Ducted gas heating - is this a joke???

Hi all,

Let me preface this by saying that generally my gas bill for 3 months is around the $180 mark. This is gas cooking, and gas storage hot water for me, my partner and 2 young children.

We bought our new house and settlement was on the 31st of August this year. The previous owners final reading was done on the same day. We did not move into this house until the 15th of September, and I have recieved a bill today from the 1st of September to the 7th of October (36 days) for $592.

There are 2 differences between our old house and our new house. Our old has had gas storage hot water and our new house has instantaneous gas water heating (which according to the lady at Alinta I spoke to today is generally more efficient than storage). The other difference is our new house has ducted gas heating.

Now if you take into account two things;
we did not move into this house until the 15th September. So from that date to the time the meter was read is only actually 22 days.
Secondly, we used the gas heating 4 nights in a row after moving in because they were quite cold nights still. It was probably only on for a maximum of 3 hours a night, but i'll be very generous and say in the 4 nights we used it, we had it running a total of 15 hours. And that is all, it was never used at any other time.

Now the question i'm asking is how can 15 hours of gas heating create a 300% increase in my gas bill, and give me an obscene figure of $600 for 22 days of living including 4 days of heating a total of 15 hours.
When i questioned this with the lady at Alinta she was extremely adamant that ducted gas heating uses massive quantities of gas and that they quite often in winter have people with $1500 gas bills for 3 months usage.

So I took a reading today of my meter and the lady kindly explained to me how the "units" are calculated. It turns out since the meter was read on the 7th October until today (6 days) i have only used 9.1 units of gas per day, which is WELL down from the period of this monster bill, where I was averaging over 100 units per day.

So it seems that logically the gas heating is the culprit, but my questions is why the hell do people install these units when during the cold parts of the year you'd almost need a second mortgage to pay the friggin bill????

The moral of my story is, come winter time that silly little thing in the roof can stay there and gather dust, because i refuse to pay such obscene prices. Blankets and warm clothes will suit us fine.

And just for interests sake, our last house had ducted reverse cycle and during winter we FLOGGED that thing and the highest electricity bill we got was a bit over $400 - but that also includes appliances, lighting, etc etc etc, so in my opinion that tells a big story.

And gas is supposed to be the cheaper option? ... What a joke.

That doesn't seem right to me... I'd be looking up the specs of the gas system you have to see what it's maximum consumption rate is, and then doing a couple of backwards calculations...

It is a common misconception that gas heating is cheaper than RC AC, but that seems a lot for a short period of time...

so ICE man are you saying RC is cheaper that GAS.

also to the original poster, was the meter red correctly or was it an estimate??

I believe the energy efficiency ratings of RC AC systems confuse many (and me!)

But pretty sure that 1kW of gas = 1kW heating, whereas 1kW electricity through RC AC can get 3.5kW heating...
I believe many people look at it as 1kW gas against 1kW electricity therefore gas is way cheaper...
But it's not necessarily so where the EER is taken into account...

Our gas bill for 2 months was $543 for 5 adults and a baby. Gas ducted heating was on pretty much 24/7 (the joys of a newborn!), we have a gas storage hot water system and gas cooktop. Showers at about 17 a week. Cooktop used every day.

I would be thinking your bill was based on an estimate, as it just doesnt seem to work out?

Yeah, as others have said, check with your provider to make sure they actually read the meter rather than providing an estimate.

I just got a gas bill for $180 and the meter isn't even connected to my (new) house yet. Thus they wanted to charge me when absolutely no gas had been used

My winter bill, heater on a lot more than you was about $400 I think. Gas really isn't that bad and my sister who had her heating on 24/7 at like 23+ degrees only reached about $900 I think (she learnt her lesson ).

Yes way too high, the question of course is what was the meter reading the day you moved in, or did you just rely on the old owner's reading?

I was thinking the exact same thing,

The day we moved houses I took pictures of the electricity and gas meters readings. When I checked the meter readings on our next bill I found we were being charged for ~$120.00 of the previous owner's usage. A quick phone call and we had a revised bill with a credit for the amount on it's way.

You could also read the gas meter, use your heater for an hour or so and read the meter again. You should be able to tell straight away whether your heater's the culprit.

