Gas - getting the volume right!

IVR

First post here so forgive me if already raised.
I had my gas and electricity meters changed over to smart meters last week and I also received an handy app from my utility provider.  As good as it was to see my usage it was a bit of a surprise to see how much gas I was burning.  It was a cold start to the week but over six days my predicted usage was heading up towards 2000Kwh. This seemed strange as my only gas appliance is a boiler rated at 34Kw and I was going through more than twice that amount every hour it was on.  I contacted my utility provider and questioned the usage, turns out that the automatic update didn’t work and the gas volume was being calculated in ft^3 and not m^3. The result was my usage being shown as more than triple what it should have been.
Although it has been rectified for me, I just wanted to share with others who may not have spotted an immediate change, other than their gas bills having gone up significantly compared to past years.

Ildhund

You're not the first. See, for example, Metric/Imperial meters and overcharging - Page 3 — MoneySavingExpert Forum

At least you noticed quickly. The poster I referred to didn't, and eventually got a £2600 refund.

TadleyBaggie

It’s way more than triple, there are over 35 cubic feet to a cubic metre!

Ildhund

TadleyBaggie said:

It’s way more than triple, there are over 35 cubic feet to a cubic metre!

Imperial meters measure the volume of gas in multiples of 100 ft³. 100 ft³ = 2.83 m³. 
  


You're always told to 'ignore the figures in red' when submitting a meter reading. That would be the ones after the decimal point in the first picture, and the two small ones in the second. 

Gerry1

TadleyBaggie said:

It’s way more than triple, there are over 35 cubic feet to a cubic metre!

Nope.  Imperial meters are billed in hundreds of cubic feet to avoid stupidly large numbers.  Hence the bit about ignoring the figures or dials shown in red.

The multiplier is 2.83, and the calculation is usually shown on the bill.

bob2302

TadleyBaggie said:

It’s way more than triple, there are over 35 cubic feet to a cubic metre!

The imperial unit is 100 ft^3 so it is ~3, , but the other way around.

FreeBear

IVR said: Although it has been rectified for me, I just wanted to share with others who may not have spotted an immediate change, other than their gas bills having gone up significantly compared to past years.

Had the same issue with Toto the Clowns billing me in imperial units when on a metric smart meter, but they couldn't even get the calculations right. Somehow, 11 units became ~8000 (100's cubic feet) and converted to 350kWh. Still waiting for EDF to sort out the final bill after taking over Toto's cluster[redacted] records.