How many units of Gas are you using daily?

littleange

espresso wrote: »

Pilot light, more like a flame thrower! Ours is costing 39% of your annual cost.

What can I say? The thing is old (20+ years) and inefficient I guess!

littleange

Cardew wrote: »

I had the same consumption(serviced by BG!!) so I turned down the pilot light and halved the cost. (disclaimer - not suggesting that others should do this) My instruction manual was quite clear on how to carry out this procedure.

That's something to consider, will this effect how well it heats the water?

espresso

littleange_com wrote: »

What can I say? The thing is old (20+ years) and inefficient I guess!

It's nothing to do with the age of the boiler. The pilot light only needs to be long enough to satisfy the thermocouple. Like Cardew I have a screwdriver and like to use it.

littleange

espresso wrote: »

It's nothing to do with the age of the boiler. The pilot light only needs to be long enough to satisfy the thermocouple. Like Cardew I have a screwdriver and like to use it.

I've seen the size of some of the spiders under the house, and I ain't going in there! lol
I might ask my dad to look next time he comes to visit

space_rider

littleange_com wrote: »

I was just curious really, personally. I am sitting here with my fingerless gloves on, a top, jumper, dressing gown, socks up to my knees and big chunky homer slippers it's currently 14C in the house but regularly topping up my hot water bottle and popping the 450w heater on from time to time to take off the chill and also jumping in the bath every night to warm up before bed. It's not quite cold enough for my hat yet or to be tempted to put the cental heating on. However, I might just stick it on to see how much it uses and make sure I've turned off unecessary radiators. You get used to the cold (I think most people have just been spoilt by the heating) and then when you go to other people's houses you feel like your going to pass out and you can't wait to get back to your nice cool house.

I couldn`t live like that. I prefer being warm. I`ve tried to be good, turned heating down and reduced the amount of hours its been on. I`ve been waking up cold and the colder house is making me miserable. So I`ve increased the hours it`s on and turned the thermostat back up. I don`t go out much, don`t smoke, hardly drink so that will have to be my pleasure.;)

1carminestocky

What a cr*p world we live in when our only pleasure is keeping our house warm, lol.

littleange

space_rider wrote: »

I couldn`t live like that. I prefer being warm. I`ve tried to be good, turned heating down and reduced the amount of hours its been on. I`ve been waking up cold and the colder house is making me miserable. So I`ve increased the hours it`s on and turned the thermostat back up. I don`t go out much, don`t smoke, hardly drink so that will have to be my pleasure.;)

Well we don't really have that much choice, we can't afford to put the heating on! I actually forgot the heater was on today and its now 21C in the room we are living in lol. It kinda fun getting all cosy and snuggling up to my husband and living in one room of the house, and I'd rather spend my money on other things, my little luxury is a hot bath every night. I've been waking up all hot as we have 2 duvets on the bed

space_rider

1carminestocky wrote: »

What a cr*p world we live in when our only pleasure is keeping our house warm, lol.

It`s not my only pleasure, just decided cutting down on my gas bill wasn`t worth being miserable.

asandwhen

Does my consumption seem high to you? 2 adults 1 teenager and 1 toddler and a 3 bed mid terrace :

29/08/08 - 12/10/08 (45 days) total 548 electric (kwh)1 - 1172 Gas (kwh)2
daily average 12 for electric and 26 for gas

Mazio_2

I have to agree with the warm camp I will not accept ( as long as I can afford it) being cold in my house and going back to my youth with 1 room hot using coal fire and a calor gas bottle heater turned on in bathroom just long enough to take a bath and remove some of the ice from inside the window .
Having said that I dont like throwing money away or squandering the earths resources so my approach has been to:-

1) Upgrade the insulation and draught excluders around even some internal doors to retain the heat for as long as I can (check for grants) thick curtains around windows and external doors.
2) Adjust heating controls and timers better.
3) Check if E7 is viable if you are on it surprised me that it was costing me more and harder work (no storage heaters).
4) Try to educate the family with incentives ( more xmas presents) as saving the planet makes me out to be a scrooge.

In future I plan to upgrade my heating controls and pipe work.

My boiler has an electric ignition (no pilot) but its not condensing.
I would like to state before reading the following I am not a corgi registered gas engineer and the following is what I consider to be correct. As stated in other posts the pilot light has to heat a safety probe (this is called a thermocouple) to open the main gas valve allowing the boiler to light if this is not hot enough then the valve stays closed as the system thinks the pilot is out and potential for gas to fill the room and then cause an explosion so be careful if you adjust it the flame has to be in the correct position and large enough to not just heat the thermocouple but ignite the gas burner within a certain time.
Never thought I would do this but Iam looking at keeping bedrooms cooler and using electric heater for short burst (10 mins max) to rapidly bring room to higher temp.