Do Gas meters go wrong?

[mdbalson]

I am asking this because on the current gas bill from BG, they are saying that in 126 days I used 2896 Units of Gas. The very 1st Reading was 00528 on 25th Apr 07(was 91 units), & the reading on 29th Aug 07 was 03424. I reading I took today was 034425 on the 11th Sept 07.

The 1st Bill in Apr 07 was £21.72, for the current bill they are asking for £751.05, now I don't use that much gas, as all that uses the gas is the boiler, & all the boiler been used for, for the last couple of months is hotwater, & the hotwater is only on for 2 times a day (06:30 - 08:30 & 16:30 - 23:50).

So the meter has maybe gone wrong, or has BG made an error

 

[MarkBarl]

Gas meters do go wrong. However you need to be sure that it is the meter at fault. my mother had a similar problem. The only gas she uses is her boiler and her bills were enormous. A safety check said there were no leaks, so she had the meter tested. it cost her £75 which would be refunded if a fault was found. Sadly for her no fault was found.

 

[Agile]

Gas meters are very reliable and if they were to fail it would usually be that they did not registerd any gas used at all.

It is very common for meter reading errors.

Can you list the readings BG used for the bill together with your current reading taken by you?

I suggest you take daily readings at the same time a day to help establish you usage pattern as you may have some hard arguments with them coming up.

Recently I had a problem because a meter reader had guessed the reading because he could not get in and needed firm readings to get his bonus.

Tony

 

[mdbalson]

Gas meters do go wrong. However you need to be sure that it is the meter at fault. my mother had a similar problem. The only gas she uses is her boiler and her bills were enormous. A safety check said there were no leaks, so she had the meter tested. it cost her £75 which would be refunded if a fault was found. Sadly for her no fault was found.

So what was the cause of the high bills

 

[JohnD]

Are they all Actual meter readings or are there some estimates?


If a meter goes wrong it is likely to under-read (not over)

It is gas heating that uses the power, cooking is insignificant and hot water is not much.

You can start taking monthly or weekly readings yourself for a while if you want to see the effect.

Also, take a typical daily reading in summer, and another in winter when the heating is going, and you will be shocked, and will start improving your insulation and fitting TRVs.

If you have a "gas coals" fire then it will be more economical to make a pile of £5 notes in the grate and light that for warmth.

 

[mdbalson]

Are they all Actual meter readings or are there some estimates?


If a meter goes wrong it is likely to under-read (not over)

It is gas heating that uses the power, cooking is insignificant and hot water is not much.

You can start taking monthly or weekly readings yourself for a while if you want to see the effect.

Also, take a typical daily reading in summer, and another in winter when the heating is going, and you will be shocked, and will start improving your insulation and fitting TRVs.

If you have a "gas coals" fire then it will be more economical to make a pile of £5 notes in the grate and light that for warmth.

The only thing in the house which uses gas is the boiler, as the cooking is all electric (as there is no gas supply out in the kitchen), the fire in the lounge is an old coal fire & the fire in the dining room is a log bucket.

The loft is insulated, & all the pipes up the loft, which go to the tank or boiler are lagged.

The Boiler up in the loft:

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/mdbalson/PA010134.jpg

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/mdbalson/PA010135.jpg

(n.b. the pictures are from last year, the all pipes are now lagged)

Also in the summer the gas bill should not be much as all I have on is the hotwater, at these times 06:30-08:30 & 16:30-23:50 (these are also the times that the heating would be on in the winter)

Some of the rads have TRVs on them set low, & the other rads are turned down low.

 

[Agile]

It is very common for meter reading errors.

Can you list the readings BG used for the bill together with your current reading taken by you?

I suggest you take daily readings at the same time a day to help establish you usage pattern as you may have some hard arguments with them coming up.

Tony

 

[JohnD]

Are they all Actual meter readings or are there some estimates?

 

[Gasguru]

Just recently I have came across 2 flats in a Victorian house conversion that were connected to one gas meter. Both ocupants were unaware they were sharing the meter. The gas supplier was unaware the meter was shared and issued each tenant with a gas card for use with the meter. One tenant had been putting on £40.00 at a time and the other only a £5.00 I only discovered the problem with a failed T.T The other property had a pilot.

And a few months ago I disconnected an old 20Kw fire in another conversion. As I discovered quickly the fire was connected to the gas pipework of the flat below. Been like that for at least 20 years.

 

[mdbalson]

Just recently I have came across 2 flats in a Victorian house conversion that were connected to one gas meter. Both ocupants were unaware they were sharing the meter. The gas supplier was unaware the meter was shared and issued each tenant with a gas card for use with the meter. One tenant had been putting on £40.00 at a time and the other only a £5.00 I only discovered the problem with a failed T.T The other property had a pilot.

And a few months ago I disconnected an old 20Kw fire in another conversion. As I discovered quickly the fire was connected to the gas pipework of the flat below. Been like that for at least 20 years.

I have a deteched house, so hopeful it's not because someone else is on the same meter.

 

[ScottishGasMan]

We had this prob with BG last year.

They Kept Charging like 3 or 4 times what the bill should have been, so we looked through the readings and figures and realised theyd calculated the correct figures wrongly (if that makes sence)

So we made them aware of it, and they couldnt understand what we meant, so it was explained very clearly and they couldnt work the sums out, so this went on phone call after phone call, each bill being even more wrong.

Eventually it got taken to trading standards adn they got in touch with bg, same again, they took about 8 calls to get them to figure it out and get a mangager to ring us saying he personally was printing off the amended correct bill and posting it.

4 bills later he finally put both pages instaid of just a front letter in an envelope an says it.


Anyway rant over lol, just a long winded way of saying, double check it, cos sometimes BG cant + and - lol

 

[giblets]

I don't suppose there may be a leak in a concealed hot water pipe by any chance?

 

[JohnD]

what about these reading?

Are they all Actual or are some of them Estimated?

It will be printed on the bills.

 

[clf-gas]

Gas meters are very reliable and if they were to fail it would usually be that they did not registerd any gas used at all.

Had this very case yesterday in a Chinese takeaway Tony, was trying to gas rate a wok range only the test dial turning and not the drum.

When I pointed this out to the owner he shown me bills totaling over 4K for 12 months and then said that the meter had never registered

Reported it now he's hoping for a rebate

 

[mdbalson]

This bill should be the last from BG, as I am changing over to Southern Energy Networks for Gas & Elec.

I know that a week after I signed up to change to the new supplier, BG phoned, to say how cheap & good BG are, to try to stop me from changing supplier.