British Gas is asking for volunteer customers to join a 20-strong panel which will help write a report on how the company is operating. Advertisements were today placed in a number of national newspapers outlining their intentions.

At the same time, and as part of a much publicised move, British Gas is offering its customers the chance to pay accurate energy bills, rather than paying an amount based on an estimated meter reading.

Bills based on estimated readings have been the thorn in the side of many energy companies and research by British Gas has shown that such bills are very unpopular amongst its 16 million customers.

Instead, the energy giant is asking for customers to send their monthly readings either by text, or online. And people who opt for this service will receive a monitor, provided free, which accurately displays their use of electricity on a minute-by-minute basis.

A British Gas spokesperson said:
“Instead of issuing you with a bill we will contact you by email or text and ask you to submit a reading from the normal meter. Estimated bills were seen as a source of frustration by customers as they didn’t accurately reflect the energy they had used.”

British Gas apparently were at pains to point out that the new monitors are different from those currently being recommended by the Government.

The monitors from British Gas are designed to be installed by the user and come in two parts. One gets attached to the house’s existing meter and this communicates, via a wireless link, with the second part, which is the display. This is powered from an ordinary plug socket. And the display not only tells the user how much they are paying for their electricity on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, but also tells them how much C02 they are generating.

Although readers of this blog might remember a story a few weeks back about an Eaglestone pensioner who opted for a free gas meter upgrade found herself with a bill of £168.

And what made matters worse, she was left with no heating, or hot water. The 73-year-old responded to a British Gas offer to update customer’s technology which is part of a countrywide initiative.

An engineer made the visit, fitted the new meter and then tried to relight the pensioner’s boiler. After three attempts he gave up and left, saying it was no longer his responsibility, leaving the boiler unlit and the house cold, and without hot water.

The problem was eventually sorted out and to be fair to British Gas, it appears that the boiler might not have been regularly serviced, which meant that when it came to relighting, it would not operate properly.

But it does alert user’s to the fact that although modern monitors and meters are the future, some care should be taken as to what might happen if, after their installation (and this new one is to monitor electricity, not gas), systems don’t work as before.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The government wants every house in the U.K. to have a smart meter installed by the year 2020.

British Gas was amongst many energy companies that welcomed the initiative, as it allows them to not only remotely record the energy they are using (doing away with physical meter reading), but also let their customers see accurately how much energy they are consuming.

The cost of the initiative will be some £7 billion, as around 22 million gas meters are needed and 26 million electricity meters.

Smart meters will not only save a fortune spent on actually reading meters, but they should also reduce the amount of mistakes and controversial estimated readings. Consumer groups hope that many of the savings will be passed onto customers.

And because consumers will for the first time see the cost of heating their home, or cooking, they will begin to conserve energy and this will help reduce carbon emissions.

The meter fitting project will be the biggest of its kind since British Gas undertook to convert 17 million properties to natural gas in the 1970s.

It will be the energy company’s responsibility to run the meter fitting programme and estimates reckon the £7 billion total cost equates to around £15 per home, per year, for the five years between 2010 and 2020.

Of that £15 cost a year for five years, some £10 will be recouped in direct cost savings from the energy suppliers, leaving £5. But, with hoped for energy use savings of around 2.5% on average, this would mean some £30 off the average bill. The net result is customers better off by about £20 a year.

Overall, this could cut around £100 million of bills by 2020 and see a dramatic reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of nearly three million tonnes.

Guest Article by Neil Camp