British Gas: My Gas Bill has increased massively!? Is this right?

puddles

We currently pay £30 a month for gas with British Gas, a figure they apparently keep an eye on compared to our gas consumption.

Anyway, between 1 Mar 07 - 4 Nov 07 we were charged £491.73. I realise this period is non-winter months although in this country I'm not sure about March and October.

Anyway, I have just received the statement for Nov - Feb and it reads as follows:

04 Nov 07 - 12 Dec 07 - £147.89
13 Dec 07 - 17 Jan 08 - £164.64
18 Jan 08 - 20 Feb 08 - £160.67

We have the heating on for 2 hours in the morning and 5 hours in the evening Mon-Fri and 16 hours each day on weekends.

Do those amounts sound reasonable for that amount of usage?

What's worrying is that they state that due to price changed we don't need to change out monthly direct debit amount and they will keep an eye on it over the next 3 months to make sure it still reflects what we pay. This in spite of our statement saying we are £393.60 in debit and this will be carried forward to our next statement!

I'm thinking I should ring and ask them to change our monthly direct debit figure so we don't get massively in debt.

Strange thing is that we have been in the same house since March 2006 and have been paying just £30 a month since that date yet it's only for the last few months our statement is showing this big debit figure - we weren;t facing the same issue this time last year!?

Any input would be appreciated, thanks.

EDIT: Just for info, we have an average/small mid terrace 3 bedroom house.

ashcarrot

Estimate or actual figure, could it just be that you've been estimated for ages and they've adjusted for an actual figure? or something like that. Check your bill it should say.

Cardew

Assuming you mean 2008(not 2007) for your Jan17/18 dates, you would appear to have been charged approx £965 in just under a year?

Self evidently £30 a month will leave you with a deficit of over £600 a year.

I am also a little puzzled how BG are billing you(to an exact amount) at 5 week intervals - they usually bill quarterly.

Obviously those charges are huge for mid terrace house, and are around 40,000kWh which is double the national average.

One thought. Has your meter been changed?

Old meters were Imperial and 1 unit(100 cubic feet) is approx 31 kWh. New meters are Metric and 1 unit(1 cubic metre) is approx 11 kWh.

Is it possible that you are being charged for an Imperial meter and you have a metric meter?

Post your gas units and kWhs and we will tell you what meter BG say you have.

puddles

aschcarrot - all apart from the March 2007 reading are estimates but when I took a reading last night it was almost the same as the estimated Feb 2008 reading.

Cardew - We haven't had out meter changed.

Units and kWhs (I've broekn doen the first period as per the statement):

1 Mar 07 - 11 Mar 07 (11 days) = 54 units 1507 kWhs
12 Mar 07 - 25 Apr 07 (45 days) = 180 units 5691 kWhs
26 Apr 07 - 4 Nov 07 (193 days) = 365 units 11276.85 kWhs
4 Nov 07 - 12 Dec 07 (39 days) = 202 units 5347.28 kWhs
13 Dec 07 - 17 Jan 08 (36 days) = 229 units 7142.35 kWhs
18 Jan 08 - 20 Feb 08 (34 days) = 201 units 6269.05 kWhs

Odd how 4th Nov seems to have been accounted for twice.

thanks for your help

Cardew

Well you are being charged for an Imperial meter; although there is a large variation in the kWh per gas unit*

* The calorific value of gas changes - but this is usually by a very small amount. Your figures change from approx 1 unit = 31kWh(which is normal) to 1 unit = 26kWh! However this is not the problem as it works in your favour.

Your consumption in kWh is nearly twice the national average.

The first thing is to check if your meter is Imperial or Metric.

Look at the meter and see if it has cu ft or m3 on it. This is normally in very small print at the bottom.

If has cu ft it is Imperial and is correct aso you need to investigate why you are using so much gas.

If it has m3(that is metres cubed) it is metric and that is the reason - you are being wrongly charged nearly 3 times too much.

puddles

It says Cubic Feet - looks like we'll have to investigate why we are using so much

Thanks for your help