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Using gas whilst away, how is this possible?

  • 4 November 2017
  • 94 replies
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So whilst i was away the My OVO app showed i was burning 30p a day of gas. Now i use NEST so i turned the thermostat to off before going

I have no other gas appliance so unsure what to-do, i have OVO smart meters so could they be sending false data?
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Best answer by Mw2870 5 November 2017, 17:59

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Same happened to me suspect, in fact I'm fairly certain it's the standing charge being levied. Its alerted me to the true cost of standing charges and something I'll look at more deeply when my current contract expires. It amounts to approximately £200 per year for joint fuel customers and that's a very significant chunk of my annual bill :@:@
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Updated 10/07/23 by Abby_OVO: 

It’s very rare for smart meters to over-clock your usage, if you’re concerned about the accuracy of your meter see this guide for how to test for a faulty meter. It’s worth bearing in mind that even when you’re away from home your daily standing charge is still applied which might help explain the usage costs you see on your online account or OVO app (download for Android or iOS), whilst your home is empty. 

If you are noticing minimal charges over the daily standing charge it’s possible that your boiler/pilot light uses a small amount of gas, even when your heating is switched off. See the experience of one user below:

 

I was interested in your post as I have also been looking at my gas consumption when I am not at home since my Smart Meter was installed.

On days I am not in the house for a whole 24hour period, MyOVO shows that the Gas cost for the day was £0.33. This seems to be consistent across the month.

This is made up of 28.77p standing charge and then 1.4 kwh of use @ 2.66p per kWH.
So 32.494p in total (I guess My OVO always rounds up in the graph).

So I was curious as to what is using the 1.4 kwh of Gas.... I have two Gas Appliances, a Vaillant Combi Boiler which does hot water and heating and a gas hob.

Now I know for sure the hob wasn't turned on, and I too have a Nest system so I know that the heating wasn't turned on at all (from the history in Nest).

So I have three theories
1) The Boiler occasionally uses a tiny bit of gas? Some sort of maintenance safety feature...
2) I have the worlds smallest gas leak
3) The meter is creeping when no gas is being used

I plan to test these theories by switching the boiler off completely and seeing if I get the same result next time I go away.

So just an update on this now that the summer is here!

The conclusion, my meter is definitely not creeping forwards on its own and it is the boiler that is using gas, even when it is not being used!


So even though I have a combi boiler, with no hot water tank and I know the heating is not being used, it still seems to used around 1kWh of Gas per day. Next time the annual service is due I will ask the plumber to see if he knows why.

So in the summer I can turn it off completely before I go away (no pilot light so easy to switch off and on), but in the Winter I will probably leave on when away as the thermostat will cut in if the temperature drops to prevent the pipes freezing and it is nice to turn the heating on when you are on your way home!

 

 

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Looking at my daily u sage graph I see that a small amount of gas shows as being used during 3 days when I was away & ALL gas appliances were shut down, how is this or does it indicate that there is a small gas leak somewhere ? The amounts were 0-03kWh, 0-09kWh & 0-10kWh for each of the 3 days.
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Looking at my daily u sage graph I see that a small amount of gas shows as being used during 3 days when I was away & ALL gas appliances were shut down, how is this or does it indicate that there is a small gas leak somewhere ? The amounts were 0-03kWh, 0-09kWh & 0-10kWh for each of the 3 days.

 


Hey radarman,

We might need to look into this for you. 
Lucy

 

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So just an update on this now that the summer is here!

The conclusion, my meter is definitely not creeping forwards on its own and it is the boiler that is using gas, even when it is not being used!

So this is what my usage looks like when I am away and there is no-one at home and I can double check the heating is not being used through the nest app:



This is what my usage looks like when I switch it off the boiler completely before I go away:



So even though I have a combi boiler, with no hot water tank and I know the heating is not being used, it still seems to used around 1kWh of Gas per day. Next time the annual service is due I will ask the plumber to see if he knows why.

So in the summer I can turn it off completely before I go away (no pilot light so easy to switch off and on), but in the Winter I will probably leave on when away as the thermostat will cut in if the temperature drops to prevent the pipes freezing and it is nice to turn the heating on when you are on your way home!
What has not been made clear, is whether standing charges ARE included in usage graphs. If they are, this would explain 30p usage per day when no gas is on. OVO are you able to confirm one way or another??
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I think it depends if you are looking at the kWh graph or the price graph.

Price graph shows the standing charge on both the bar and if you hover over:



The kWh graph includes it in the price if you hover over, but the usage bar is purely kWh used:

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I think it depends if you are looking at the kWh graph or the price graph.

Price graph shows the standing charge on both the bar and if you hover over:



The kWh graph includes it in the price if you hover over, but the usage bar is purely kWh used:



I still think it's a ghost in your homes 😛
I have an oldish boiler, so assume that excess over standing charge will be pilot light use?.? Not too many ghosts ‘round here!

I have just checked my Ovo daily charge for gas.

 I am currently on vacation abroad for 18 days and having been checking my app daily, for 13 days, my daily gas charges has been zero.

On December 14th and 15th, I have been charged for gas even though all appliances are turned and no one has access to the property, how can this happen ?

It is not a standing charge issue , as they are not included in daily rates.

On the previous occasion we were away, the daily reading's were zero for the 7 days.

