Hummm how much do you pay on your gas? are we being jibbed?

[johnvixen]

Hi

This is kind of a concern and advice post. I own a 2 bedroomed new house with my girlfriend. Just before christmas our gas bill jumped around 25 - 30 higher a month. It is now 45 pounds a month.
I understand around winter you will use more gas however we still think this s very wrong.
The gas bill jumped from 9 pounds a month to 45. We don't use the cooker as it isn't working, and the shower is electric. The only thing in the house that uses gas is the boiler. We are not in the house during the day. So the central heating is only on at night on 20degrees and switched off before we go to bed.
The strange thing is, is that we had new didgy builders move in next door last year when the gas bill suddenly went up around the same time.
Is there anyway your neightbour can tap into your gas?

What made it more suspicious was that we have some friends that have a 4 bedroomed house and their gas and electric bill comes to less than 40 pounds a month and he works from home and has the central heating on for the most part of the day. Also we know 4 people that live in a much bigger house with considerably less on there gas bill.

Tell me hown an earth we can be paying this much?
We phoned the gas company and they say it's right, even though we've phoned up on a number of occasions saying it must be wrong.
Like always the staff don't get paid enough to give a sh*t and say they will investigate it when they never do.

Please help.

 

[breezer]

it would be possible to tap into your gas supply, but very dangerous, the only thing i can suggest is go read your meter right mow, note down what it says, then check it this time next week, keep doing this till gas bill comes in, see what their reading is compared to yours

 

[johnvixen]

it would be possible to tap into your gas supply, but very dangerous, the only thing i can suggest is go read your meter right mow, note down what it says, then check it this time next week, keep doing this till gas bill comes in, see what their reading is compared to yours

Thanks Breezer. I'll do that right now.

 

[masona]

What made it more suspicious was that we have some friends that have a 4 bedroomed house and their gas and electric bill comes to less than 40 pounds a month and he works from home and has the central heating on for the most part of the day. Also we know 4 people that live in a much bigger house with considerably less on there gas bill.

I think the problem here is you never get the truth out of them,did you see all their bills ? My gas bill is £12 a month at the moment for 13 radiators and mostly on for evening.How that then Oh did I not tell you that I'm paying by direct debit and approx £130 in credit !!! so they give me a rebate,how jolly nice of them.

Tell me hown an earth we can be paying this much?
We phoned the gas company and they say it's right, even though we've phoned up on a number of occasions saying it must be wrong.

Get your meter tested

Like always the staff don't get paid enough to give a sh*t and say they will investigate it when they never do.

Too true,I once told them I've turned off the gas supply and refuses to pay any bills until they tested my meter or I will find another company,they were here the next day,funny old world when they are not making money out of you.

 

[breezer]

Too true,I once told them I've turned off the gas supply and refuses to pay any bills until they tested my meter or I will find another company.

what was the out come of meter testing?

 

[ollski]

Turn off the fuse spur to your boiler and switch off all gas appliances when you leave for work take the meter reading and check it when you return....obviously should be no movement.
The alternative is to get a gas engineer to come in and gas rate all of your appliances.
In answer to the question though it could be dead easy to tap into a gas supply but to affect your bill it must be somewhere after the meter outlet so you will need to follow it through.

 

[johnvixen]

I turned all the gas boiler to 0 to turn it off and the meter dial stopped on the gas meter.
We only have 4 radiators in the house.

 

[johnvixen]

Too true,I once told them I've turned off the gas supply and refuses to pay any bills until they tested my meter or I will find another company.

what was the out come of meter testing?

I put the boiler on 10 degrees at 11.43. It's now 13.32
I've just checked now

11.43 - reading = 3403 06
13.32 - reading = 3403 54

 

[masona]

what was the out come of meter testing?

Don't know as British Gas didn't wanted to know,so change gas supply company and they also change the meter for free.British Gas bills was over £155 on top of my bill for 3 month !!! Now they are pestering me to go back to them claiming they was a misunderstanding on their behalf Told them to refund my money and guess what they still don't want to know!!!! The gas bill now is a lot better since the new one.

 

[johnvixen]

what was the out come of meter testing?

Don't know as British Gas didn't wanted to know,so change gas supply company and they also change the meter for free.British Gas bills was over £155 on top of my bill for 3 month !!! Now they are pestering me to go back to them claiming they was a misunderstanding on their behalf Told them to refund my money and guess what they still don't want to know!!!! The gas bill now is a lot better since the new one.

What gas companys change your meter for free?

 

[ollski]

It's transco who change meters, they may do it for you if you explain the problem. Surely what you need to do is see if any gas is being used with all your appliances completely isolated over say a 12 hour period. If gas was being used you could say for sure it is either a leak or a tap on to your supply.

 

[ChrisR]

A possibility arises cos we all pay for gas buy the cubic foot/metre. If your pressure regulator is set too low, you don't get as much in your cube as you should. I have found a regulator set to 14mbar - it should be 21. Needless to say the customer was delighted and horrified! Pressure setting is a Transco matter. Whether they'd come out just to check it I don't know (they take my corgi number when I ask them to do things).

But if you thught yuo might be able to smell something like gas.... they'd be round quickly. I've always found them very helpful and will always check/set the pressure ( I can check it but not set it). If the guy finds the pressure is wrong he gets a few quid for fitting a new regiulator onto the meter.

Obvious question - what's the boiler, and do you have a room thermostat? If no room stat the boiler just sits there cylcling on and off all the time the timer's on but the room is warm enough.

 

[masona]

What gas companys change your meter for free?

I'm now with Seeboard and they got Transco to change the meter as it was out of date (whatever that mean?).

So far I've found Seeboard to be very helpful and polite compare to Bristish gas but that's not to say everyone would be happy with them.

See this for a example on the gas forum,sadly british gas company are in the top 10 for being the rudest people in the year 2003 according to the recent survey.

 

[johnvixen]

It's transco who change meters, they may do it for you if you explain the problem. Surely what you need to do is see if any gas is being used with all your appliances completely isolated over say a 12 hour period. If gas was being used you could say for sure it is either a leak or a tap on to your supply.

Ohhhh thanks for the help. Do i simply just phone Transco? what should I say?

Thanks.

 

[johnvixen]

The boiler is a combi boiler. We don't hardly use the hot water for baths etc or dishes. It's controlled by a themo.