Why is my gas bill always so high??

Soapy955 · 21 April 2007 at 9:33AM

I have an old gas boiler which is installed behind the fire in the lounge. We only use gas for the central heating and heating our water. This said, our gas bill is always WAY higher than our electric bill. We use electric for all other things, including cooking. I was wondering if I should have the boiler on a different setting. I was told that if you have it on all the time then the thermostat only allows the boiler to heat up the water when the temperature in the water tank drops significantly. I was told this works out cheaper than having it heat up the whole tank when it is needed. Our heating system has three settings.... 24 hours; all day; or on twice. Can anyone advise me whether I should have it on a particular one to save money. It sounds like the heating system is always making "heating up" noises even when the radiators are stone cold!
My husband needs hot water early in the morning so turning it off over night is not an option.

Please help!

Cardew · 21 April 2007 at 12:22PM

Firstly "keeping it on all the time is cheaper" is an 'urban myth' that is repeated time and again.

If that principle applied wouldn't it be cheaper to keep your kettle simmering all the time?

The shorter the time you have the boiler on, the lower your bill will be - that is without question.

If your tank is well insulated it should remain hot for many hours after the boiler is switched off. Many people have Economy 7 to heat their water in the middle of the night and it will stay hot all day, unless they use it all.

I can't understand the difference between 'all day' and '24 hours'

Most people with Gas CH find that their gas bill is higher than electric.

dc · 21 April 2007 at 2:04PM

In Winter, Gas Central heating, tends to use 4 times as many units as elecricity used for everyday living, hence higher gas bills are inevitable. Try heating with just electric fires and you will think your gas bill was reasonable, Gas is around 4 times cheaper than leccy per Kw

Heating the house when no-one is there is not the most economical, except in extreme low outside temps.
In a working household the 2x a day time setting is usually best.
Set the 1st ON time, so that the house is comfortable when arriving home from work. Set the OFF an hour or so before going to bed.

Set the second ON time for a comfortable house temp to be reached, together with enough hot water, for when you get up. And set the second off time for the house to be cooling down before you leave.

Everyones comfort level is different so experiment with settings. The only time you should have the boiler on continuously is in extreme weather, when the boiler will struggle to be hot enough in the timed period.

HTHs dc

PS the heating sounds when the radiators are cold will be the boiler heating hot water only. Depends on what controls your system has.

Soapy955 · 21 April 2007 at 8:31PM

I'm actually a stay-at-home Mum so am in most of the day. My husband gets up at 4am for work and needs hot water then I get up at 8ish and need hot water. My husband then has a shower at about 3ish when he is home from work and we need hot water just for random washing up and hand washing. Can you suggest the best times to have the hot water timer set at to ensure we never run out of hot water, but enabling us to not have the water constantly heating up?

Thanks so much for your help!

tanith · 21 April 2007 at 8:35PM

My water gets heated for an hour in the morning and an hour at night and I have never run out of hot water even with all the showering , dishwasher , washing machine etc etc etc......trial and error is the key you can always increase or decrease till you have it right...

Soapy955 · 22 April 2007 at 11:04AM

tanith wrote: »

My water gets heated for an hour in the morning and an hour at night and I have never run out of hot water even with all the showering , dishwasher , washing machine etc etc etc......trial and error is the key you can always increase or decrease till you have it right...

I have set the timer to come on at 1am amd 1pm and go off at 3am amd 3pm.

So thanks for the advice and I'll see how it goes!

espresso · 22 April 2007 at 11:20AM

Soapy955 wrote:

I have set the timer to come on at 1am amd 1pm and go off at 3am amd 3pm.

Still too long! My gas boiler will heat a tank full of water in less than half an hour. No boiler should take more than one hour, even if gravity fed.

cyrilthepost · 22 April 2007 at 11:23AM

can you control the gas by turning a knob under your fire,if so turn down to be between 1 and 2 that helped me a hell of a lot, keep it on all the time to, so the water you use doesn't take long to heat up.

Soapy955 · 22 April 2007 at 4:14PM

espresso wrote: »

Still too long! My gas boiler will heat a tank full of water in less than half an hour. No boiler should take more than one hour, even if gravity fed.

Mine's a very old system so I'm worried it might not be efficient enough to heat the water quickly! My bill will be so much cheaper if I have the water heating only 1/2 an hour twice a day instead of on 24 hours a day!

I will give it a go, thanks!

tanith · 22 April 2007 at 10:25PM

Why have you set your water to heat in the early hours and afternoon? its had time to start cooling again already by the time you use it... set it to come on 1hr before the first person gets up and I set it to come on at 5pm for an hour so that is just before the evening dishwasher cycle and anyone wanting an evening shower....

Cardew · 22 April 2007 at 11:06PM

tanith wrote: »

I set it to come on at 5pm for an hour so that is just before the evening dishwasher cycle .

Do you have a hot and cold water fill dishwasher?

Just asking as I have been told they are not available now in UK.

Is it a 'standard' European manufacturer?

Why is my gas bill always so high??

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