Please help with my central heating system.

[D_Hailsham]

Has another flat tapped into your gas meter?

Turn off all gas appliances, including any pilot lights and turn off the main gas tap.

Take a meter reading, wait 5 minutes and take another. If there is a difference there is a leak before the main tap.

If no difference, turn on the main gas tap, wait another 5 minutes and take another reading. If there is a difference, the leak is after your main gas tap.

If you have a leak call National Grid on 0800 111 999.

 

[dan83590]

This is a very common query.

It usually results from earlier reading being estimated or having been wrongly read previously OR in some cases the reader making up your reading to get his bonus.

Then there are those who "borrow" your meter when outside to run up the reading.

Then a mistake on entering the readings!

Can you post the readings going over the last three years plus with the nature of each reading i.e. read or estimated and someone here will evaluate them for you.

Your boiler seems to have "lost" its sight glass! If thats the case then its evidence that you have not bothered to get your boiler serviced lately. Its also classed as At Risk or if very strict as Innediately Dangerous and of course should be turned off until the glass is replaced.

It could also be evidence of a boiler fault which has been bodged by removing the glass.

Tony

The sight glass IS in place. Probably a poor photo, it's taken with my phone...

We did have a few estimated readings. However the latest reading is correct as we are changing supplier, this latest bill is our final bill from the supplier. We have been paying £135.00 per month and we still owe another £250.00.

We did try to get the boiler serviced. There is a plumber that visits periodically as some of the flats are rented. He looked at our boiler and said it could not be serviced without the instruction manual and unfortunately we do not have a manual for the boiler. The previous owner did not leave one in the flat.

We have not used any gas here for 12 or so hrs now and the meter reading has not changed.

I'll dig out the readings when I'm back from work later.

 

[Steve69the69Gas]

As G4U said you can have your meter checked - but never heard a rumour of one being wrong.
Bet its the cubic metre charging you not cubic feet, does your meter say on the index m3 or cu.ft?
Get the MIs for your boiler off Vaillant, but most guys service a boiler without.

 

[dan83590]

As G4U said you can have your meter checked - but never heard a rumour of one being wrong.
Bet its the cubic metre charging you not cubic feet, does your meter say on the index m3 or cu.ft?
Get the MIs for your boiler off Vaillant, but most guys service a boiler without.

The meter is Imperial, it says cubic ft on the front.

What are MI's?

 

[D_Hailsham]

We did have a few estimated readings. However the latest reading is correct as we are changing supplier, this latest bill is our final bill from the supplier. We have been paying £135.00 per month and we still owe another £250.00.

There's no way you should be using £135 of gas a month in a 2-bed flat, even in the depths of winter.

As a comparison, my average monthly cost over the last year was £69. The worst period was November and December, when it averaged £130 per month. That is for a 4 bed detached house with a non-condensing regular boiler.

 

[gas4you]

Take a meter reading, wait 5 minutes and take another. If there is a difference there is a leak before the main tap.

If the ECV is off, you will not be able to tell if there is a leak before the main tap

 

[D_Hailsham]

If the ECV is off, you will not be able to tell if there is a leak before the main tap

I was thinking of an ECV on the customer's side of the meter.

 

[gas4you]

It may be just me, but I've yet to see this kind of set up

 

[D_Hailsham]

It may be just me, but I've yet to see this kind of set up

Untitled

• D_Hailsham
• 21 Jul 2009
• 1

 

[gas4you]

I have come across these in loads of flats.

I mis-understood your post to imply the main ECV was on the consumer side of the meter

 

[dan83590]

We have been through the bills with a fine tooth comb. With the meter readings we have the bill is correct, so it looks like unfortunatly we are going to have to stump up the cash to the supplier. Which leads me back to my original question...

Why is our system so inefficient?

 

[Agile]

With the exception of D Hailsham we deal with gas problems every day. He has time to spend researching the written word.

If you post all the readings then we may be able to come up with a reason for your high gas bills and suggest how you can have them corrected if appropriate.

What you have told us is contrary to all normal experiences of gas consumption.

Eon managed to be charging me £980 per month for electricity! Even though I told them the house would not be able to dissipate all that heat.

Tony

 

[lawrenso]

As G4U said you can have your meter checked - but never heard a rumour of one being wrong.
Bet its the cubic metre charging you not cubic feet, does your meter say on the index m3 or cu.ft?
Get the MIs for your boiler off Vaillant, but most guys service a boiler without.

The meter is Imperial, it says cubic ft on the front.

What are MI's?

I think that is your answer - I bet if you look on your bill your are being charged metric - (MI or M(cubed ie to the power of 3)), They have swapped you over to Metric billing without changing the meter.

Go to an imperial->metric converter on the web and compare what a foot cubed is compared to a meter cubed - this will more than likely explain your problem. Either this or have you checked you have a roof on the flat?

I have heard of this in the past

Lawrenso

 

[D_Hailsham]

I bet if you look on your bill your are being charged metric - (MI or M(cubed ie to the power of 3)), They have swapped you over to Metric billing without changing the meter.

All bills are calculated using cubic metres. Readings from cubic feet meters have to be converted to cubic metres.

As it is only the black numbers which are written down, not the red or dial numbers, the readings of a cubic ft meter are actually hundreds of cubic feet. i.e 1234 actually means 123,400 cubic feet.

To convert hundreds of cubic feet to cubic metres you multiply by 2.83. So, if the last reading was 1234 and the current is 5678, then the amount used is 5678-1234=4444 hundreds of cubic feet, = 4444x2.83 cubic metres, i.e 12576.52 cubic metres.

This means that of you have a cu.ft. meter and they do not multiply the readings by 2.83, you will be undercharged. If you have a cu. m. meter and the do multiply by 2.83, you will be overcharged.

 

[lawrenso]

I bet if you look on your bill your are being charged metric - (MI or M(cubed ie to the power of 3)), They have swapped you over to Metric billing without changing the meter.

All bills are calculated using cubic metres. Readings from cubic feet meters have to be converted to cubic metres.

As it is only the black numbers which are written down, not the red or dial numbers, the readings of a cubic ft meter are actually hundreds of cubic feet. i.e 1234 actually means 123,400 cubic feet.

To convert hundreds of cubic feet to cubic metres you multiply by 2.83. So, if the last reading was 1234 and the current is 5678, then the amount used is 5678-1234=4444 hundreds of cubic feet, = 4444x2.83 cubic metres, i.e 12576.52 cubic metres.

This means that of you have a cu.ft. meter and they do not multiply the readings by 2.83, you will be undercharged. If you have a cu. m. meter and the do multiply by 2.83, you will be overcharged.

OOOps - sorry - I had it the wrong way round then

Thanks for the correction

Steve