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.