How many units of Gas are you using daily?

Watson12

espresso wrote: »

So you must be in the south west then, because the CV refers to the amount of energy released when gas is combusted under specified conditions and the CV is dependent upon the composition of the gas, which varies around the country.

The calorific value of natural gas is measured, in accordance with statutory regulations, using chromatographs and combustion calorimeters located on the pipeline system. Gas chromatographs separate natural gas into its constituent compounds (methane, ethane, carbon dioxide etc) and measure the amount of each in the gas. The physical characteristics of each component are programmed into the chromatograph and an overall CV is derived from the measured composition.

Regarding your month DD payments, you may well be in credit at the moment after lower summer usage but your DD is calculated to pay for your annual usage, divided into 12 monthly payments. You can easily calculate this for yourself and check that the DD is correct.

Yes we are on the south coast. I was not aware that they could use different calculations dependent on where you live. Bring back one unit for all I would say. Strange to think that just a year ago we were paying £60 a month we were in credit for nearly every bill apart from the winter quarters when it evened out. Oh well, back to the calculator then!

Watson12

espresso

Watson12 wrote: »

Yes we are on the south coast. I was not aware that they could use different calculations dependent on where you live. Bring back one unit for all I would say.

But that would be unfair, as the gas in different parts of the country produces different amounts of heat! That's why they go to the trouble of regularly checking and monitoring the gas supply across the country. Just like shares, the value can go down as well as up.

tightperson

Mazio wrote: »

I still think that it depends on other factors which will be different for most properties. Each property will be built differently so you really need to test this out individuallay and for longer period. This may indeed work for you but may not for others. I totally agree that the system uses allot of energy at startup so there is logic in this.

Some factors to consider

1) How well insulated the house / rooms are
2)How modern the boiler is and well the system has been designed
3)How accurate the controls eg TVRs, zone controls (if any) are
4) How quickly the house and system gets upto temp from cold
5) How long the house is empty for

Do you leave your heating on at night as this theory would suggest never turning your heating off in winter?

I am in no way disputing your findings just interested in saving money and being comfortable in my own house.

Hi Mazio, I quite agree, there are so many variables that it may work for one and not another. Even if it works out cheaper to leave it on at a reduced temp if you leave the house for say 4 hours with it at 3 deg outside say it might not be if you left the house for 6 hours. It is very difficult to know what is best.

Our boiler was 11 years old and working perfectly. It is a 60,000 BTU unit which today equates to a 17.4 KW boil. This had no problems heating our large 4 bed detached house last winter. A couple months ago we had cavity wall insulation done and got some quotes for a brand new condensing boiler. I expected them to reccomend a 15 Kw boiler with me working on the basis our heat requirement would now be less, they actually reccomended a huge 30 Kw unit, after I questioned them about oversizing they have fitted a 24 Kw boiler. This last week which has been quite cold I have only had the boilers own temp stat on about a third with the thinking that if the boiler oerates at a lower temp it will burn for longer rather than at full blast for a few mins then off etc etc. Hope that makes sense. I still think the boiler is oversized and it would be more efficient to have a smaller boiler and run it flat out rather than on off on off.

bockster

tightperson wrote: »

Our boiler was 11 years old and working perfectly. It is a 60,000 BTU unit which today equates to a 17.4 KW boil. This had no problems heating our large 4 bed detached house last winter. A couple months ago we had cavity wall insulation done and got some quotes for a brand new condensing boiler. I expected them to reccomend a 15 Kw boiler with me working on the basis our heat requirement would now be less, they actually reccomended a huge 30 Kw unit, after I questioned them about oversizing they have fitted a 24 Kw boiler. This last week which has been quite cold I have only had the boilers own temp stat on about a third with the thinking that if the boiler oerates at a lower temp it will burn for longer rather than at full blast for a few mins then off etc etc. Hope that makes sense. I still think the boiler is oversized and it would be more efficient to have a smaller boiler and run it flat out rather than on off on off.

out of interest, is it a combi or regular boiler.
i have a 37kw combi, it pumps out max 37kw for the hot water but only max 28kw for the ch

Mazio_2

tightperson wrote: »

Our boiler was 11 years old and working perfectly. It is a 60,000 BTU unit which today equates to a 17.4 KW boil. This had no problems heating our large 4 bed detached house last winter. A couple months ago we had cavity wall insulation done and got some quotes for a brand new condensing boiler. I expected them to reccomend a 15 Kw boiler with me working on the basis our heat requirement would now be less, they actually reccomended a huge 30 Kw unit, after I questioned them about oversizing they have fitted a 24 Kw boiler. This last week which has been quite cold I have only had the boilers own temp stat on about a third with the thinking that if the boiler oerates at a lower temp it will burn for longer rather than at full blast for a few mins then off etc etc. Hope that makes sense. I still think the boiler is oversized and it would be more efficient to have a smaller boiler and run it flat out rather than on off on off.

