Faulty gas meter?

nightrider1470

nightrider1470

nightrider1470

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25 May 2011
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3 bedroom house.. Vaillant boiler which is meant to be decent.

Heating on 7am-9am..... 5pm-7pm and on extra when its super freezing..

Outstanding bill £1700 :( , even with paying £230 per month via DD

EDF energy.

How high is 31,407 kWh? Annually

"We don't have any other gas in our house, apart from the boiler" , no gas fires or stoves etc.

Please see our bill https://imgur.com/oTupiu9

They have calculated our new bills at £560 per month

Just want others opinions compared to what they use and if its defo a faulty meter.

Thanks :)
 
Your kwh is huge for the amount you use the boiler. The average for a 3 bed house in usually around 12-13,000kwh. You're nearly 3 times that. Do you submit your meter readings monthly?

Edit, actually my estimates are a bit wrong. The average for your property usage is probably around 17,000kwh. You're still way over though. What about water usage? How many showers or baths are run a day?
 
We have similar heating hours and our gas bill is around £25/month, so something is definitely wrong there!
 
Same as Maccy, I rent a 2 bedroom house and pay £66 a month combined Gas and Electric.

Either a leak, a wrong reading from your meter, a mix up with meter numbers or somebody is leaching your gas supply.
 
That seems a bit excessive. I thought my usage was high at 19,500KWh. My bills for electric and gas are about £100 monthly.
After making sure your meter is actually the one being billed you could try turning all your gas appliances off to make sure the meter stops. I've heard of electric being unintentionally shared between multiple properties before, but not gas, but its worth checking as your usage is so high.
Make sure your doors and windows + window vents aren't left open while your house is cold and heating is on.
You can probably still get free or cheap loft/wall insulation if you don't have any.
Check your tariff isn't sky high - there is a lot of variation in price.

*** No referrals ***
 
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Well we too have quite an old Vaillant combi-boiler, likewise have the heating on for about the same duration 06:30-08:30 then 17:00-20:00. Again same here we have it on all day when it's freezing.. In addition to that we also have a gas fire in the lounge which tends to be on from about 18:00 until 21:00 ish through the winter, plus a gas cooker. Just had last quarters bill land and that was £390 for gas & electric. Which was a tad over what it was last year for the same quarter, (£342) Again a 3 bedroom semi.

Historically our annual spend on heating has been pretty consistent at between £1000-£1100 since 2012/13 ( we are also with British Gas who are supposed to be the most expensive at the mo)

I've not checked my usage but 12-13,000kwh sounds about right.
 
Have you got your boiler set to have constantly hot water (instant on sort of thing)? Do you have your boiler's output set to the correct amount of kW that matches your house/radiators? Otherwise it's probably throwing energy out of the flue.

It might help if you mention the model of boiler and the kind of hot water/heating set up you have.
 
The number of faulty meters is in the single digit percent and even then most under read but that does seem very, very high. As above, check your MPAN meter number matches what's on your bill. Are all the meters together or is yours separate to others? If they're together or your neighbours is close to yours put all your appliances on. Hot water, heating, oven, all four gas rings etc and check which meter is going like the clappers.

Also the bill clearly says 'based on estimates', check your meter reading against their estimate. And this is a great example of why you give regular readings!
 
Easy test.
Turn the heating off
Dont run a gas cooker/anything.
Take a meter reading.
Go out for a few hours/day/go to work.

As soon as you get in take another meter reading. Should be EXACTLY the same as the one taken earlier.

Turn heating back on, heating the house (whack the temp right up) for 1 hour

Take another meter reading.

This will give you an idea of how much it costs when the boiler is running flat out for 1 hour. In normal use it wont run flat out like that, as it will heat the house to temperature then turn off.

The first test is the most important, as that tells you if the has is going elsewhere (stolen/leaking).
 
As above, that's a ridiculous amount, ours is just over 17,000 for the last 12 months and that's for a relatively old not great insulated house with a girlfriend and child who like to have the heating and gas fire on lots!
 
I've just had a look at my annual review I received from Npower just a couple of days ago. My gas usage was 33,000 kWh for the year apparently. My boiler is on during the colder months for about 10 hours a day, heating a 4 bed 1900's drafty house plus a gas cooker, showers etc.
I pay £230 per month for gas AND electricity !

What tariff are you on ?

PS just looked at your photo of your bill, 11,000 kwh of electric ? I'm half that, with 2 teenagers living at home.
 
My gas bill has both the gas meter number and the MPRN number printed on it. Only the gas meter number appears on the actual meter.

BTW MPAN is for electricity not gas.
 
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