your number.

My brain doesn't work as well as it did before having children, but I pray basic maths is still within my grasp. Surely given that one metre = 3.3 feet, then a cubic metre is 3.3^3 cubic feet = i.e. 35.94 cubic feet?

Pretty close. 1 cubic metre is 35.314 cubic feet (I work in gas so use this conversion a lot, although not as much these days)

I'm not an expert when it comes to billing though - I work for a gas infastructure manufacturer

pochase

littleteapot said:

pochase said:

There is no change to the standing charge, the number of days has not changed. Unit rates quoted to customers include VAT, the 7.39 is including VAT.

1210 x 11.2 * 0.0739 = £1001.49

Or does he have an old imperial (ft3) meter? Than you need to multiply by an additional 2.82 and we get almost your number.

My brain doesn't work as well as it did before having children, but I pray basic maths is still within my grasp. Surely given that one metre = 3.3 feet, then a cubic metre is 3.3^3 cubic feet = i.e. 35.94 cubic feet?

Correct, but one unit on a ft3 meter is not 1 ft3, it is 100 ft3.


So you multiply by 2.83 (not 2,82 as I have written earlier) to convert 1 unit on a ft3 (100 cubic foot) meter to to cubic meter. The cubic meter you multiply by 11.2 to get the KWh.

MWT

littleteapot said:

pochase said:

There is no change to the standing charge, the number of days has not changed. Unit rates quoted to customers include VAT, the 7.39 is including VAT.

1210 x 11.2 * 0.0739 = £1001.49

Or does he have an old imperial (ft3) meter? Than you need to multiply by an additional 2.82 and we get almost your number.

My brain doesn't work as well as it did before having children, but I pray basic maths is still within my grasp. Surely given that one metre = 3.3 feet, then a cubic metre is 3.3^3 cubic feet = i.e. 35.94 cubic feet?

To use exact numbers, 1 cubic metre = 35.3147 cubic feet.

So each cubic foot = 1/35.3147 cubic metres = 0.0283.

Gas meters measure in units of 100 square feet, so 0.0283 x100 =2.83

Thus to convert imperial meter readings to metric you multiply by 2.83...

Grumpy_chap

There have been extra units charged because of past estimated readings / bills.

This might be a case where say nothing is the best long-term outcome because those extra units will have been charged at a unit rate that is cheaper than whatever the unit rate will be when the cap goes up.

macman

OP, it might be a good idea to assist your neighbour to have smart meters installed (with his agreement), so that he does not have to rely on estimated billing in future.

littleteapot

pochase said:

Correct, but one unit on a ft3 meter is not 1 ft3, it is 100 ft3.


So you multiply by 2.83 (not 2,82 as I have written earlier) to convert 1 unit on a ft3 (100 cubic foot) meter to to cubic meter. The cubic meter you multiply by 11.2 to get the KWh.

My bad - I didn't realise that it was actually x100 cubic feet, not x1 cubic feet. I should have been able to deduce that but my productive brain capacity seems to have reduced a lot over the last couple of years!

gt94sss2

macman said:

OP, it might be a good idea to assist your neighbour to have smart meters installed (with his agreement), so that he does not have to rely on estimated billing in future.

And make sure that they are also on the Priority Services Register.

Mobtr

if you’ve given a meter reading yesterday, they should cancel the previous bills & rebill him to that reading and the new bill should show a credit balance which he can then have refunded. Allow a few days & see what he gets through 

bagand96

Grumpy_chap said:

There have been extra units charged because of past estimated readings / bills.

This might be a case where say nothing is the best long-term outcome because those extra units will have been charged at a unit rate that is cheaper than whatever the unit rate will be when the cap goes up.

Agreed. It may well be best to leave those “overcharged” gas units as paid for at the current rate, rather than take a refund now and then pay for the units at the new rates coming this winter. 

Assuming the supplier would do that…. But doing nothing is more likely to give that outcome, rather than raising the issue!

Mobtr

bagand96 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

There have been extra units charged because of past estimated readings / bills.

This might be a case where say nothing is the best long-term outcome because those extra units will have been charged at a unit rate that is cheaper than whatever the unit rate will be when the cap goes up.

Agreed. It may well be best to leave those “overcharged” gas units as paid for at the current rate, rather than take a refund now and then pay for the units at the new rates coming this winter. 

Assuming the supplier would do that…. But doing nothing is more likely to give that outcome, rather than raising the issue!

Too late for that, the original post says they rang to give a meter reading yesterday