Gas Meter unreadable, British Gas estimated usage since Oct 2020 and estimated usage increased?

Calumtaggart93

Hi there, 

Looking for help if people have experienced the same situaition;

Last month I went to the gas meter outside my property on the front wall to take a reading. The Gas box has no power to the display unit even when pressing the buttons as per the instructions (red and black).

I looked at what British Gas have been stating as the readings as I could not check myself and the last actual reading was Oct 2020. 

When I raise this with them they have informed me they are unable to get an actual reading and will send an engineer on 15th December to install a new battery/meter. 
Once installed they will calculate my usage based on the readings received after the meter can provide actual readings. 

They have estimated that over Christmas 2021 we used around 51.15kWh on average but the previous year only 30.5kWh?

Invoice Date	CapturedDays	Reading	Change	Consumption	Estimated Daily Use
23/08/2022	91.00	01847 (estimated)	71	795 kWh	8.74
24/05/2022	90.00	01776 (estimated)	221	2473 kWh	27.48
23/02/2022	92.00	01555 (estimated)	427	4706 kWh	51.15
23/11/2021	92.00	01128 (estimated)	173	1926 kWh	20.93
23/08/2021	91.00	00955 (estimated)	105	1163 kWh	12.78
24/05/2021	90.00	00850 (estimated)	347	3844 kWh	42.71
23/02/2021	128.00	00503 (estimated)	356	3904 kWh	30.50
18/10/2020	92.00	147	143	1481 kWh	16.10

My questions is;

1) Where do I stand if they cannot get an actual reading and prove that I have used what they have estimated? I get this could work both ways and I could have used more than estimate but we only have mainly electrical appliances as a new build property since Sept 2020. 

Grateful for any responses. 

Calum

[Deleted User]

Once the meter works, there will be accurate readings in the future.  These can be used to see how sensible the estimates were.

You will never get actual readings for the time that has passed.

Why was your last accurate reading two years ago?  Have you never given them readings, and have they never tried to send someone to read it?

Calumtaggart93

Hi SparkyGrad,

they have never requested them or come to read themselves. As a new build the smart meter would only pick up the electric readings and not gas since they installed it. 

[Deleted User]

If they've never tried to send someone, you might be covered by the back-billing rules if they ever tried to increase the old estimates (if your new accurate readings show you were using more than they thought).  I'm no expert on the back-billing rules though, others here know more than I do.

If the new accurate readings show you were using less than the estimates, you should be able to challenge the old estimates and get them revised downwards.

Robin9

As I understand the meter should hold 13 months of historic data.

ariarnia

[Deleted User] said: Why was your last accurate reading two years ago?  Have you never given them readings, and have they never tried to send someone to read it?

we give regular readings because we still have a manual gas meter but one of the selling points the engineer was making when he installed the electric smart meter was that we didn't need to ever read it if we didn't want to. so i can see why someone might not have done until the recent interest in energy prices. 

but op sparky is right. your supplier will contact you with there estimate based on your usage over the next few weeks after the battery is installed. in my experience you can negotiate with them a bit if you have a good reason why there estimate is wrong. but i would think that if you are now more mindful of energy than you were then your usage over the month after its fixed might be lower than it was in 2021 (especially as you know they will be basing there estimate on your usage!) then you might find it lower than it really should be.

if you arent happy and can't come to an agreement then i think thats one of the things the ombudsman could look at (or there might be some third party adjudication)  

Calumtaggart93

Thanks for the responses, we will be mindful and the only gas we use is for the hot water and heating so we will be sure to be more conservative after they have fixed the read issue and hopefully save a few a few pennies. We have had no heating on at all since last winter with this warm autumn weather and have been doing what most would and cutting usages so just want to ensure our new billing figures reflect that. 

QrizB

Calumtaggart93 said:

Thanks for the responses, we will be mindful and the only gas we use is for the hot water and heating ...

Hot water and heating makes up at least 95% of the average household gas use, there's nothing "only" about it.
I once had a house where gas was only used for cooking (and I think @EssexHebridean is in that situation now). Ther gas bill was tiny.

[Deleted User]

Calumtaggart93 said:

Thanks for the responses, we will be mindful and the only gas we use is for the hot water and heating so we will be sure to be more conservative after they have fixed the read issue and hopefully save a few a few pennies. We have had no heating on at all since last winter with this warm autumn weather and have been doing what most would and cutting usages so just want to ensure our new billing figures reflect that. 

I don't quite understand what you are worried about. Calorific values used for billing are validated by independent data collectors. Yes, you could go to the trouble of downloading and averaging the data but the approved calorific range is so small that it isn't worth the bother. I just multiply my index reading difference by 11.22 (metric meter) and check the kWh calculation on the bill.