Gas bill

[Viciam]

Hi guys,

I have a question. I rent a 1 bedroom flat on Lordship Lane and I received a gas bill of £500 for period between 15th April - 30th June. There are 2 of us that live here. It seems incredibly high to me or is this normal now with the price increases that have happened?

I did put in the meter reading and still its around £500.

Any feedback would be helpful.

Thank you.

[Joe]

So that's around £200 a month. Seems very high for that time of year.

Even with today's in prices, I'd expect a 1 bed in this area to spend around £30-£60 on gas a month during the spring/summer. Maybe a bit more if you both have multiple showers a day and use a gas hob regularly.

Are you sure your boiler isn't running 24/7?

Do you have a combi boiler? If so can you hear it 'on' only when you actually use hot water?

[SpringTime]

There's pretty much no reason to be using more than the tiniest amount of gas at any time but especially since February. It's been a very hot year which should mean minimal/ zero central heating, food that doesn't require cooking, and cold showers. Or at least cool showers given the water from the cold tap is so warm. Our central heating went off in January, we've used one or two hobs on occasions. Our behaviour is much improved since (obviously) early February and our bills (for two adults with very strong appetites) are minimal. Our electricity bill combined with gas comes to about 85 pounds per month. Switch provider or turn it off. Or both.

[SpringTime]

PS This thread should probably be in the lounge

[mrwb]

Initial reading was probably wrong. Or something else using the supply.

[SpringTime]

Oh, sugar. I forgot about Bill.

[ianr]

> I did put in the meter reading and still its around £500.

You've not mentioned anything about the stated amounts of gas consumed, or whether the readings given on the latest bill tally with those on the preceding one(s), or how today's meter reading compares. I'm wondering if this is a new account that you've taken over and there's been an admin error; or whether you've misread the meter. If it's an old style one, like mine, the relevant reading (hundreds of cubic feet) is just the leftmost four digits.

[Sue]

Can you not just contact the energy company and ask for the reason?

On the face of it, that is a ridiculously high bill, so it would seem that something is wrong somewhere, as per the various suggestions above, but surely your first port of call would be the company who issued the bill?

[diable rouge]

Have your previous bills been based on actual meter readings or estimated ones?

If the latter then your previous bills may have been under-estimated, hence the large bill you now have with up to date readings...

[Viciam]

Hi guys, really appreciate your replies thank you so much. These below are 3 seperate quarterly bills I recieved. The kwh usage is so high in the april - june period. Thats in the summer when we haven't used to the central heating at all.

10 Nov 2021 - 14 Jan 2022

397.80kWh at 4.200p per kWh

01685 - estimated meter reading

01721 - estimated meter reading

36 gas units at 38.9 calorific value

£36.05

15 Jan 2022 - 31 Mar 2022

518.02kWh at 4.200p per kWh

01721 - estimated meter reading

01768 - estimated meter reading

47 gas units at 38.8 calorific value

£54.13

15 Apr 2022 - 30 Jun 2022

5797.85kWh at 7.541p per kWh

01775 - estimated meter reading

02297 - we read your meter

522 gas units at 39.1 calorific value

£503

I did call British Gas and they said they will look into it. I'm worried that I get my bills quarterly and next time its going to be around £500 again. Thats too much. I'm just renting a small 1 bedroom flat with a kitchen and a bathroom.

[Viciam]

So that's around £200 a month. Seems very high for that time of year.

Even with today's in prices, I'd expect a 1 bed in this area to spend around £30-£60 on gas a month during the spring/summer. Maybe a bit more if you both have multiple showers a day and use a gas hob regularly.

Are you sure your boiler isn't running 24/7?

Do you have a combi boiler? If so can you hear it 'on' only when you actually use hot water?

 

I dont think its running 24/7. I hear it start up when we turn on hot water etc.

