Capped gas meter

WiserMiser

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81889870#Comment_81889870

I don't think that moving the thread would be a good idea, at least not at the moment.

The OP seems to be wasting a significant amount of money by using electricity for room heating and hot water, despite a gas central heating system being available. The OP's quality of life is also adversely affected. The root cause for this needs to be established, otherwise the problems will continue indefinitely.

It seems likely that the Energy forum would be the best place to get a successful result.

Edit: typo (agad→a gas)

QrizB

I don't think that moving the thread would be a good idea, at least not at the moment.

I agree.

The OP seems to be wasting a significant amount of money by using electricity for room heating and hot water, despite agad central heating system being available.

I agree with this too.

My gas boiler was replaced late last year, but up until that date it was ~20 years old and was providing heating and hot water to 4 people in a a 3-bed semi for about £3 a day.

If the OP was being charged £6 a day to do the same for one person, something is wrong somewhere.

gpman

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81890431#Comment_81890431

Fair enough.

I may not have correctly understood the full situation. My understanding is the OP was claiming it cost £12 per day to run their heating 24/7 @ 20 degrees. So they stopped using the gas boiler. I appreciate you could offer advice how to reduce the £12 per day, but there isn't much to offer here if the OP cannot afford the 35ppd SC.

Remember, the OP stated they are on a prepayment meter, so it's not any gas use that has caused the debt on the meter.(well save maybe for £5 emergency use)

I must also have missed the bit about how much the OP is spending on electricity. My bad.

Rather the OP seemed to be complaining that their council left them with no space heating or running hot water. (Not strictly true, but that has already been explained to the OP)

ETA: I do now see the OP did post immediately before my earlier post (which I had not seen when I made that post) stating they do use electric heaters that cost £6 per day. That does not make sense to me, if it costs £12 per day to heat the same house to the same temperature with gas. Remember. the OP also implied the heating needed to be on 24/7 else the 20 degree room temperature would fall to 10 degrees after about 20 minutes. Also the OP says the gas meter (a prepayment one) is £205 in debt. Even that does not make financial sense to me.

e.g £205 less possible £5 emergency supply means the PPM has accrued £200 in accrued SC. That works out at 55p per day for 365 days. I don't know anywhere/anyone that charges 55ppd SC for gas.

Why do I think the debt accrued over 365 days max? Because the OP said the prepayment meter was cleared of debt in February 2025 or sometime thereafter, when the council first uncapped the supply

QrizB

It might help if OP could provide more info, including of their current gas supplier and tariff. It would also help to know if they have a card prepayment meter or a smart one.

The current Ofgem cap for prepayment is around 35p a day and 5.8p per kWh, so it would mean burning almost 100kWh a day to spend £6.

My current consumption is more like 40-50kWh a day, which would be around £2.70 - £3.30 a day.

t0rt0ise

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81889870#Comment_81889870

The council has a duty to do a gas boiler safety check every year. If there is no money in the gas meter so there's no gas, they cannot do the safety check. So they are duty bound to cap the meter. The tenant will have had that explained to them several times. They need to come to a debt repayment arrangement, get the gas meter uncapped and have gas available on the day the gas service is to be done. It seems that the OP still had no gas available on the second attempt for a safety check.

WiserMiser

It would help if OP @colacube2410 gave us the details of the meter and the other info, as previously requested. There are various codes that will reveal whether there's debt on it and if so, how much in total and how much per week is being reclaimed.

There are also the unexplained mysteries about why the council knows about the debt, etc.

Without this info we can only guess. It's also possible that some weird things have happened, e.g. the previous occupant had a credit meter did a moonlight flit so the supplier fitted a prepayment meter with humongous debt on it, or that the supplier is overcharging because it thinks it's an Imperial meter.

All a bit unlikely but theoretically possible, we've seen similar howlers before on the forum.

gpman

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81890553#Comment_81890553

But with respect, you don't live in the same property. Nor probably need to heat your home to 20 degrees 24/7

£12 gas would equate to about 210kWh. Even at a ropey old 60% efficiency, that would still be 126kWh of heat per day..

At a more reasonable efficiency of say 80% for a 15 yr old boiler, it would actually mean almost 170kWh per day. The first reply here indicates the efficiency could be as high as 95% efficiency, so 200kWh per day

This is why I cannot understand why the electricity only costs £6 per day. I also suspect the £6 electricity cost does not just cover heating, but cooking, the electric shower, (the only running hot water apparently available to the OP now they are not able to use the gas boiler) cooker, washing machine, fridge, lighting, tv, computer, etc, etc

It just does not make sense financially, and that is why I thought the OP would benefit from some financial advice generally, rather than something specific to energy.

gpman

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81890583#Comment_81890583

A very good point. Thank you.

ManyWays

Your local councillor is often a good place to start trying to get this sort of issue sorted out.

if this debt was run up from 2022, then you may be eligible for a partial write of scheme that Ofgem is looking at; it could be announced in next few months.

Talking to your local Citizens Advice may get you help with benefits and advice on all debts, including this energy debt.

EssexHebridean

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81890452#Comment_81890452

Our boiler is now in excess of 20 years old - 3 bed terraced house being heated morning and evening to just under 19C plus hot water as needed for two people - in January my gas use including SC cost me £54. For the OP to be spending £12 a day purely on their gas used would surely equal nearly 200kWh of gas, which seems implausible unless they have an incredibly poorly insulated property that they are trying to keep to an unfeasibly high temperature 24 hours a day - from the tone of their posts that doesn't seem likely.

OP - were you aware that unless your energy supplier confirmed that you no longer had to pay the Standing Charge, that would accrue? if so that certainly explains the increasing debt - and frankly it is pretty poor of the council or housing association not to have explained this to you if it was their call to cap the supply. As things stand, if this is the situation, then even when you are not using the gas, that debt is still increasing and accruing, so you do need to tackle the matter. It sounds increasingly like a conversation with your energy supplier is going to be the right way forwards - and at the least they can confirm if there is definitely accrued debt, and whether that is what is increasing the costs. From there a conversation can be had about how that can be managed, and that is definitely where the DebtFreeWannabe board will be useful - not least as it will be ideal if you can get advice from there to avoid ending up with arrangement to pay markers on your credit file.

I agree also with the suggestion to contact Citizens Advice for help.

If you can confirm those meter details, then a lot more help can be given here as well.