Not using Gas but Meter Reading is Increasing

I've recently moved into a rented house which has gas central heating. I've never had gas before, so excuse me if I'm a bit ignorant on the topic!

The gas is just used for the central heating and a gas fire in the living room (the latter of which we have never used).

Given them time of year, we are not currently using the central heating and I have the heating switched off and all timers are off.

Out of curiosity, I was doing some checks last night on our Elec and Gas meters, to see roughly how much they've gone up by since we moved in and what rate they tend to increase at.

I took a reading at 8pm and then at 9pm. I was surprised to see that our gas meter reading had increased slightly, even though we are not currently using the gas. In the space of an hour the reading increased by about 0.012 cubic metres (ie. the three red digits, after the main digits, increased from about 782 to 794).

Does anyone know why this might be? Is this an indication of a leak possibly?

The boiler was only serviced in March just before we moved in.

if you are not using gas and the meter is showing movement then you do have a leak. I would put money on the seal into your gas fire not been correctly fitted as this appears to be a common issue. I had my own issue with this previously and the gas fitter who repaired it from Bord Gais stated that he was repairing them on a daily basis.

Ring a gas plumber and he will locate it quickly as at the minute you have money going right up the chimney!!

Is there any point in me contacting Airtricity as that who my gas account is with? Or will they charge me a fortune to check it?

airtricity are you gas supplier but are not responsible for the network or plumbing in your home. I would contact a gas registered plumber from the following list http://www.rgii.ie/, get him to find the leak and then you can contact whoever is responsible based on the location fo the leak.

Is your cooker on gas? If not then it must be a leak.

No cooker is not on gas.

Someone has pointed out to me that it's probably the pilot light on the boiler. I checked the boiler and there is a small blue flame down near the base of it, behind a little slidable cover.

This is obviously constantly drawing a small amount of gas from the mains?

Yes, if you have a (very old) boiler it may have a permanent pilot, whats the make and model and will check for you (modern boilers have electronic ignition and no pilot)

DGOBS said:

Yes, if you have a (very old) boiler it may have a permanent pilot, whats the make and model and will check for you (modern boilers have electronic ignition and no pilot)

Click to expand...

My boiler is a Potterton Kingfisher 2. I think it dates from the early to mid 90s.

I did a bit of searching on it and found some manuals online. It does have a pilot light, I managed to locate it.

I've taken a few readings while my gas heating was switched off and the gas meter is increasing by approx 0.010 to 0.012 cubic metres per hour. This isn't an awful lot, but it is constant.

I guess I'm just wondering is this normal. I don't want to go hassling my landlord to get it checked out if it's not an issue. The boiler was just serviced in March. Maybe I should ring the company who serviced it for some advice?

Why don't you just turn off the isolation valve

Kingfisher has a permanent pilot alrite, so theres you meter movement

Old boiler, time for something a bit newer and leaner on gas!