Normal gas usage or too high?

Mrdini · 30 November 2011 at 2:29AM

Hi all,

I've just moved into a new flat, and as part of moving in, I decided to switch suppliers. As a result, the following readings are actual, not estimates. On the 10th Oct, the meter was 2200. Today (29/30th Nov), the meter reads 2312 - 112 units in just over a month which I worked out to be almost £50 with my old supplier. This seems just a touch excessive to me because the only thing the gas heats up (as far as I'm aware) is the central heating.

I've yet to figure out the full system in this flat, but I believe the hot water is from a hot water tank (electricity? gas? Not sure, but fairly sure it's electricity as CH is off and the gas meter is not moving.) so the only thing I'm using gas for is central heating. Now, my flat is a 1 bedroom flat, and I have heating on only very briefly in the morning (30-60 mins), and for 4-5 hours in the evening.

By contrast, my electricity is only 136 units (£16-ish) for the same period, despite me having an electric hob, kettle, computer, lights, etc....

So basically, is my gas consumption excessive or not? Something seems a little fishy here but I'm not sure what, as meter readings are actual, & there SHOULDN'T be any gas leaks (Gas Safe certificate when I moved in).

Thoughts?

Ta!

SYNERGY · 30 November 2011 at 3:16AM

Mrdini wrote: »

Hi all,

I've just moved into a new flat, and as part of moving in, I decided to switch suppliers. As a result, the following readings are actual, not estimates. On the 10th Oct, the meter was 2200. Today (29/30th Nov), the meter reads 2312 - 112 units in just over a month which I worked out to be almost £50 with my old supplier. This seems just a touch excessive to me because the only thing the gas heats up (as far as I'm aware) is the central heating.

I've yet to figure out the full system in this flat, but I believe the hot water is from a hot water tank (electricity? gas? Not sure, but fairly sure it's electricity as CH is off and the gas meter is not moving.) so the only thing I'm using gas for is central heating. Now, my flat is a 1 bedroom flat, and I have heating on only very briefly in the morning (30-60 mins), and for 4-5 hours in the evening.

By contrast, my electricity is only 136 units (£16-ish) for the same period, despite me having an electric hob, kettle, computer, lights, etc....

So basically, is my gas consumption excessive or not? Something seems a little fishy here but I'm not sure what, as meter readings are actual, & there SHOULDN'T be any gas leaks (Gas Safe certificate when I moved in).

Thoughts?

Ta!

A couple of things may help others to answer your query:

Are your gas meter readings imperial or metric ?

What is the price of the gas ?

When you say you believe the hot water is from a tank, is there evidence of a tank in a cupboard etc ?

In the consumer unit ( fuse box ) is there a fuse / switch marked immersion or water heater ?

I presume you have heard the boiler fire up when the central heating is on, do you hear it fire up when you use a hot water tap, if so I'm presuming you have a combi boiler, or do you occasionally hear it fire up when the central heating is off and no hot water is being used ?

brewerdave · 30 November 2011 at 8:25AM

If you have only used 136KWh of electricity in ~ 50 days you definitely haven't got an immersion water heater!!
If your gas meter is metric (highly probable in a new flat) then you have only used ~ 1250 KWh of gas in the same period which equates to 25KWh per day - that sounds maybe a little high for hot water and the amount of hours of heating you have indicated (assuming that the heating was actually firing up in those periods -dependent on thermostat settings), but not excessively so.
If you have an older style gas meter reading in cubic feet then I agree that the gas usage is OTT -check that your hot water is not excessively hot and that your room thermostat is actually operating.

Mrdini · 30 November 2011 at 11:50PM

SYNERGY wrote: »

A couple of things may help others to answer your query:

Are your gas meter readings imperial or metric ?

Metric

What is the price of the gas ?

3.810p each kWh but I'm not "fussed" about the cost of the gas - it's the silly amount of gas I seem to be using! :-s

When you say you believe the hot water is from a tank, is there evidence of a tank in a cupboard etc ?

Whopping big tank in the airing cupboard. There's like a "car oil filter" (for want of a better word) on one side connected to the power supply.

In the consumer unit ( fuse box ) is there a fuse / switch marked immersion or water heater ?

I presume you have heard the boiler fire up when the central heating is on, do you hear it fire up when you use a hot water tap, if so I'm presuming you have a combi boiler, or do you occasionally hear it fire up when the central heating is off and no hot water is being used ?

Not sure to both. The boiler makes a noise (& seems to be on when the CH is on). However see below...

brewerdave wrote: »

If you have only used 136KWh of electricity in ~ 50 days you definitely haven't got an immersion water heater!!
If your gas meter is metric (highly probable in a new flat) then you have only used ~ 1250 KWh of gas in the same period which equates to 25KWh per day - that sounds maybe a little high for hot water and the amount of hours of heating you have indicated (assuming that the heating was actually firing up in those periods -dependent on thermostat settings), but not excessively so.
If you have an older style gas meter reading in cubic feet then I agree that the gas usage is OTT -check that your hot water is not excessively hot and that your room thermostat is actually operating.

I've since figured out that it's the central heating. When it was on, the meter was almost literally whizzing around. I turned it off on the ancient programmer (a Landis & Gyr RWB2) and the meter pretty much stopped...

I think a trip to the diynot forums in order to figure out my heating system might be in order

My landlord only gave me fairly basic instructions & pretty much said "Everything else is just backup stuff. No need to worry about them".

macman · 1 December 2011 at 9:53AM

You probably have your hot water heated by the boiler, and a back up immersion heater.

Peacock13 · 2 December 2011 at 7:18PM

Hi, My electricity usage is extremely high at around 60 KWh per day and £250 per month DD. My provider Scottish Power are not very helpful and wondered if someone could advise me if there is a company who can check my usage/meter for any faults.

I am new to the site and apologise in advance if I am in the wrong forum. Thank you.

molerat · 2 December 2011 at 9:31PM

What heating, hot water etc have you got, how big is your house / flat ? Are you on economy 7 / economy 10 / heatwise / single rate ?

Peacock13 · 2 December 2011 at 11:15PM

Hi Molerat, Thank you for your response. My heating and hot water is gas and my house is a four bed detached house. I am definitely not on economy 7 or 10 and do not recognise heatwise so I presume I must be on single rate.

macman · 2 December 2011 at 11:20PM

Your usage is therefore 21,900 kWh pa-that is about 5 times the average for a property with gas CH and DHW! You cannot possibly be using that much.
Even on that level of consumption, your DD should be 'only' around £182pm, so there must be considerable debt as well (if the DD is correctly set).
You need to investigate the source of the power drain circuit by circuit as a matter of urgency.

Scottish_Power · 5 December 2011 at 9:47AM

Hi Peacock13,

Sorry you do not seem to be getting help from ScottishPower on this.

If you e-mail me your details to [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] I will look in to this for you.

You can also call our independant energy advice line on 0800 33 22 33.

Kind regards

Graeme @ Scottishpower

Normal gas usage or too high?

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free