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I'm concerned that my meters over charging me it's a smart meter so readings are automatically sent. Every month I've been getting charged £100 for gas and £50 or less for electric. I'm in a small one bed room flat only the heating uses the gas nothing else so how on earth is it that high 😬

Hi @Kingy10005 I’ll let more knowledgeable people than me discuss the readings and their accuracy and how you can check this. What I would say is it’s worth checking how efficient your boiler is operating. I assume it’s a combi-boiler? If so, do you know what flow temperature it’s set at? You should be able to reduce this to at least lower than 55 or 50 degrees and still maintain comfort. This will ensure the boiler is condensing properly. Sometimes boilers are set to really high temperatures up to 80 degrees, which is just wasting energy and money.


From what I know it's a combi and has 1 to 5 for the temp settings for heating and water. Set to 4 if I remember right and thermostat set to 18 c

From my app usage it's saying I some how used between 1500 kWh and 1900.1 kWh a month  just seems way to high for a small flat 🥴


@Kingy10005 As it's a combi you won't do any damage by turning things down, and the boiler shouldn't need to work very hard if the thermostat is set to 18. I suggest turning the settings down on the boiler bit by bit. You may not notice any change to the heat output but it should use less gas. Keep doing this until the room/water only just about warm enough for your liking and then nudge it up a bit again!


Hi @Kingy10005 

It's unlikely you're actually using that much gas as that's the typical usage for a large house. You might have a leak or it might be a problem with your account.

 

Have you checked that the figures you're seeing on the app match your meter readings? Also, are you sure your account is linked to the correct gas meter? Sometimes, where a number of flats have their meters in the same cupboard they get mixed up and people end up with the wrong meter linked to their account.


Yeah I think meters are correctly set up with there ID numbers. I did connect support and they said that the numbers look perfectly normal lol for a small flat it's way high compared to my previous supplier and there saying I have to pay 160 to get there meter checked for a mistake they mite have made 🤦

 

I will most likely have to be in the cold for a month to pay for it with COPD that's stupid but not much choice


Updated on 19/11/24 by Abby_OVO

 

Ofgem quote some typical gas  consumption figures for different households. Basically;

 

Low (1 to 2 bed) 8000

Medium (3 to 4 bed) 12000

High (5+ bed) 17000

 

But in practice the usage varies dramatically based on type/age/size of home, quality of boiler and radiators/underfloor heating, how long you have the heating on etc. 

And these typical values aren't actually the average consumption in the UK. The average consumption is actually higher than this and there is a wide range in actual usage. 

 

Do you know how much gas you use in a year? Gas usage obvious varies dramatically by month. How does your annual usage compare with the annual  ofgem figures? Just as an example we used 2109 kWh in December and 98 kWh in July for a larger property. 

Although your usage looks high it may be in the range that OVO see for similar properties. Has your meter been changed at the same time you saw the jump in usage? Or is the jump in usage just since you swapped supplier? 

 

I think i would start by getting the boiler serviced and the radiators balanced and checked out etc. A good service will also check for gas leaks. Ruling out a problem with your actual heating system would be a good first step i think. We had a very small leak from our gas hob once many years ago rather than our boiler so although rare gas leaks do occur. Also worth looking at the 30min gas readings from your smart meter to see if there is anything unusual and when the gas is being used. 

 

Of course there could be an issue with the meter, but i think there are other things worth checking first. 

 

The following topic may also be helpful:

 


I've recently installed a E-ON 😡 Smart meter . E-on is saying I owe £80 p.w yet my smart meter is showing I'm using £30 pw . How is this possible? ALSO according to the meter I'm using 06.0p gas  per hour yet I have NO gas appliances on .. 


Howdy @Mowey ,

It usually takes up to six weeks for newly installed meters to fully commission. Try giving it more time as things should settle down. If it still doesn’t seem right, try asking them to run the SMETS Command Update Tariff Configuration against both meters.

It’s also worth noting that gas meters only heartbeat every 30 minutes, so real-time data isn’t possible. What you see on the IHD is based on the previous 30 minute snapshot and will not reflect your live usage.


Thanks . 


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