British Gas: GAS LEAK BEHIND GAS FIRE!: I advise you to keep old bills and take photos of meter

CSI_Yorkshire

Then you need to be checking that she gave them / they received the right reading (which might need a photograph of her meter).

3000kWh is low for a house with gas heating & HW.
24000kWh is pretty high.

Any new meter where there could be an incorrect changeover reading?

Gerry1

What's the conversation ratio from m3 to kWh?

Does the most recent meter reading agree with the reading on the meter today, assuming she can read it?

Annemos

She has had the meter for several years now. The reading on the actual meter is tying in to her latest readings on the British Gas site. 

There does not seem to be any problem with the conversion. 

For example, this seems very odd........... 


The lady was out of the country from April 21st to June 22, 2023. She says her heating was switched off. 
 
Yet her meter reading for March 21st to June 25th 2023 is showing..... 728 units = 8148 kwh


(For comparison, April 1st 2022 to July 26, 2022 was only    458 kwh.)  


How on earth does this make any sense??

Could she have a gas leak? She said the cable people had had the road up outside her house and their green box is now right outside her house. That was done last year. (But how would such a leak go through her gas meter?) 


(What this reminds me of is when my water bill suddenly escalated and I used 3 times annual usage in about 3 months, because the water main had burst.) 

My sister and I have devised a plan for the poor lady. Switch off anything gas from 7 tonight until 7 tomorrow night. And see what happens.  She will take a photo of the meter at the start and end. We wonder if her boiler or her gas fires could have a leak or the cooker. 

Gerry1

Also turn the gas off using the lever next to the meter on some other nights.

Gerry1

It's a bit of a longshot / clutching at straws scenario because meters seldom fail, but it's not impossible.  But check whether there's a 'b' displayed on the meter on the wall.  It means it has a low battery and that's when it can misbehave.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6452074/gas-meter-still-increasing-whilst-gas-isolated-siemens-landis-gyr-e6s

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6103628/rogue-smart-meters/

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6071198/faulty-meter

QrizB

Annemos said:

The lady was out of the country from April 21st to June 22, 2023. She says her heating was switched off. 
 Yet her meter reading for March 21st to June 25th 2023 is showing..... 728 units = 8148 kwh
(For comparison, April 1st 2022 to July 26, 2022 was only    458 kwh.)  
How on earth does this make any sense??

If the meter readings match, and the meter serial number matches the one on the bill, there are two remaining options:

• The gas really is flowing through the meter, and it's being used (or leaking); or
• The meter is faulty and is recording phantom gas flow.

Annemos said:

Good news. I am now in her account and have everything back to August 2021.
Now I will get to work and see if I can figure it all out.

What level of detail is available through the BG website? Can you see daily / hourly consumption, or are you only getting monthly smart meter readings?

Annemos

It is terribly sad that with all the systems these days, British Gas can send an 80 year old a bill with the following on it....


Your usage is 8 times more for this 9 months than the year previously.

You have got to write us a check for 1,671 pounds by next month and your direct debits are now rising from 86 pounds a month to 392 pounds a month.   


And no alert is sounded. 

(I am sure Anglian Water now has systems in place to alert their engineers, when usage has gone high in a home and there might be a water leak.) 

QrizB

Annemos said:

It is terribly sad ...

What specifically is terribly sad about it?

That's a serious question.

Annemos

I would have thought such a discrepancy in usage should be able to be intercepted by the new Smart systems at these companies. Maybe I expect too much of them. 

I assumed this was the point of Smart Systems. The thing is, my friend who is 80 has been worried sick about this. It is a huge chunk of her state pension. 

I would have thought something along the lines of.... "We have noticed that your usage has suddenly gone really high. One of our team will contact you to discuss this." 

Annemos

She does not have one of those boxes you put on your table to monitor usage. But I think some of those are not working anyway?