Gas bill spike after leak on other side of town

Ashgordon123

QrizB said:

brianposter said:

EssexHebridean said:

brianposter said:

MWT said:

This simply isn't possible, a gas leak affecting many homes cannot impact on the gas meter for your home.

This part of the statement is nonsense. Anything which affects the circumstances in which the meter is operating might affect the meter.

At the risk of derailing the thread, perhaps you could explain how a gas leak on the other side of the OP’s town might cause their meter to suddenly show them as using 4000% more gas than usual? 

The obvious possibility is that the gas pressure at the OPs meter fluctuated whilst the leak was being repaired and that the meter could not cope with the fluctuation.

That doesn't represent the reality of gas metering, though. There's a nearly-foolproof pressure regulator between the supply pipework and the meter. The meter will never "see" a pressure higher than the regulated pressure.

Ashgordon123 said:

Energy provider has said “we can confirm Your gas usage was extraordinarily high that one day. It must have been because of the gas leak that occurred that day  . You have been charged for it. You should contact your gas supplier for compensation . It’s not our fault .”

Which energy provider is it?

If they have agreed that they have billed you for too much gas, they need to refund you. If they then want to reclaim the difference from the gas network operator, that's their problem not yours.

Have you registered an official complaint? If not, do so.

If you have registered a complaint and it's been eight weeks, you can take your complaint to the ombudsman. With the evidence you already have that your supplier agrees there was a metering fault, the ombudsman should then instruct your supplier to reimburse you.

Scottish Power. 

Yes, official complaint is next step. The time-consuming back and forths need to end. 

They are not saying there was a metering fault as such, they are saying “this is how much gas you used that day “ ( it was an infathomable amount). When I asked them how that  could possibly have been, they basically said “well that’s what the meter says”.
it doesn’t help that their call centre won’t send emails to clarify their position. 

If I send an email it goes to a presumably overseas  centre who send long replies that make zero sense. 

I will definitely be leaving Scottish power when this is settled. 

brianposter

Your supplier owns your meter so if you did not use the gas it is your suppliers problem because the meter has provided an incorrect reading.

MWT

The other reason why I'd be insisting on the supplier addressing this is that I have seen occasions where a smart meter error message is interpreted as a reading instead of being ignored.

It would be interesting to see if one of the 3rd party web sites has the same consumption reading....

Ildhund

It would be really interesting to see the smart meter readings for a few days spanning the incident, including the current reading. They should clearly show this 4000% anomaly.

Scot_39

Ashgordon123 said:

tim_p said:

Have you calculated, from meter readings, how much out of pocket you are?

Yep. £120. A pittance for some, but money I can’t afford to lose for nothing .
I’ve already spent hours chasing the companies around. 

would rather not go to some kind of tribunal but it looks like I’ll have to .
thats why I’m here - to see if anyone knows the process. 

This is going to sound like a really dumb question.

But is a standard domestic meter and pipework actually capable of taking £120 of gas from supply in just part of the  24 hour period ?

Looking at say this site for business it lits the lowest U6 level as 6m3/hr for small domestic and small shop - but do many UK homes have a higher max flow rating

https://www.purelyenergy.co.uk/gas-meter

A rough fag packet calc at SVT suggests £120 - say 1850 kWh - more like maybe just over 7 m3/hr average over the 24 hours - and if off supply whilst mains repaired - for x hours even higher ?

FreeBear

Scot_39 said:

Ashgordon123 said:

tim_p said:

Have you calculated, from meter readings, how much out of pocket you are?

Yep. £120. A pittance for some, but money I can’t afford to lose for nothing .
I’ve already spent hours chasing the companies around. 

would rather not go to some kind of tribunal but it looks like I’ll have to .
thats why I’m here - to see if anyone knows the process. 

This is going to sound like a really dumb question.

But is a standard domestic meter and pipework actually capable of taking £120 of gas from supply in just part of the  24 hour period ?

A rough fag packet calc at SVT suggests £120 - say 1850 kWh - more like maybe just over 7 m3/hr average over the 24 hours - and if off supply whilst mains repaired - for x hours even higher ?

The question you should be asking is can the boiler burn £120 worth of gas in a day.

Most domestic boilers will be rated at between 24kW and 32kW, so it would be impossible for one to run for 24 hours and get through 1850kWh. The house would be roasting hot assuming the radiators can dissipate that amount of heat, or the boiler would be in melt down.

To my mind, a clear fault with the meter - The fact that the network operator was doing emergency repairs elsewhere in town is a red herring. If anything, it would cause a pressure drop in the system resulting in less gas flowing.

Scot_39

It was more of a back check suggestion - to prove that it was a nonsense reading - one that couldn't have happened - even if say their was a massive leak ?

Ashgordon123

Thanks for the replies.
 Going by bills and daily reading provided by Scottish power, average daily consumption is 50-80kwh  in the month around feb 12.

on Feb 12-13 , it’s claimed 1742kwh was used (when the gas was off for most of the day ). 

Going by the purelyenergy website that appears to be at the top end of very large industrial buildings  units. 

So, yes, I could pursue the “how is this even possible” line. 

And ultimately argue it’s a meter reading fault. 

Is kWh the best way to prove this point or do I need to work out cubic metres? Or is it kw not kWh? 

teaselMay

Is the actual meter reading reflection that too? Look at your previous bill for the actual meter reading and then today's meter reading, what's the difference between them? You'll need to convert it to kWh using the formula on the bill

Ashgordon123

teaselMay said:

Is the actual meter reading reflection that too? Look at your previous bill for the actual meter reading and then today's meter reading, what's the difference between them? You'll need to convert it to kWh using the formula on the bill

Yes, based on actual meter readings provided by Scottish Power. 

They are not denying there was massively high gas reading for that day. The argument is that it’s not their fault , it’s down to the gas operators due to the gas leak.