Okay so I rang back today because i just couldn't fathom where they get this from.

The first lady i spoke to (and same as the lady yesterday) informed me that the previous owners had not actually closed the account themselves. It was changed over the day i rang and had it connected in my name - which was the day of settlement.
Apparently it was read on that same day so they have told me that the meter reading is correct and my bill is right. I continued to state my point and she put me through to a "level 2" person, who proceeded to dribble the same rubbish down the line and said that $400 or so for 10 - 15 hours heating is quite possible. All this after initially saying "yes, gas heating is expensive, its about $6 - $8 an hour to run. (Clearly she's great at maths)

Anyway, after questioning the accuracy of the "final reading" for the previous owners, she then came out with "Oh it was read again the following day on the 1st of October and it was exactly the same, so the meter reading is clearly correct".
I then ask WHY they would read the meter twice in 2 days, and she says "because the reading on the 31st was a final reading for you to take over the account, and on the 1st was the scheduled quarterly reading".
I then asked "why was i not told about this particular reading when the lady before her, and the lady from yesterday gave me all the readings back to April this year, and this October 1st reading was never mentioned". Her reply was "because you didn't ask".

It's worth noting that in this bill period of 36 days the meter has risen by over 5000. The previous owner told me that during winter they ran the gas heating ALL night because her young kids would wake up in the night cold from kicking their covers off. Yet the ladies from Alinta gave me a meter reading of a 6 week period between the 13th July to the end of August and the meter had only risen by 50 or so.

I believe the meter reader only came once and the level 2 lady has made up the second visit.
I also believe the meter reader has made a big blunder and put an incorrect number in the final reading and it has subsequently given the previous owners a very cheap final reading, and me a very expensive first bill.

But can i prove it? - Nope.
Will escalating it get me anywhere? - Nope.

Not impressed.

your only chance is to take it to the ombudsman. You should be able to get them to pay half the difference.

The gas appliance manufacturers should be able to provide the maximum gas usage figures for their appliances. At the very least this will let you know exactly how much it costs to run your heater.

I've never had gas heating but looking at the following document I'm wondering if it's even possible for your appliances to use that much gas in 36 days.

http://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/re ... iances.pdf

Exactly

Ditto as per the prev few posts. ..

I would continue to fight the good fight..
Escalate and make big noise about it...
As mentioned earlier, is there an energy ombudsman . .. like the TIO . .

It seems absurd to me, almost beyond belief that you could use that much in such a short period of time.
There's another thread floating around regarding winter bills, etc etc.. and the amounts bandied around whilst similar in number to yours or a bit less, were for significantly longer periods.

I'd continue the fight. That cost sounds absurd. But I may be biased as my last gas bill was $128 for 61 days. Before that was $160 for 59 days (peak winter time). I have gas stove, gas hot water and gas space heater (used every night during winter for around 5 hrs).

RCAC is 'three times more efficient' but where I live natural gas is one quarter the price of peak electricity - joule for joule. Gas still comes in ahead of RCAC.

Not from where i'm sitting it doesn't dymonite

Ive found gas to be a little more than i expected..... i have a large braemar ducted system, rheem instant gas hot water and gas stove top......

I log my meters on a spread sheet every few days to keep an eye on things.....its been a very cold winter but these are my costs....

Heater was pretty much set on 22/23 degrees....and set on specific timers..... id say a good average was 4-5 hours per day for the whole 85 day bill cycle....

So.... we used 811 cubic meters of gas (811 units on the meter).... over 85 days = 9.54 m3 p/day.... we have 5% discount on gas usuage....

The bill came in at $526-

Im guesstimating that ill be using 1m3 of gas per day without the heater on over summer..... at the same tarrifs that bill will be $150.....

I think my yearly gas bills total $1200... minus $600 for normal usuage....

Winter HEATING bill is $600....

Something to ponder..... live in SA....3 person household... 1 shower 2 baths per day...

old house heated just 1 room, new house the entire house, maybe there is your answer?
Next up: the gas ducted heater I took apart did not look like energy efficiency played a role in its design.
Maybe should have read the meters yourself when you moved in?
Maybe the inlet grille is blocked or some ducts faulty, so it just heats itself? Its merely a box with a fan and some burners, so some of the heat will escape straight into the chimney.