THIS is the moment a homeowner’s gas meter spins out of control as he watches on helpless and freezing.
It was -8.9C in parts of the country when the resident, from Manchester, flicked on his heating to try to warm up his icy home.
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But, he says he’d had issues with his gas meter so braved the -4C temperatures to see if it was working.
The man, who The Sun Online has agreed not to name, said he couldn’t believe what he saw – the meter ticking over at speed.
The IT expert’s stomach dropped, fearing his energy bill would shoot through the roof.
He told The Sun Online: “It was just like a petrol pump.
“I just stood there and watched it for 30 seconds and thought what the f… is going on?”
The man then rushed upstairs to grab his phone and snap a video, and tell his brother who he lives with.
He watched his “old” legacy gas meter go through 12p a minute, and quickly eat up the £2.14 that was left of the pre-paid balance.
Confused by what had happened, the man got in touch with friends to see if their meters had done the same – and they quickly told him what he was seeing was unusual.
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The man, who said he had topped up the meter £60 through his provider SSE plc in just five days, called the situation “frustrating”.
He said: “We’ve been having trouble with our meter.
“They’ve told us it’s faulty.”
The man said it was only on Monday that a gas technician came out to check on the “dodgy” meter, and replace its battery.
He said this came after the brothers splashed an “astronomical amount of money” to keep themselves warm.
What was even more frustrating for the man is he said he could not get a hold of his energy provider SSE, despite “pushing pillar to post” all day today.
But, after having no luck getting in touch, he said he and his brother had no choice but to put on multiple layers of clothing to fight the bitter temperatures.
He said: “It’s freezing and it’s really getting cold now.
“This is the problem – some days we are in the position we can’t top up the meter.”
The Sun Online has approached SSE for comment.
It comes after a couple were horrified when they checked their British Gas account and saw they’d been slapped with a whopping £117,000 bill.
Kate and Michael Brown say the shocking statement detailed that they had racked up £112,000 in energy costs in a month – which had £5,600 in VAT on top.
Meanwhile, temperatures across the country plummeted today – seeing schools closed and travel chaos hit.
And, it’s expected to get worse.
Met Office warned of a -10C bone chiller that could last for a week.
