It is worth checking the meter is being read in the correct format and charged correctly too if you have any doubts about your bills. My son was with BG and they got that wrong. He paid staggering bills for quite some time before they realised the readings were being charged wrongly - he did get a nice fat rebate but that didn't account for the difficulties he experienced in paying the bills in the first place.

Firstly, thankyou very much for your swift replies.

The new meter begins with G4K so yes it is metric, the old meter began with 00 so I assume this is imperial?

Using the calculations you have given me, before the meter was changed it was calculated in imperial (was just over 32.), AFTER the meter was changed it is now in Metric (11.2), which I presume is correct. I must admit I feel a little embarrassed now... it appears it is just the PRICE per kWh that has skyrocketed as when I looked at the actual kWh used between Oct-Jan 08/09 and compared it to Oct-Jan 07/08 the actual kWh amount used went down this year (only fractionally mind) but a 40% increase in price which quite frankly is ridiculous... but at least I know now everyone is in the same boat here.

So, again thankyou very much for your replies, you saved me a phone call!

Is it the bill as well or just the meter readings that have tripled? Remember a metric unit is three times the size of an imperial unit so if you changed to a metric meter than the gas units used will be 2.86 times as much. But on your bill the kWhs should be similar to before the change. On your bill what do you get when you divide the number of kWhs by the number of gas units? It should be about 11. If it's about 33 then you are being charged for an imperial meter instead of a metric one.

If they have been charging you for an imperial meter this is good news - you are about to receive a 66% rebate of your last nine months bills.

(Hmm, kmj just said that. Was that post there before? I'm going blind.)

you can do some more work yourself before you go to British gas. Check if your old meter was in cubic feet or cubic meters. Your new one should be cubic meters (serial number will start g4k or e6 i think). If your meter has been changed from cubic feet to meters, the calculations to convert to KWh are different.

Sounds like your meter is faulty! why don't you write to BG explaining what you think, and threatening to go to ofgem if they don't sort it out!

Hi guys,

In April 08 we had a new gas meter installed, we noticed our bills over the summer were abnormally high but put it down to the miserable summer. Anyhow we recently got our October-January bill and quite frankly the bill was ridiculous, over double the amount on the previous year per unit of gas.

Now, after a little investigation, I checked the meter to make sure it was read correctly and I then turned off all the gas in the house and went to see if the meter was still moving and it wasn't. This meant either the meter has a problem, or one of the items in the house was swallowing gas (either the central heating or the hobs on the cooker).

After I looked closely at the bill for Jan - April 08 I noticed something staggering, the meter was changed early in April and this was stated clearly on the bill, from this I could calculate before the meter was changed we were using 4.3 units of gas per day, but AFTER the new meter was fitted the gas went up to 12.1 units per day (during the same months!!!). Surely there is something seriously wrong here? Any advice on where I should go from here? Trying to explain this to BG is going to be a nightmare!

Thanks