Can anyone help because Ovo don't seem to be able to as there explanation was , I must have left my boiler on a timer, after I  had told them that no appliance had been left on and if I  had have left the timer on why was there no charges on every day.

 

 

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It’s possible those charges are estimates. They’ll be corrected automatically the next time you submit an actual meter reading.

How is it possible, when it takes a reading every half hour

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Please show me photos of your meter

Thanks for taking the time to reply I'm not back into the UK until Sunday. 

I will take a photo then and forward it on. 

 

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No worries. We’ll keep this thread open anyway, so feel free to stop by whenever you’re ready.

A variant of the post “Using gas whilst away”, however I read the cubic meter readings from the smart meter in the garage - so no daily charge potential confusions, no web app. With everything off, including boiler pilot light, I am using the equivalent of 1m^3 of gas every 72 days. 0.0137 m^3 over a 24 hour period. Is this normal behaviour of a boiler? It passed its annual service.

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That amount is so low that it's well under the acceptable amount of gas leakage for any property. So yes, it's perfectly normal.

 

The acceptable leak rate is 0.0005 m^3 of gas per hour per m^3 of room space.

 

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Hello all,

Hope someone might be able to help - I’ve had a few emails back and forth with customer services who insist there’s nothing wrong and my usage - and therefore high bills are accurate.

The long story short - I live on my own in a small 3-bed semi and my job means I work away from home.  Usually the house is empty Sunday night - Friday night, but occasionally it’s empty for 2-3 weeks at a time.  During these periods nobody goes in, so there shouldn’t be any gas use.  My account shows a small amount of electricity every day even when I’m away, but I can put that down to the alarm, fridge freezer & router, so happy.

But even when I’m away my account is showing gas usage, some days off the charts when I think it should be zero.  There’s nobody there to cook, use hot water, turn the heating on; the thermostat is turned down to 10-12 degrees and the boiler return temperature is at 50.   It’s a 6 year old Worcester Bosch boiler and was serviced by BG in the autumn so it should be working fine.

By way of example the chart below shows my usage in Dec 22:

The period between 5-15 Dec is was away from home full time and the house empty.  Yet you can see the scale of the gas usage.  And of note, the reading on 9 Dec, when the house was empty is higher than most readings over the Christmas period when I had a house full of family visiting.  Nov 22 is similar although there are days when the gas readings are zero - which is what I would expect. 

So despite falling gas prices, a warmer than expected winter, an empty house and a £66 govt grant, my bills are for some reason higher than ever.  My own records show the following annual usage rates over the period 2018-21: 11,777, 9378, 10791, 9848 kwh which gives you a sense of how much gets used.  Now I’m apparently using 2000 kwh gas PER MONTH!  And I’m the sort of bloke that turns the microwave and alarm clock off at the mains when I’m not using them!

Customer services say everything looks fine on my account but have singularly failed to come up with any answer to my question about who, if I’m away, is using so much gas.  That the readings are variable on a daily basis suggests its not a leak which I would expect to be consistent.  The days when there is a zero reading Customer Services say was due to no connectivity - yet the electricity seems to be connecting and sending readings just fine. That seems to raise questions in itself.  If the boiler were kicking in during the day when I’m not home, surely the electtricity readings would also be higher due to the electrical pump in the boiler being active?

I’m getting nowhere fast with Customer Services, so I’m throwing myself on the mercy of the Forum before I take this any further.  I think its down to a faulty gas meter.  BG have just serviced the boiler. And I never ever had problems with the old meters when I submitted monthly readings religiously, but have had various discrepancies since having smart meters installed.    Does anyone have any ideas - what questions should I be asking? And thank you in advance.

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First thing to do is check the meter readings. You should see them under View reading history on this page: Meter readings - OVO Energy. Take screenshots of the pages for December and January at least and keep them safe. Then note the latest ones on the meters themselves, with a photo if you can, and compare them with what the account pages are telling you.

Check, too, while you’re examining the meters, that their serial numbers (MSN) match the ones showing on the meter readings page. 

Then wait for one or other of our gas gurus to come along in the morning to say whether your house is about to explode, your gas meter is faulty or there’s a perfectly rational explanation. I’d only worry about the first if there were a distinct smell, but it’s possible that you’re being charged for somebody else’s gas. 

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As @Firedog has mentioned, meter readings are important and check to see if they’re listed as estimated or smart. 
Your boiler will no doubt have a frost setting and so that might take over on cold days (and nights) like we had in December even with your thermostat turned down as you mention. 
The final thing might be to find a slot of time to turn off the gas for a time, noting the readings before and after to check (be aware that a gas smart meter updated every every 30 mins)

Is it possible to be using gas when we had our boiler removed on the 12th Jan? As you can see I’m being charged for gas on the 12, 13 and 14th. Those are the latest figures I have as there’s always a lag on my gas readings. 
Can’t get through to customer service so thought I’d ask here for any advice?

 

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Have you given OVO meter readings, either manual or from a smart meter?

They just have the smart meter. I’ve not taken any readings…

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Yep my first thought is estimated readings, @DebG. What are your gas meter readings labeled as here: https://account.ovoenergy.com/meter-readings/history/gas

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@DebG have a look on this page

https://account.ovoenergy.com/meter-readings/history/gas

Here is mine for example

 

Do you see daily smart meter readings for the dates in question? 

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