Where am I going wrong?

mancitychick

I had gas central heating installed on 22.10.05(replacing E7). A new condensing combi boiler and 12 rads with RF programmable Thermostat set as follows:

6.30am - 21.0degrees
8.00am - 18.0degrees
12.00pm - 21deg
2.00pm - 18deg
6.00pm - 21deg
10.30pm - 16deg

I took a meter reading yesterday for the first time (the meter was only installed 5 weeks ago, the meter readings was 00271, I relaid this to British Gas (so that they could set up a monthly DD scheme for me). That meter reading means that in 5 weeks I have used £74.80 worth of gas :eek:

Where am I going wrong?

We have an electric cooker. Its a 4 bed house but 2 of the bedrooms are not in use so rads are turned off.

It is just me and and2 kids in the week with my hubby joining us Friday whilst sunday this means one bath and one shower per day and I wash up once per day. I don't think we are heavy users. I cannot afford to be spending this much on gas. Any ideas anyone???

innovate

How much did you pay before for 5 weeks? £60-£70 for a 4-bedroom house per month in winter does sound about right.

May be you can get a better price if you switch suppliers ? Are you on the best tariff, and do you pay by Direct Debit?

mancitychick

Only moved in mid September and was electric only till 22nd Nov this worked out at £45.00 per month. Before that I was living in a 2 bed house and paying £26 per month so you can imagine my shock, I though it would double but not triple!!! The guy at British Gas sound shoclked too he got me to go and check the meter again incase it was 00071 not 00271 but unfortuantely for me I was right with the 1st reading. I will have a look at switching suppliers.

alanobrien

I know the feeling.
I moved from a terraced place last year paying £30 a month for gas to a 4 bed detached with ancient system where i ended up paying £100 per month for gas over Dec and Jan last year. Scared the hell out of me.

Needless to say i waved goodbye to that system this year and now have a condensing system with 12 rads & 2 towel rails so i am hoping my bills will be significantly lower this year.

Have you checked how much loft insulation you have ?
1 had 100 mm which i have since topped up to 250 mm.
This is relatively cheap to do and should pay back within a year or 2.

Also do you have TRV's on your radiators ? If not again, this is advisable, in fact you should have anyway on a new system assuming it is to the regs.

One other point is your boiler fully modulating or can you turn down the gas flow a little manually ? I can adjust mine with a dial on the front of the boiler.

Turning down your stat from 21 to 20 will also help providing you feel comfortable doing it.

Hope some of this helps.

f107btx

mancitychick wrote:

I had gas central heating installed on 22.10.05(replacing E7). A new condensing combi boiler and 12 rads with RF programmable Thermostat set as follows:

6.30am - 21.0degrees
8.00am - 18.0degrees
12.00pm - 21deg
2.00pm - 18deg
6.00pm - 21deg
10.30pm - 16deg

I took a meter reading yesterday for the first time (the meter was only installed 5 weeks ago, the meter readings was 00271, I relaid this to British Gas (so that they could set up a monthly DD scheme for me). That meter reading means that in 5 weeks I have used £74.80 worth of gas :eek:

Where am I going wrong?

We have an electric cooker. Its a 4 bed house but 2 of the bedrooms are not in use so rads are turned off.

It is just me and and2 kids in the week with my hubby joining us Friday whilst sunday this means one bath and one shower per day and I wash up once per day. I don't think we are heavy users. I cannot afford to be spending this much on gas. Any ideas anyone???

I have 10 Rads.Combi Boiler From 22/10/05 have used 00281 units.I only use heating when needed but for last 10 days been on timer 15 hours a day at 18 degrees.I have read meter daily(last 10 days) Using on average 00014 units per day about right for time of year.Summer use is about 00071 for same length of time(34 Days).
Hope this helps

robv_3

For over a year the condensing drain on our boiler feeds into a bucket. In summer its emptied about once every two months but since the weather got colder it now needs to be emptied every week.

I make that a 8x increase!!!!!!!

totalguitar

I was once told that it's better to have the CH on constantly during the winter as more gas is used trying to reach a required temperature than trying to stay at it. We did this last year and the bill was marginally cheaper but the house was at a constant comfortable temp all the time.

beccatt

I've been told before that it costs a lot more per degree to heat the house above 19 degrees celsius, so to keep heating at or below that temp. Obv in the winter this isn't always so easy, but maybe in the mornings you could try setting the prog to come on at 19 and stay there rather than jump up to 21?

Edit - sorry, got your programme details wrong, meant to say you could set the prog to come on at 19 from 6.30 and stay there.