Interesting Meter Time Changes *British Gas)

[adridude]

Hi,

 

Over the last 2 years of being with British Gas on a Pay Monthly Eco 7 meter, I've noticed that the clock has moved forward by 21 minutes. The reason why I notice this time is because the eco 7 times have crept forward by 21 mins. THis ALSO includes the DST changes so has NOTHING to do with that.

 

I called British Gas to ask about this, and asked 'Where did this mysterious 21 minutes come from'. The lady was unable to answer and basically said 'thats impossible, the meters are on a 24 hour rotation'. Anyway, she couldn't grasp the concept that some clocks run fast and on the other hand, some run slow.

 

I've worked it out, and looking at the amount of British Gas customers, accorging to the guardian. If this were to happen to each an every one of their customers (15.7 million of them in Feb 2012) over a 2 year period, british gas would be making:

 

Working out below:

 

157000000 x 21 minutes = 329700000 minutes per 2 years (or 164850000 minutes per year)

329700000 / 60 = 5495000 hours of extra time per 2 years (2747500 hours of time per year)

 

Now if we work on ONE unit (there's no telling how much was being used over, but lets use 1kWh as an example.

 

T1 was 27p

T2 was 18p

Night was 5p

 

On tier 1 Daytime: £ 1483650 over 2 years (per year £741825)

On Tier 2 Daytime: £ 989100 over 2 years (per year £494550)

On Nighttime: £ 274750 over 2 years (per year £137375)

 

 

This is based on 1 unit over all the customers at the Kent ME10 area tariffs.

 

1) Does anyone know what the allowable discrepancy is.

2) Can this be contested or brought to anyone's attention?

 

Thanks

 

Adridude