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I have a Vaillant ecoTEC Plus 630 boiler paired with a megaflo eco systemfit unvented cylinder.  My gas usage is nearly 3 times my colleagues who has a combi boiler (they have a much larger house, more occupants and has a gas hob and oven). My gas usage is solely for hot water/heating.  My system is managed through the nest app and my water is heating for a total of 4.5 hours a day (I don’t have hot water whenever I want). I went on holiday for a week, turned my system off and it still charged me for all but 2 days of the 7 I was away.  We’ve had no heating on and only the hot water scheduled for the times mentioned above. My usage is around 800-850kWh per month.  I live with my boyfriend and two year old.  I’ve spoken to so many people who can’t find the issue - can anyone help?! Picture of my usage for the week I was away.

@Jeffus Thanks for that, that is helpful. Before April 15th I was on monthly smart meter recordings so I imagine this is why there were no meter readings between April 5th and 15th. However I’m not sure where this leaves me in interpreting my usage graph - where did they get those usage figures from?


Hi @SarahLock , what the graph would show is an ‘averaged’ use over those days but as Jeffus says, the graph is purely indicative. It is only the meter readings that count towards your bill. 
A visual representation which in this case is a little misleading unfortunately 


Sure, picture attached. I also had the same problem in September last year. 

We have turned our combi boiler off so there's no pilot light , only charge is the standing charge which is crazy amount, the pilot light costs £10 a week!!! So that's why I turned it off


I have a solar-powered infrared heating system with an oil-fired boiler as backup. With the change in the weather in mid-October, the water was not heating adequately so I switched the boiler on, timed for a couple of hours morning and night. Since then, my daily electricity usage has gone from £3-4 a day to £7-8 a day. I can’t think of any other changes. Surely this can’t be enough to explain such a huge jump? Any guidance gratefully received!


Do you have a hot water cylinder with an immersion heater ? Might this have been switched on by the boiler system somehow ?


Hi All,

Recently moved to a 3bed house, 3 adults usually not home during the day, but  I am being charged £400 a month just for Gas.

Ovo claims we use 5837.90 kwh of gas monthly, which is ridiculous since we only use Gas for heating , which hasn't been on, heating up water and hob, which its not used everyday. 

Is this normal?  We’ve been charged equivalent to a years usage in the past 4 months, apparently we used 16,843kwh of gas  since the third week of October till now. 

I have contacted them, waiting to hear back from a billing specialist and rather anxious with whole situation, just wanted some views from other users.  

Also can someone explain how they calculate the live usage, because it changes a lot and sometimes the £ is higher on days no ones home. 

Thank you in advance. 


Hi @Anocas , do you have a smart meter at all? If not or if the readings are not being received regularly, your usage will be estimated. 
You can check on your account if readings are actual or estimated 


Hi @Anocas 

Check on this page for gas

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

You should see something like this

Ideally with a daily reading with the word Smart next to it.

 


We’ve been charged equivalent to a years usage in the past 4 months,

 

Sadly, this sounds familiar. If your reported consumption in kWh appears to be three times what it should be, can you please check that the conversion from m³ to kWh is being done properly on your bill? We’ve seen several cases where the m³ figures were being treated as if they were ft³ (actually x 100). Unless your gas meter is more than about 20 years old, it’s unlikely to be measuring in cu.ft, and if this mistake has indeed been made on your bills, the kWh figure will be 2.8 times higher than it should be.

The calculation is explained in detail here: Gas meter readings and bill calculation - www.gov.uk 

 


Hi, 

Thank you for your reply.

I do have a smart meter, which wasn't “communicating” with OVO but somehow my account still  shows the readings as “Smart”, so i don't believe is estimated . 


We’ve been charged equivalent to a years usage in the past 4 months,

 

Sadly, this sounds familiar. If your reported consumption in kWh appears to be three times what it should be, can you please check that the conversion from m³ to kWh is being done properly on your bill? We’ve seen several cases where the m³ figures were being treated as if they were ft³ (actually x 100). Unless your gas meter is more than about 20 years old, it’s unlikely to be measuring in cu.ft, and if this mistake has indeed been made on your bills, the kWh figure will be 2.8 times higher than it should be.

The calculation is explained in detail here: Gas meter readings and bill calculation - www.gov.uk 

 

Hi, I just did the calculations and I believe you are correct. Our smart meter was installed before we moved in around June last year, and I believe Ovo was still doing calculations with the old meter unit ft³  instead of m³.  Thank you so much. 


I’m glad that Firedog managed to identify the issue! Pop back if you need anything else @Anocas 


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