How can I prove my National Grid Gas bill is wrong?

Submitted by net1994 t3_100uads in massachusetts

Hi all. Not sure where to start here. We just got our gas bill that covered 40 days for our home. It's a 2 bedroom apartment and we only turned the heat on 5x during this period. (Perhaps for 12hrs each set to 62 degrees. The house temp was about 55 degrees before this. ) In Dec 2021 we used only 133 therms and during this current 40 day period, National Grid bill had 334 therms and the bill was $800! We definitely didn't use that much in the last 40 days. No e'fin way. We had a technician came out and he thought the meter was tied to a different account, not in our building. We were expecting to get a huge credit for overpayment and it was the exact opposite. I know something is still wrong here. I called them yesterday and said the meter is still wildly off. I've been taking daily meter readings since Dec 20th to yesterday and have only used 23 therms during that period.

For anyone curious, below is our most recent bill breakdown. You can see how the original December bill was canceled and then doubled++ with a revised bill. Dec 2021 only used 133 therms, so jumping up to 333 with the current bill doesn't make any sense.

I still think the meter is 'broken' or there is some other 'crossing of accounts.' How can I prove it's a broken meter? Perhaps a problem with how gas is distributed on the st to our building? Who knows. It's maddening as when I call Nat Grid they just say "no, our system shows you used that much gas." At this rate, I think my bill for Feb will be $1500!

Has anyone ever had a similar situation?

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EtonRd t1_j2jw0fb wrote

Can you break these bills out by therms per day to normalize them? If you take the gas, used history and divide the therms by the days, you can come up with an average terms per day used. And you can see how much is being driven by there being 40 days in this current bill. That only accounts for a portion of the huge difference, but it does it account for some of it.

Your average therms per day in December 21 was 4.75. In December 22, it was 8.55. If you can approach the gas company with that difference, that very clearly shows that something has changed drastically, that is unrelated to the difference between 28 days in the December bill for 2021 and the 40 days in the December bill for 2022. You could also check the average daily temperature for the billing for each December bill. Document all that and email it to someone at national grid and if I were you, I would also contact your state representative and tell them that you are having trouble resolving an exceptionally high heating bill and let national grid know that you are doing that.

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HuntingSpice t1_j2kgr05 wrote

I had an issue with them regarding electric charges, not gas. I was living in another state for the summer (also a National Grid account).

Absolutely nothing was plugged in at my MA residence, yet my bill spiked high during that time period. I came home to find my upstairs neighbors (the landlord's relatives) running 5 air conditioners in their windows.

When I presented National Grid with the bills from both locations, they said I would need to hire my own electrician to investigate. They were no help at all.

I hope you have better luck.

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blorg39 t1_j2kuu4t wrote

Didn’t national grid jack up their prices by 60%? Maybe that’s a factor?

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Quirky_Butterfly_946 t1_j2k2i3s wrote

Why is Dec 22 40 days? That is 11-12 days over any previous months. That is just under half a months worth of gas tacked on. If you also count the days for each reading from Jan 22 to Dec 22 it comes to 373 days so that is over 365/yr. There are too many days and depending on which days they are over counting (cheaper cost months before the increases) they are overcharging you.

Plumbers are capable of looking over the inside of your building, unless it contains many apartments I would check with them, and determine if the lines are going to the right meter or if someone is connected to yours. Speak to your landlord so that they can gain access to where it comes into the house, the meters and where each apt is connected to the meter.

Back in the mid 90's I got a notice that I was being shut off for non payment. I had been sending payments with the bills I received. When I called them, it seems they had the lines mislabeled for my apartment since the lines were a cluster.

I would call a plumber first, make sure you are paying for only you. I would also do as you are doing reading it every day and take a picture, each time, too of the meter for proof. I would call the gas company and discuss the irregularity of the days cited on you bill. I would also check that every window/door is closed and tight. Beyond that, I think they have us all by the short hairs at the moment.

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[deleted] t1_j2ktlon wrote

Doesn't take a plumber to follow the black iron pipe from your meter to your furnace and/or the dryers in the common laundry....

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Ninja0978 t1_j2masxp wrote

Looks like 80% of your bill is "delivery charges"

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net1994 OP t1_j42hfoq wrote

1/12/23 UPDATE:

Just got the new bill since the one discussed here. It's for a 3 week period and the bill came to $133 for just 52 therms used with an actual read-not estimated. FINALLY the reading was accurate and matched up to the daily readings I had been doing on the meter. We literally have not turned on the heat since the last bill. In fact for this cycle, we used about 50% less gas than the Dec 2021 bill.

With that said, I'm not sure if I still have any "leg to stand on" in trying to dispute the insanely high last bill. How can I tell them something was/is wrong even though the most recent bill was accurate? Thoughts?

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