Faulty gas meter?

[Buzzark]

Your boiler is burning 27.43kW which is 33.75% over what it is rated.

Which about tallies with your gas bill.

You need the bolier serviced and the gas rate brough back down to the standard.

Thanks Dan

The boiler was serviced last year and is going to be replaced. But when servced it was said to be running pretty much "as per new spec" give or take a little. The usage hasn't gone up since then it's started high and remained at that level - that must point to the meter then?

 

[ChrisR]

It`s not down to you nor I to calculate the volume of gas he has used & then advise.

It's down to me to do what the hell I want and if you don't like it, I couldn't care less. You have my permission to Bog Off.

Buzzark the 70 in your boiler name is 70,000Btu/hr rated output.
The amount of gas it uses will be well over that. Eg using your figure of 65%,
70 / 0.65 = whatever.


40 secs per cubic foot =
3600/40 *1047 = 94230 Btu/hr
A bit high, but not surprising for an old unserviced boiler.
I used 80,000 as a guess.

SO the boiler only has to be on about 3 hours a day, so it's probably right. Depends how much HW you use. That could be half your usage.

I note from the BG ad on telly , they say average consumption is 20,500 kWhrs pa.

 

[ollski]

We're not heavy users and it doesn't explain why we'd be using more than double the gas of next door, who by their own admission ARE heavy users.

But do they have the identical boiler, cylinder and radiators & valves?

 

[Dan Robinson]

Most people have little or no idea how much energy they use, or whether they are being billed corectly, take yoiur neighbours advice with a pinch of salt.

I remember one old lady who insisted that she bathed in water at 60 degrees purely because that was what was set onthe cylinder thermostat.

I gave up in the end.

 

[Buzzark]

We're not heavy users and it doesn't explain why we'd be using more than double the gas of next door, who by their own admission ARE heavy users.

But do they have the identical boiler, cylinder and radiators & valves?

Actually yes, they were both identical systems fitted by the same chap at the same. Well one after each other, but I don't think a couple of weeks makes much difference!

@Dan their bills are from actual readings just like ours so i think it's a reasonably accurate comparison.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Can you post their meter readings and the time it takes their boiler to spin the red needle once?

 

[ollski]

What about gas cookers, fires, tumble driers etc are any of these things in the mix?

 

[Bambergaspipe]

"ChrisR

It's down to me to do what the hell I want and if you don't like it, I couldn't care less. You have my permission to Bog Off.

Steady Son, you know you are only allowed to raise your temperature once a year.
What will the Vicar say, for Goodness sake.

 

[Bambergaspipe]

I've recently been researching a new boiler etc and part of the drive ...blah...blah...

get an engineer to gas rate your appliances...take no notice of the Divs on here. Simple.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Helpful and positive as ever eh Bamber ?

 

[mehran]

Buzzark have you ever thought that your meter is in fact working fine and that your neighbors meter is the one that is under reading the gas usage or they have a better deal on the gas e.g have a capped price where you are on the full whack price?

Our gas bill doubled when we came off the caped price gas

 

[Bambergaspipe]

Helpful and positive as ever eh Bamber ?

Always be positive, always be helpful, that`s my Motto, Dan the Man, (your new title). It smashes it`s way through whenever I post. Can u feel it? (as Michael Jackson once asked a disturbingly young juvenile). Great song though.

 

[Dan Robinson]

 

[Buzzark]

Buzzark have you ever thought that your meter is in fact working fine and that your neighbors meter is the one that is under reading the gas usage or they have a better deal on the gas e.g have a capped price where you are on the full whack price?

That doesn't really stack up considering the house we moved from was so similar in size yet slightly less well insulated. Yet gas usage/cost there from British Gas was about £450 a year.
Most of the people we know have similar size houses, friends, neighbors parents etc and all seem to pay between £400-£600 a year, we're on £1100. Next door are on the standard rate btw, we're actually on a cheaper tariff, but there are improvements to be made there too. I need to resolve this with the current supplier while we're still a customer otherwise it will probably get harder.

Got a letter today, they're changing the meter and sending it away for testing. I guess that will give fairly firm answers on a new meter even before the results come through.

@ ollski - gas hob (very little use), no fires, tumble drier is electric.

@ Dan, lol I take onboard your suggestion about setting up camp at the neighbor's and doing some measurements there but we don't really know them that well. I was already looking into this and jotting down daily usage when she called round to ask my advise about something else last week and we got talking, I took the opportunity to get as much info as possible about their system.

How could a 20.5kWh appliance use more than it's rated value? I'd have thought it would be rated at that as that's the most amount of gas it'll let in?
If it was running less efficiently, wouldn't it just use the same amount of gas in the same period but get less heat from it therefore requiring a longer running time to produce the same heating?
Correct me if I've gotten that all wrong!


The supplier looked back and the previous owner, who was a more mature lady shall we say, used almost £1800 in gas in the year before we we're in. The house was somewhat toasty when we first viewed it!
We used her supplier as we wanted to change from BG anyway at the time otherwise I doubt they'd have been able to do that - unless Transco keep a database, I guess that might happen as they do the actual supplying and metering don't they?

 

[Buzzark]

Buzzark the 70 in your boiler name is 70,000Btu/hr rated output.
The amount of gas it uses will be well over that. Eg using your figure of 65%,
70 / 0.65 = whatever.

40 secs per cubic foot =
3600/40 *1047 = 94230 Btu/hr
A bit high, but not surprising for an old unserviced boiler.
I used 80,000 as a guess.

Ah, OK I see where that figure came from.

Boiler has been serviced every year, stickers all over the inside of the front panel.
Had it serviced and checked last year and it was tip-top, at least for a not very efficient boiler. Engineer checked the flue gases and plugged some tube and reader into the boiler.
Thanks for all your advice and calculations though.