Using gas whilst away, how is this possible?

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.

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. 

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?

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…

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

@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? 

Thanks, I’ve checked that page and get this…I’m billed on the 13th each month so it looks like they just take a monthly smart reading. Even if I click to include estimates it doesn’t show me that the daily readings I have are estimated. 
I’ve managed to get through on the phone this morning and apparently the gas smart meter isn’t communicating as it should. I’ve completed the questionnaire they’ve sent with all meter details and photos however I’ve now had an automated reply to say that email address is no longer in use!! Does anything work there??

im not feeling overly confident that this will be sorted because I’ve had issues since this smart meter was fitted last March and was assured it was working since September. Now I have no idea if I’ve been billed correctly or not!

@DebG unfortunately your meter has been setup to only send a meter reading once a month by the look of things as the smart meter reading is the same day every month.

Ask OVO to set the meter reading frequency to every 30min.

In the vast majority of cases this will sort out what you are seeing.

It does look like the meter is working, it is just the reading frequency has been set to 1 month by default which is very unhelpful.