I have very similar boiler Ideal Standard Clasic 60000btu,s or 17.6kW heating 5 bed detached. I built an extension a few years ago and moved the original boiler to new location that was a 50000btu and thought I would change at later date and never had too. So when I had this boiler fitted about 3 years or so ago because the older one became unreliable and was over 20 years old I told them it was fine and not to up scale to anything but they still managed to fit one slightly bigger, the reason I did not fit the newer condensing boiler was at the time they had allot of teething problems and had rust issues so I decided to go with a reliable 80% boiler that was very easy to service and maintain . But my rads are fed from a 10mm microbore manifold system. I have 13 rads that the system can maintain very easily I put it down to insulation. The only thing I cannot control is the hot water temp as this is gravity fed indirect system and has no thermostat at present to controll water temp and some of the rads dont have TVRs as the older ones have both pipes in at one side so would have to repipe the rads first..

littletommytucker

Watson12.. the calorific value isnt determined by your supplier.. it is determined by national grid (transco) the quality of gas in your area must be slightly better than it used to be (less gas will now equal more heat) and even tho you are in credit.. you need to remember they have all your previous meter readings, and there for know how much you need to pay at the current cost of gas, at this time of year for your account to balance come march. Obviously you are aware that cost of gas has gone up approx 50% since january this year... when added a 50% increase to your summer bills that you get at this time of year, its perfectly normal for you to be in credit at this time of year, but when you add 50% extra onto your december and march bills.. you will probably understand why they have allready increased your DD. Changing suppliers will probably mean they give you an extremly tempting introductory DD, but will probably just mean you owe money come march, and then need to pay an even higher rate to clear the balance/cover your consumption/try to bulid up credit to offset winter bills the follwing year.

tightperson

bockster wrote: »

out of interest, is it a combi or regular boiler.
i have a 37kw combi, it pumps out max 37kw for the hot water but only max 28kw for the ch

Hi, Our old boiler was in the garage and our hot water tank was in the airing cupboard next to the bathroom on the first floor. About 4 years ago we had a loft conversion and we wanted a shower in the bathroom so we took the HW tank out and put it next to the boiler in the garage & put a shower in the airing cupboard. The ups are the kids have their own shower the downs are we have to run the taps a bit to get hot water.

When I changed the boiler a month ago I was going to have a Vaiilant 37Kw Combi and fit it in the study so it was in the house and a shorter run to the taps, I was advised that it's flow rate was not high enough for our 4 bed det. if we ran two showers. Due to cost & their advice I ended up just putting a normal condensing boiler in the garage as a direct replacement.

A neighbour has a 4 bed det and installed a Combi Vaiilant 37Kw and they are happy. Thing is you can't try different things before you buy, you make your decision and have to stick with it. I only have experience of two combi's before and both those were years ago, very old with appaling flow rates.

tightperson

Mazio wrote: »

I have very similar boiler Ideal Standard Clasic 60000btu,s or 17.6kW heating 5 bed detached. I built an extension a few years ago and moved the original boiler to new location that was a 50000btu and thought I would change at later date and never had too. So when I had this boiler fitted about 3 years or so ago because the older one became unreliable and was over 20 years old I told them it was fine and not to up scale to anything but they still managed to fit one slightly bigger, the reason I did not fit the newer condensing boiler was at the time they had allot of teething problems and had rust issues so I decided to go with a reliable 80% boiler that was very easy to service and maintain . But my rads are fed from a 10mm microbore manifold system. I have 13 rads that the system can maintain very easily I put it down to insulation. The only thing I cannot control is the hot water temp as this is gravity fed indirect system and has no thermostat at present to controll water temp and some of the rads dont have TVRs as the older ones have both pipes in at one side so would have to repipe the rads first..

I knew nothing about condensing boilers & before I had it fitted I asked about reliability and they guy told me a few years ago they were unreliable like you say due to rust caused by the acidic condensate but he told me they had now solved it by coating the burner and other bits with something.

TITEASCRAMP

Just done my weekly meter reading. This week we have used 30Kwh a day. Very Pleased with that. And its much warmer this week.

Magentasue

We're off the scale this week - averaging 100kwh a day. No, I don't mean 10 and yes, I do mean kwh.