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Does this sound expensive?
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I am on British Gas Click6 - Having double checked my meter readings I find that for just simply having on the pilot light for my boiler and gas fire they use 1unit(11Kwh) every 53hrs.
This may not sound a lot but using Tier1 charging (On the basis its easier to have them on 24hrs a day rather than run the risk of them not re-lightiing, which has happened to me before so you they would use the first xkwh p/day) it works out at around £10 p/m or £120 p/a - This seems crazy to me.
I rang BG but the guy I spoke said they worked on usage of around 1 unit per day per pilot light!!! That would be 4 times the cost.
Am I going mad - or does it sound like the meter is misreading or is it sadly just the reality of today's charges.
Interested in your thoughts or is there a way to have the meter checked without incurring an enormous call out charge.
Planes
This may not sound a lot but using Tier1 charging (On the basis its easier to have them on 24hrs a day rather than run the risk of them not re-lightiing, which has happened to me before so you they would use the first xkwh p/day) it works out at around £10 p/m or £120 p/a - This seems crazy to me.
I rang BG but the guy I spoke said they worked on usage of around 1 unit per day per pilot light!!! That would be 4 times the cost.
Am I going mad - or does it sound like the meter is misreading or is it sadly just the reality of today's charges.
Interested in your thoughts or is there a way to have the meter checked without incurring an enormous call out charge.
Planes
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Comments
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I am on British Gas Click6 - Having double checked my meter readings I find that for just simply having on the pilot light for my boiler and gas fire they use 1unit(11Kwh) every 53hrs.
This may not sound a lot but using Tier1 charging (On the basis its easier to have them on 24hrs a day rather than run the risk of them not re-lightiing, which has happened to me before so you they would use the first xkwh p/day) it works out at around £10 p/m or £120 p/a - This seems crazy to me.
I don't understand your logic for using the Tier 1 rate for your calculations, as the Tier 1 rate simply collects the equivalent of a standing charge. Your pilot lights do seem to be using a lot. When I checked my pilot light, it was using 19.2kWh per week (168hrs).:doh: Blue text on this forum usually signifies hyperlinks, so click on them!..:wall:0 -
Welcome to the forum.
There have been many threads on this subject. This is something I posted some while ago:Someone else posted this earlier this month.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=549860&highlight=pilot+light
He had similar figures, using 0.5 units a day(Metric meter) which is between 5 and 6kWh per day which is around £50 a year. He used tier 1 prices and came to £84.
Anyway having myself commented in the thread that was high, I thought I would check mine when I was away for a couple of days. I had not checked for many years.
Anyway mine was even higher - no less than 0.84 units a day(Metric meter). That is 9.5kWh a day; even at the cheap rate I get gas(2.113p) that is £75 a year.(I have checked that there is no leak)
My boiler is an Ideal Mexico Super CF125 and is 19 years old - serviced annually by BG. It is housed in a boiler room so I never see it unless I specifically check.
I looked at the pilot flame and it was indeed very high. I turned it down as low as I can and checked it again. Whilst it is much lower it is still pretty high at 6kWh per day – approx £46 a year.
I suppose you can console yourself that not all of that is wasted heat, as a small proportion is used when the boiler is running.
I have a Combi boiler(a 12 year old Worcester) in a little used annex and when I next light the pilot light I will check the consumption of the pilot light on that boiler.
You can easily turn down the pilot light. All it needs to do is heat the thermocouple sufficiently to keep the gas valve open.
I do agree with espresso, it makes no sense to use Tier 1 prices to calculate costs.
Incidentally, given the construction of a gas meter, it is almost inpossible for them to 'over-read' as they are a vane turned by the gas. If anything they will under-read.0 -
no it doesnt sound expensive to me , but my pilot light on the boiler is clocking up 4 metric units a day which is about 44kwh. since I had my meter changed0
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roddymac999 wrote: »no it doesnt sound expensive to me , but my pilot light on the boiler is clocking up 4 metric units a day which is about 44kwh. since I had my meter changed
I doubt if this is correct! Are you reading this meter correctly?:doh: Blue text on this forum usually signifies hyperlinks, so click on them!..:wall:0
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