Re: can I avoid a £70 for having my gas meter checked?

That's quite a gamble, especially since it'd be only their word that it's OK.

Is there any way to get my meter tested without paying such a large sum?

Why not just take meter readings every day over a period of one month and calculate the daily average use per kilowatt hours and total up with the present pricing?

Reply to
George
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In message , snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com writes

Er, how can you tell?

Reply to
Norman Wells

But I think he's suggesting the meter is running fast. This seems unlikely, and you can understand them charging for what they will consider a frivolous claim, I mean, we could all do it.

These meters have to be certified, but I don't know what you can do if one is wrong. I'd guess that if they go awry they'd be far more likely to run slow.

Tiddy Ogg.

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Reply to
Tiddy Ogg

a wild guess it'd be a flap valve which relies upon the pressure from the gas and when the gas is used the flap valve opens/revolves at a certain speed which in turn rotates the metered dial, I cant see anything that could give rise to a suspected fault IF the flap wheel relies on pressure/release system. They ainly only check the meter for free if its construction is damaged ie dented/bashed physically

Reply to
George

Maybe his meter is reading under what he's using rather than yours reading over.

It would be very surprising if a meter registered more gas than was being used. Therefore, provided yours has been read correctly, and the bill corresponds with the reading, I would have thought your bill was more likely to be correct than his.

Reply to
Norman Wells

But there will be a maximum amount of gas that the boiler can use in half an hour. My boiler manual (graph at back) gives 10kW@2mbar gas nozzle pressure to 23kW@12mbar. Taking the mid point for the pressure

18kW@7mbar and approx 40MJ/m^3 from my last bill I get 1.6m^3/hour with an upper limit of 2m^3/hour.

So if I were to run my boiler for half an hour a day and have a bill every 90 days I would expect an upper limit of 90m^3 usage regardless of how well my house is insulated and assuming 7mbar (I've absolutely no idea if this is reasonable) a usage of 70m^3 even if the boiler is running flat out for those 30 minutes each day.

Tim.

Reply to
Tim Woodall

We had a situation in an industrial use, where the displacement meter was sized for a high usage, serving a glass melting furnace. When the furnace was shut off, enough gas leaked around the meter to give apparently zero usage. I cannot see any situation where a displacement meter can indicate a higher usage than actual, and the suggestion that the meter reads m3 instead of HCF sounds a likely reason.

Reply to
Terry Harper

Now that's a hint if ever I heard one...

Reply to
Mike Barnes

That's quite a gamble, especially since it'd be only their word that it's OK.

Is there any way to get my meter tested without paying such a large sum?

Change supplier. Don't forget that over the past 18 months British Gas doubled their cost per unit to make vast profits and meet their projected targets! They ripped people off and then put false adverts out stating they had reduced costs. They thought customers wouldn't see the doubling first. Other companies also did the same. I switched to EBICO as it suited me. You need to look at what tariff you are on and ask for the cost per unit. Make a note each week of how many units are being used and multiply it by the cost per unit. That will give you a rough idea of what you will be paying. Also check the meter is not still registering when all your gas appliances are switched off.

Some tariffs will charge you say 10p per unit for the first 100, then reduce to maybe 4p per unit. So in the summer when you use less it will cost quite a bit. In the winter the extra use would give a slightly lower overall price compared to a set unit price. This is what you need to take in to consideration.

As for checking the meter, I wouldn't bother. It's the price increases you are noticing, not a faulty meter unfortunately.

Reply to
TJY

Oh how silly! Does you have the same level of insulation, do you have the same heating system, is your boiler in the same condition and as efficient etc? Are your pipes insulated to the same standard and is your thermostat set the same!

Are you even using the same company on the same tariff and paying by the same method.

My neighbour has the same car as me and mine does less MPG. It doesn't mean the car is faulty, it's just the way it is operated.

get a life.

Reply to
TJY

The gas company have already told you all that - or didn't you really speak to them? They would have covered all the options before you demanding the meter was checked because " a friend" pays less than you in a completely different home.

Reply to
TJY

Have you tried a heating and cooling repairman?

Here are common problems. Gas leak The meter person is reading the meter wrong. The meter is warn out and believe it or not- it could run faster. The meter could also be running slow.

Greg Rozelle

Reply to
Greg Rozelle

What on earth difference can that make?

But if it's of any use to you I use about 9000kWh per year of gas. That includes the hob, all hot water and the heating. I live in a three bedroom Victorian end of terrace with solid walls.

12/1-19/4 I used 299m^3. 19/4-today I've used 54m^3. That 54m^3 looks remarkably close to my estimate for the OP's original claim of using the boiler for half an hour a day although the OP was using it for heating while I'd expect my usage will be mainly hot water with a bit for the hob. I don't recall whether we had any cold weather back in April/May when my partner might have had the heating on during the day but ISTR they were very warm months. (The heating is never actually turned off, it just lives on its "Night" setting where it comes on if the living room temperature drops below 12C)

Tim.

Reply to
Tim Woodall

On Thu, 05 Jul 2007 21:37:11 +0100, Terry Harper mused:

I'm missing something here.

Reply to
Lurch

These are normally "no standing charges" tariffs designed to benefit very low users or those with vacant properties.

Reply to
Adrian Boliston

They (gas companies, not just BG who I wouldn't use if they paid me to take their gas) are simply crooked.

I have rather an interesting set of bills.

Back in october 2006 my reading was so far out that I gave them a reading. For some unknown reason the reading they actually used was

3500m^3 higher than it should have been. (This could have been my mistake or could have been theirs - it doesn't really matter)

So then I called them and gave them the correct reading and they recalculated again. Except that this time they recalculated all the estimated values back to January - i.e. reducing my "cheap" gas usage.

Here is the original set of readings on the bills (I've only included the readings where the price changed and the cost is my calculation rather than the real one from the bill so it's out by a few pounds because I've used a constant calorific value rather than the varying figure)

Original Meter Cost

13/01/06 4257 13/03/06 4602 78.01 31/07/06 5800 297.91 30/09/06 8249 671.8 3992 1047.72

Here is how it looked after they recalculated everything. Notice that they assume I use as much gas per day January to March as I do March to September. (I actually use about 80% of my gas in the winter six months)

13/01/06 4257 13/03/06 4353 29.01 31/07/06 4579 78.53 30/09/06 4677 40.59 420 148.13

If we redo the original bill assuming constant usage Jan to Sept it's 80 pounds cheaper.

13/01/06 4257 13/03/06 5162.88 188.39 31/07/06 7312.42 512.66 30/09/06 8249 265.74 3992 966.79

And finally, here's what I think a more realistic bill would be based on using most of the gas Jan-Mar:

13/01/06 4257 13/03/06 6918 533.81 31/07/06 7845.06 236.76 30/09/06 8249 122.73 3992 893.29 This is 150GBP (15%) cheaper.

(I actually estimate that the real bill should have been about 8-10GBP cheaper than it was but I couldn't be bothered to chase this up)

Tim.

Reply to
Tim Woodall

Ah..... but is he a knob as well?

Reply to
judith

Or fiddling with balls?

Reply to
Frank Erskine

I take it you know how much gas prices have risen during the last 18 months or so.

Do you have any old bills by which to compare your present consumption against ?

Not that I know of but I believe their is a requirement for meters to be replaced after a certain number of years - but then I don't know how long that is either :)

Reply to
Joe Lee

what if you asked to go on to a key meter then, 12 month's later asked to be put back on a quartely meter without mentioning any problem, you would then get a nice new meter, you should check but i dont think there is any charge involved in doing this

Reply to
Alan

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