[Viciam]

There's pretty much no reason to be using more than the tiniest amount of gas at any time but especially since February. It's been a very hot year which should mean minimal/ zero central heating, food that doesn't require cooking, and cold showers. Or at least cool showers given the water from the cold tap is so warm. Our central heating went off in January, we've used one or two hobs on occasions. Our behaviour is much improved since (obviously) early February and our bills (for two adults with very strong appetites) are minimal. Our electricity bill combined with gas comes to about 85 pounds per month. Switch provider or turn it off. Or both.

 

Yeh I'm just worried what's going on. I just know that it can't be £400-£500 for 2.5 months for just a one bedroom flat. We haven't used central heating in this period at all.

[Viciam]

Initial reading was probably wrong. Or something else using the supply.

 

Something else? I'm keeping an eye on the meter every 1 hour to see what its doing.

[Viciam]

> I did put in the meter reading and still its around £500.

You've not mentioned anything about the stated amounts of gas consumed, or whether the readings given on the latest bill tally with those on the preceding one(s), or how today's meter reading compares. I'm wondering if this is a new account that you've taken over and there's been an admin error; or whether you've misread the meter. If it's an old style one, like mine, the relevant reading (hundreds of cubic feet) is just the leftmost four digits.

 

Hi thanks for your reply. I just posted these above. I moved into this property in Feb 26th 2021 and it was a new account I set up.

[mrwb]

Did you get a photo of the meter when you moved in?

Possibly you've been done over where someone has not given an accurate reading on prior move out and you're paying for what they used.

[Siduhe]

As far as I can see, all the earlier readings were estimated and it's only recently that your meter has been read. So there's a chance that your earlier bills were based on wildly inaccurate (low) estimated readings and you've been underpaying for your previous two quarters, which is why this bill is so high - it's not that you are using more gas, it's just that you haven't paid for the gas you were using in the prior two quarters.

That said, even if you average out the cost over the three quarters (you are using the equivalent of £69 per month averaged out over the year), it still looks a bit high usage to me for a 1 bed flat.

[IlonaM]

Now that you have a BG-read meter reading I would suggest submitting meter readings yourself rather than relying on estimated meter readings. It might not have helped in this instance, which appears very strange and hopefully can be resolved, but will keep more control over the readings relied on by BG. They will probably periodically come out to read the meter, but customer readings have more accuracy than estimates which rely on the 'average householder usage' rather than you personally.

Other thing to check is whether a leak has developed on the pipe from your flat to the main. Strange to suddenly have such a leap in usage in the summer.

I have to admit that, with the cost of living crisis, I am recording meter readings at the end of each month just to see if there are usage issues. I am only submitting a reading online when asked, but it is reassuring to see what's going on. I do not have smart meters, although I have an old OWL electricity monitor which is helpful. My fixed tariff deal ended earlier in the year and am now on standard variable, so want to keep a handle on it.

[diable rouge]

The two 'winter' bills are way underpriced, I'm surprised your supplier didn't flag this up and request a reading.

As I suspected, they've underestimated your usage and now that actual readings have been submitted, there's a huge discrepancy in usage to pay.

I don't think an average of £69/month over a year is that high for a 1 bed, prices have already shot up for lots of people, my D/D more than doubled last Autumn.

If you haven't done so already, consider switching to D/D monthly payments so you don't get any more big quarterly bills like this...

[IlonaM]

Just a contribution following a rather big shock from EDF the other day. With my bill from March to September (reasonable and substantially in credit, which the eejits have refunded) they wanted to put my monthly direct debit up from £100 to £328 on the basis that my current usage for gas costs £237 a month (previously £57) and electricity £91 (previously £34). This is with scant use of gas (1 hr a day heating water, no central heating needed, and using gas hob for cooking). For someone in a one-bed flat (Victorian conversion) they suggested an estimate of over £4,000 usage cost over the coming billing year which was vastly different to my expectation given my day-to-day usage. Fortunately I persuaded them to keep the direct debit at its current level pending more elaboration from Truss. God knows what the gas bill will be when the heating needs to go on - I am disabled and can't manage without it. Scary.