Hi all,

I live in a three bedroom semi-detatched house. I've just changed my energy supplier and have had the final bills for gas and electricity through from British Gas. The electricity bill is as expected, but the gas seems ridiculously high. My account was £60 in debit when I provided them with a meter reading in April, but from April until now I am being charged around £230 for gas.

I've compared my consumption with previous months and British Gas and trying to tell me that I've used more in these summer months than I have done during the winter ones, with an average consumption of 3 units per day. Is this normal? The only thing we use gas for is heating and hot water; our shower and cooker are electric, and given that we've had the heating off pretty much all the time since April, I don't understand how that amount could have been used.

British Gas made me check the meter readings, which were right, and then said there was nothing they could do. I was wondering whether it was worth getting someone to come and check the meter. I'm also planning on ringing Consumer Direct after the weekend. Has anybody else had this problem? If anyone could give me any advice I'd be really grateful, as I simply don't have enough money to pay the bill, and I'm sure there's been a mistake.

These are the consumption details for the year, according to previous bills:

01 Oct- 04 Jan – 180 units over 96 days (£218)

05 Jan- 15 April – 60 units over 101 days (£88)

16 April-24 June – 211 units over 68 days (£225)

And I also found the following table on my online account:

Account Type

Register Type

Meter Reading Date

Reading Type

Meter Reading

Consumption

Average Consumption

Cumulative Consumption

Unit of measure

Energy

Single Use (24 hr Rate)

24 Jun 2009

Customer read

4571

6632.0

94.75

143672.0

Cubic Ft

Energy

Single Use (24 hr Rate)

15 Apr 2009

Customer read

4360

95.0

19.0

137040.0

Cubic Ft

Energy

Single Use (24 hr Rate)

10 Apr 2009

Estimated

4357

1607.0

17.47

136945.0

Cubic Ft

Energy

Single Use (24 hr Rate)

08 Jan 2009

Estimated

4306

189.0

47.25

135338.0

Cubic Ft

Energy

Single Use (24 hr Rate)

04 Jan 2009

Customer read

4300

5643.0

58.79

135149.0

Cubic Ft

Energy

Single Use (24 hr Rate)

30 Sep 2008

Meter Reader

4120

254.0

9.77

129506.0

Cubic Ft

Energy

Single Use (24 hr Rate)

04 Sep 2008

Meter Reader

4112

125.0

2.61

129252.0

Cubic Ft

Energy

Single Use (24 hr Rate)

18 Jul 2008

Estimated

4108

127.0

7.06

129127.0

Cubic Ft

Energy

Single Use (24 hr Rate)

01 Jul 2008

Customer read

4104

129000.0

0.0

129000.0

Cubic Ft

Sorry the table didn't really work, but I thought I'd leave it there just in case.

Kimmy54139:

Read your meter today and report back. The most likely explanation is billing error with the "4571".

BTW the table works when "quoted".

The Jan - April bill is garbage - it was still very cold in Jan/Feb so you must have used much more than 60 units; Averages out at 0.6 units per day - I used nearly 3 units (300 cu ft ) per day in the very cold spell.Meter reading you supplied in April must have been wrong looking at your table - Perhaps should have been 4460?? Have you just looked at their "estimate" (4357) and corrected last couple of numbers?

You have paid far too little for that period so you have "caught up" with the June bill. Sorry!

BREWERDAVE1:

The Jan - April bill is garbage

You have paid far too little for that period so you have "caught up" with the June bill. Sorry!

Equally likely. We will see when/if the OP reports back.

Since it is a switch the same reading should appear on the gaining company's first bill, so it should work out in the end at only the cost of how much BG was more expensive on the price per unit.

Hi,

Our meter is on 4575 today. I'm sure that the April reading was right, and given that it was so close to BG's estimate, I don't think the bill would have been wrong. if it was wrong, then surely BG would have contacted me? They are claiming that all the gas has been used between April and June. We also had problems with the boiler around January time I think, so it was out of action for a while.

Kim

Kimmy54139:

if it was wrong, then surely BG would have contacted me?

Read other posts here and get that idea out of your head.

Anyway at last a customer who takes regular readings. Is it a mechanical readout, dials or digits?

There isn't an obvious single digit mistake which satisfactorily explains the bill. 4460 instead of 4360 is better but still leaves the latest consumption high.

Taking the meter as right, for the sake of argument, gives an annual gas consumption of around 15,000 kWhrs. That's fairly generous heating but not obviously excessive, hence it is doubly unlikely any supplier would see an obvious problem. Are you able to compare with a previous year?

A faulty meter is extrememely unlikely. Your metered consumption since 24/06 until 4/07 is 13kWhrs/day for effectively hot water only. I don't know much hot water you use but that's more than our gas consumption for cooking and gas heated showers, so look closely at whether 13kWhrs/day is being metered accurately.

Stuck for the moment unfortunately.

Your current usage is about right for the (warm) Summer period - I still maintain that the April reading is far too low - it was extremely cold the first couple of months of the year - my boiler was almost permanently firing to maintain a comfortable temperature. 15,000kWH as calculated by Jalexa SEEMS about right for a 3 bedroom semi for the year - its just the split between the 2nd and 3rd bills which is wrong.