Help me understand why my gas is £17 a day!

[Elmatheele]

hello all, I live in a 3 bed semi detached house that’s about 30 years old. 14 year old boiler but unvented cylinder in the loft. Heating goes on for about one hour in the morning and is turned off all day until we return home at 4pm it’s then set to around 19 and is off completely over night. What am I doing wrong? Bills seem to have increased since smart meter was installed last month. Is this extortionate of am I just out of touch with gas prices?

That’s very low, just over 8kWh per day. A typical boiler can use that in about 15 minutes.

😬 I might have messed up that number!
Here's my bill for the past three months instead.

Is your bill based on actual readings or estimates?

The tariff may be incorrect on your display so it's showing higher spend than it should.
Firstly don't panic! The display is only for information by you and the readings get sent from your meter itself so won't affect your actual bills if the tariff is wrong.
You can check this easily but it is different depending which display you have.
It might be worth resetting your display and seeing if that makes a difference. ( I had this issue when I changed tariffs)
All the info should be on your suppliers website or the instruction book if you still have it.

I have a combi boiler, maybe 3yrs old. 4 bed house, heating on similar amount as yours. I have a bath everyday, dc shower everyday they're here (4/5 times a week). Mine is about £3 a day

@MemorableTrenchcoat readings

Sympathy to the OP. This is depressing. But getting at the truth is something that Mumsnet does brilliantly...

I have an Outfox the Market Smartmeter installed, with terrifying numbers showing up on screen. (I turn it to the wall.) 2 bedrooms, mostly empty 1970's house. They appear unable to send me paper bills that accept I have a smart meter. (We have discussed this over the phone.) Does anyone else have this problem or do we all accept it's 'Computer says 'Who cares?''

Meanwhile, my actual bills for December are 216 Kwh for electricity and 1500 Kwh for gas. Charges are £ 179.45 which seems OK. (It's a cold house and a cold year.)

Gah! Just done the math. My 2 bed house, single person, barely bathing, Dcember, is 180/30 = £6/day. Lot of variation, folks....

It sounds like OTM isn’t receiving readings from your smart meter. Are you submitting them manually?

Hell no.

If OutfoxTheMarket wanted me to install a SmartMeter in my late partner's house, fair enough. Now I have one. If it isn't working, presumably that's not my problem? If their paper bills, directly addressed to me, say 'Dont forget to send us your meter readings' that's a sign they have no clue? Especially when I've called, pointed this out, and was told, basically, 'Computer says no'. We can' fix this.

Pictures of bills, smart meter, and special machinery in the fuse box cupboard available on request. 😀

Like anything that uses radio waves, such as mobile phones, smart meters don’t always get sufficient reception. If that’s the case, and until the situation is resolved, you’ll need to provide readings. Otherwise, your supplier will use estimates, which is obviously undesirable.

It must be a faulty meter. My heating is on as much as I want it to be, four bed three receptions. My worst month this winter was January @ £255 for the month.

I’ve refused a smart meter to date, I think I might continue to refuse one, what a load of stress you don’t need OP.

It could be a number of things, including a gas leak. Smart meters are no more likely to be inaccurate than the traditional type.

Thanks! Mysteriously, they haven't told me this. Plus, when I discussed it over the phone with an OutfoxTheMarket human, this didn't come up. I'll wait for them to tell me to rip the smart meter out of the system and send them meter readings again.

Plus, should they have installed their bits of techie stuff in an area with insufficient reception? Sounds shortsighted...

as soon as I saw your thread I knew it would be British Gas. There’s something weird going on with their billing. They have moved to a new billing system and customers started moving over in the summer. The software has been designed and is run by Fujitsu. Apparently they absolutely can’t alter meters remotely and normally I’d believe that as it is logically but they told the post masters the same

Leaving British Gad seems to be they way most people resolve their issues

They’ll never tell you to rip the smart meter out of the system, it’s not yours to rip out! Are you confusing the optional in-home display with the actual smart meter? There’s nothing special about smart meter readings (all meters are just simple counters) so there’s nothing stopping you submitting readings whenever you like.

Suppliers are under pressure from the government to install smart meters. It’s not ideal if they do this when the signal is poor, but in that case they simply operate in dumb mode, like a traditional meter.

They definitely, absolutely can’t alter meters remotely. Apart from anything else, can you imagine the fallout if they could and/or did, and got found out (which they would be)? Followed by the expense of refunding everyone's bills and replacing every smart meter in the country?

Oof I'm £11 a day for a 6 bed victorian detached in Scotland with a gas aga - and thats the lpg price, not mains gas.

We only hear water for an hour on most days (2 adults 2 teens) but I don't think that is enough to explain the difference.

Logically I agree with you but there are huge numbers of people who have had much bigger bills suddenly with smart meters on the new system, me included. Trying to get anything sorted with British Gas is very difficult

Blimey, we pay about £3 a day for a 4 bed and have had the heating on for a good 4-6 hours a day!

Although, we do have zoned heating so I can just heat the rooms we need. Maybe that helps.

But I do think you need the company to come out and check.

That’s a British Gas issue, not a smart meter issue. Like any meter, a smart meter simply measures how much energy passes through it, counting upwards from zero. Illegal tampering aside, nothing and no one can ever change that. The only difference with a smart meter is that it takes that number, which can be viewed on the screen at any time, and transmits it to the supplier.

"until the situation is resolved, you’ll need to provide readings."
Presumably they'll tell me this? They haven't managed to yet. Despite me calling... And explaining... See above,

They’re telling you on your bills. Are the readings they’ve used estimates (it’ll say alongside the figures)? Don’t think of your smart meters as a cast iron guarantee that you’ll never have to read your meters again, and if that doesn’t happen your supplier is in big trouble. Think of them as a free, potentially amazing upgrade that you need to keep an eye on. Regardless of meter type, everyone should check their bills from time to time, to ensure the readings match those on the meters.

You could ask Cadent to come and check for a gas leak. The number is 0800 111 999. I found them very good. They came within 2 hours and checked my gas. We actually did have a leak. They don't fix it. If they find it they make it safe by turning the gas off. They leave a report for your gas safety engineer. We did have a leak, we have a 3 bed terrace, and we still used less gas than you. I have the heating on all day at 18 and 16 over night.

So work this one out for example ok.

I used to live in a 3 bed terraced house. It was a pre payment metre and it was smart meters with British Gas. I was doing £140 a month electricity and £150 a month on gas.

I moved into a large 4 bedroom detached house and refused the smart meters and changed supplier and my highest bill has been £238! For gas and electric! Like how on earth can my bigger house cost less to heat than my smaller one? 🤣🤣🤣🤯

I will never have a smart meter again! I know with pre payment meters it can be a little more expensive but £58 cheaper a month £696 cheaper a year! Yeahhhh..... 🤨