British Gas - significantly different recent bills

pacmaniac

Hi.

All our (quarterly) bills for the last 12 months have been based on physical readings (no smart meter).

The bills for the last 2 quarters have been significantly lower than the previous 2 quarters - gas down a third, electricity down 50%.

My immediate thought was meter fault, but it seems unlikely both would go wrong at the same time.

Could anyone shed any light on why this might happen/what our "liability" is?

Thanks,

Andy

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

All our (quarterly) bills for the last 12 months have been based on physical readings (no smart meter).

You've been providing accurate readings? And those readings have been used by BG to produce the bills? (If you look at the bills you'll see what readings they've used.)

The bills for the last 2 quarters have been significantly lower than the previous 2 quarters - gas down a third, electricity down 50%.

That's what most people find. They used more gas and electricity in the winter when it's cold and dark, and less in the summer when it's warm and bright.

Or are you comparing them to the same quarters last year?

Could anyone shed any light on why this might happen/what our "liability" is?

If the bills have been based on accurate meter readings, then I don't see that you have any liability to worry about.

But we're going into winter and I'd expect your next two quarters to be somewhat more expensive than the last two.

debitcardmayhem

Because they are for spring and summer. We can't guess, are the readings correct and is the bill based on the readings or estimates. You really need to show us what you are being billed

MatildaR

Doesn't sound like anything weird going on to me. We've only just entered cold weather so the last 2 quarters (i.e. 6 months) have been during summer and the 2 quarters before that during winter, and heating will be the biggest user of energy in your home, presumably. I get monthly bills, and just as an illustration of how much my bills move (I have mainly gas heating, and on rare occasion use an electric heater):

Gas usage in January - £160
Gas usage in September - £20

Electricity usage in January - £80
Electricity usage in September - £50

pacmaniac

I appreciate the responses, and that summer is generally lighter use than winter. Comparing last year with this is complicated - last July was estimated (they didn't send a "time for readings" email, I realised too late), last October had multiple "cancelled charges", I never understood why. I'll try to update with something that makes more sense later 👍🏻