There has been a news story this weekend about EON overcharging a number of customers because their gas meters measured cubic metres when they should have measured cubic feet, or maybe vice-versa. These stories are all confused and hard to believe, especially because the ratio of these units is around 35.3:1, and anyone who had a bill to small or too large by a factor of 35 would surely notice. Does anyone understand what actually went on here - the newspaper and website reports don't help at all, and no reporter seems clued up enough to investigate or explain.
I can check easily enough whether my gas meter is recording cubic feet or metres and corresponds to what is on the bill, but is there any easy way for the consumer to check that a gas meter is actually recording roughly the right number of cubit feet/metres? With an electricity meter it's not too hard: turn everything off but one appliance such as a
1kW heater, then run it for a set length of time. But checking a gas meter seems very difficult for the end user.