Faulty gas meter

A question about : Faulty gas meter

A relative has recently received a gas bill for over Ј600 so has caused a bit of a panic (never gave meter readings and just accepted the estimates).

I've got 2 relatives who live 2 streets apart, identical house types, both with British Gas on the same tariff. Spend similar amounts of time at home. my brothers gas units are 4 per week, my cousins are 27 per week. The only real difference between their usage is my cousin has the central heating on for 1 hour in the morning compared to my brother.

Using the compare your usage tool on the BG website, it shows shes using around 7 times as much gas as the area average.

My thoughts are the meter is faulty as I cant see any other reason for such a massive variation. I will be speaking to BG on Monday, just wondering if anyone else has gone through something similar.

Best answers:

• Do look at the actual accounts - estimated readings ? What tariff ? Has the meter been changed to a metric one ?
  Get your facts together ?
• When you say units, are you comparing like for like meters?
• BG won't talk to you about their accounts - only yours.
• Identical regions, house sizes and hours of running mean nothing-what matters is insulation levels and (primarily) heating levels. I set my room 'stat at 19C. Someone on here yesterday said that the 'natural temp' (for them) was 22/23C. Do you really think that our bills would be the same, everything else being equal? I'd expect their heating cost to be at least 30% higher.
  You simply can't make such comparisons unless all the factors are the same-which they never will be.
  However, I suspect in this case that the OP is comparing metric units to imperial units as suggested by spiro above, in which case the variation is about half. Compare the actual kWh usage, not the volume.
• Thanks for the replies, bit more info:
  Calculations done on the actual readings taken this week.
  Both have metric meters.
  Same tariff = Fixed price August 2015
  Arranged to be added as a nominee so I can speak to BG.
  Average usage for the area for 3 months = Ј63 (taken from BG compare your usage tool), brother pays Ј12, cousins currently working out at around Ј180.
  Both have them set for 19 degrees.
  Cousin runs her heating 1 hour in the morning and 2 hours in the evening.
  Brother starts work first thing so only uses heating 1-2 hours on an evening.
  My brothers meter is marked as M3, will have to check the cousins later to be sure.
  Had my cousin try running one appliance at a time and she said when running the hot
  water there was a jump in the reading but no change when the central heating or cooker were used.
  Regarding the boiler, this was replaced in December, but wasn't compatible with the
  existing meter so BG replaced the meter with a reconditioned unit. The boiler is A rated,
  and all the readings are based from when this meter was installed to present (no actual meter readings from the previous meter so not mentioned that period previously).
  If the meter isn't faulty, I'm wondering if its possible for a boiler to be fitted incorrectly and that could be causing the problem.
• From your first post, is the problem the estimated bills have always been too small, and now there is a real reading the Ј600 is taking up the deficit?
  You need to check actual consumption over a couple of weeks by repeated meter readings.
• Meter replaced - this would have resulted in an actual meter reading being passed back to supplier. Surely, the question you should be asking is whether the current actual usage is excessive. It's a pretty simple calculation. My guess is that this is a catch up bill.
• You said 'both are metric meters', then a few lines later you said 'will have to check cousin's later to be sure' (that' it's marked M3).
  So which is it?
  It's fundamentally flawed to compare using meter units anyway, since they measure volume, not energy. The only valid comparison is one made after conversion to kWh.
  What do you mean by 'align the figures' when the meter was switched? When a meter is changed, the closing and opening reads are logged (the opening read isn't always zero) and the billing calculated against each segment, with an opening and closing read shown for each meter.
• Can you clarify please the Ј63 figure which I think you are saying is an average bill for 3 months. If so then this needs to be taken with a huge pinch of salt - Ј5 a week. The Ј180 is much more realistic -Ј15 a week