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Help me make sense of the gas bill

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  1. #21

    Join Date
    Mar 2008
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    992

    You can call town gas and they can change the language of the bill to english. Also, find your gas meter (usually in the kitchen under the sink), write down the number and call it in to town gas. Your next bill will be adjusted if it was being estimated on the high side.


  2. #22

    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    62
    Quote Originally Posted by stanleyliving:
    By the way Dodraugen, even if you sort out this bill with your landlord, it is possible that the Gas Co may now take 292 units per month as the "pattern" of your monthly usage and bill accordingly UNLESS you give them the actual meter reading each month. Simply ring the Gas Co up around the 20th of each month to tell them the reading.
    Okay, so the landlord called towngas, and they basically confirmed everything you said. So he will take care of the bill. He did, however, ask how much of it we feel "comfortable" paying for this month, and while I'm sure we could reply with "nothing, since there's no way to know how much we've actually used", I would like to pay a bit of it, since we have used gas every day, and since he has been very accommodating with our problems so far.

    So, is there any way to roughly calculate how many units of gas might actually have been used by us this month? I'm guessing the best we could get is a number with a wide margin of error, (15 minutes of cooking every day, plus 5 minutes of hot water every other day, for the two of us combined).

    Anyways, thanks for all the help, greatly appreciated.

  3. #23

    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    1,966

    wait for the next bill.

    Tell him to wait till the next bill. This will give you the idea of how much you are using per month, This is a fair method.

    Quote Originally Posted by Dodraugen:
    Okay, so the landlord called towngas, and they basically confirmed everything you said. So he will take care of the bill. He did, however, ask how much of it we feel "comfortable" paying for this month, and while I'm sure we could reply with "nothing, since there's no way to know how much we've actually used", I would like to pay a bit of it, since we have used gas every day, and since he has been very accommodating with our problems so far.

    So, is there any way to roughly calculate how many units of gas might actually have been used by us this month? I'm guessing the best we could get is a number with a wide margin of error, (15 minutes of cooking every day, plus 5 minutes of hot water every other day, for the two of us combined).

    Anyways, thanks for all the help, greatly appreciated.
    Dodraugen likes this.

  4. #24

    Morning folks!

    Dodraugen, first find out whether the meter is only for your flat's consumption of gas. (Some landlords partition a flat into smaller independant units, but leave the meter in one unit - not saying that your landlord did this, but just confirm).

    From the very light usage that you described in your first post, I would say $120 sounds about right. Gas consumption will go up in the winter months because of hot water showers, but I would say not more than $200 in your case. (You don't seem to do a lot of cooking, etc)

    Try offering $150 for a start and take it from there...

    Last edited by stanleyliving; 28-09-2012 at 10:53 AM.

  5. #25

    Waiting for the next bill, as Oldtimer says, is also a good idea PROVIDED

    1) the gas meter is only for your flat's consumption; and
    2) you get the gas man or someone to actually read the meter at the end of the month and report this reading to the Gas Company.

    If you don't want to put the gas account in your name (or if the Landlord prefers it to stay in his/her name), just make sure readings are done regularly and reported to the Gas Company.

    Last edited by stanleyliving; 28-09-2012 at 10:56 AM.

  6. #26

    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Posts
    2,136

    oh nm.......

    Last edited by Creative83; 28-09-2012 at 11:42 AM.

  7. #27

    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Posts
    434
    Quote Originally Posted by Satay Sue:
    I did this very easily myself when we first arrived, I'm sure there were details on the reverse of the bill on how to do this.
    Yes, I'd forgotten that even on the OP's Chinese bill that info is given in English