Surely heating can't cost this much?

[Dreamwhisper]

My DM lives in a 3 bed detached bungalow. She's getting down because she's says her gas usage is coming to £600 per month, just gas?

I don't understand how this can be right. That's over £7,000 a month just for gas, and she is being very conservative with it. She has an old fashioned boiler (is it old fashioned? I don't know much but what I mean is, it's not a combi boiler it's the one that heats a tank of water for hot water). But it is a new boiler.

She won't get someone out to look at her meter in case it's wrong as she says they charge £50 if they come out and nothing's wrong. I want to pay this for her or go halves with my brother as I simply don't see how it can be right?

My bill has gone up a lot too but £600 a month for conservative heating seems an absolute unsustainable nightmare.

OP you ned to stop trying to resolve this yourself. Something is very wrong, there is no way your mum will be using that much gas.

There is a number in her energy bill for Citizens Advice helpline. Call that and emphasis this is acomplex problem and your mum is elderly.

They can refer you to a specialist unit of experts who will work with EDF on your mum's behalf to try and resolve this.

Thanks all for your latest replies.

I think this is a bit beyond me and I think I will contact CAB. I'll give it a few more goes getting through to them!

Very concerned that they have no figures available to view re the gas usage at all. They have a nice graph for electricity but the option for gas doesn't work for me and it says the meter may not be communicating.

Just again - if possible - here is the (hopefully) straightforward calculation you need to do, for (A) Usage - and (B) cost:
(I have a spreadsheet that will do it for you but that won't upload successfully)

Most recent reading
Minus
Last known reading
This gives (A)
If the reading dates are known,
the standing chang can be calculated as well.

For example
48625 - most recent
MINUS
48000 - last known prior
would equal usage of 625 UNITS
over the period of time*

The 625 UNITS converts to kWh by multiplying by roughly 11.2
so kWh used would be

625 x 11.2 = 7000 kWh (nice round figure) This is (A) - usage.

Multiply this by the price perkWh, say 10.9p

so 7000 x .109 = £763
which is (B) the cost of that usage.

Dividing both usage and cost by number of days would give average daily use, in kWh or £s.

Standing charge to be added* for number of days, and sometimes they don't include the VAT (5%) until bottom line fo their calculations (which I hate).
Electricity is simpler as there is no conversion, a Unit = a kWh.

OP this seems obvious but is your Mum reading the meter correctly? I know it sounds obvious but it might be worth double checking she hasn't got confused with the decimal point etc.

Just one quick question, do you have any meter readings at all? And dates?
The above lengthy post was just to set it out for you to see how it's done, in a clear way.
But if you have just those two things, I can easily do the calculations for you - and that gives you facs and figures to give to EDF if you ever can speak to them, and to maybe reassure your Mum.

Very concerned that they have no figures available to view re the gas usage at all. They have a nice graph for electricity but the option for gas doesn't work for me and it says the meter may not be communicating

so she has an electric smart meter. So the electric should be correct.

you need to send in gas meter readings if that meter doesn’t have smart functionality.

it’s that simple. Read the meter, send in the readings, get a correct number.

If the gas meter is a smart meter, try the loop app. My gas usage doesn't show on my suppliers app, but shows fine on loop - it will also upload readings from previous months

loop.homes/

@Dreamwhisper

I am with EDF (but only for electricity), if you have overpaid they give the money back to the account the DD comes from every time they do a review which is every 6 months, so the account goes back to zero.

They do not send bills in between.

Keep on giving the meter readings and I take a photo of the meter when I read it so there is date/time proof of when it is done.

You should be able to sign into her account by saying you have forgotten the password and they will send an email through (to your mum) and you can set up a new password you both know.

Good luck I find it all very confusing too.

She needs to move supplier. I have a friend in a similar position with EDF. Meter mysteriously not pulling gas, refusal to review more than twice a year, DD £200 over what you'd expect for 2 adults in a semi-detached 3 bed.

@LoveMyPiano do you mean the x by 39 changed to 39.2 in the calculation? I'm with EDF and they changed it on my last 6 months bill.

Having looked into it again, I think yes, that is the part of the calculation that has caused the difference. Ihave generally used the overall multiplication of 11.14 or thereabouts to work out how many units equal a kWh for charging purposes.

I noticed it on a bill of mine when there were a couple of occasions when part of the bill was for just ONE unit, which they then showed as 11.24 kWh, whoch was more than I thought.....

So..... (brings out magnifying glass)

British Gas seem to no longer show the steps of the calculation to convert, apart from the Calorific value, but I am not sure about others.
So, maybe something else HAS changed, but it is not a clear as it should be if it has (no surprise).

The steps to convert are -
No of units from meter readings (Newest minus previous, as you know)
x Calorific value (the 39.2, or 39.7 - this is what seems to be varying now)
x Volume Correction - which 1.02264
and
divide by kWh Conversion, which is 3.6

In the case of the ones of mine (with BG) that I have looked into, and there has been a change on each of the last three bills (March, June, Sept)

When the Calorific value is 39.2, one unit = 11.13 kWh
When the C/Vl is 39.6, one unit = 11.24 kWh
and
When the C/Val is 39.7, one unit = 11.27 kWh
So the difference between now, and before, is .14kWh

And again, as I said, multiply that by 8,000,000 (BG customers, let alone other suppliers and their customers). Quite a big number of extra kWh to be charged for, even with no extra use.

(Puts away magnifying glass.)

The calorific value has always/will always fluctuate, and is sometimes different between regions too.

There's a link to regulations/how it's calculated on this page.

www.gov.uk/guidance/gas-meter-readings-and-bill-calculation

Mine has never changed, until recently.
(My spreadsheet says so - ha ha)

When I worked for an energy company 20 years ago it was standard for it to change, so it's nothing new. It's usually between 37.5 and 43.

www.nationalgrid.com/gas-transmission/data-and-operations/calorific-value-cv

mip-prd-web.azurewebsites.net/DataItemExplorer

^ have links to current and historic figures if this sort of data's your cup of tea.