Is this excessive? High gas bill from nPower

SALOPMAN

We are with E-On and just had a bill that was from oct 22 to Feb 11 and that was over £500 for both gas and elec so guess yours is about right,we live 3 bed detached

notbritishgas

Crazy_Jamie wrote: »

I've just had another search and it does indeed appear to be a 'digital' imperial meter, which dashes those hopes quite firmly across the ground.

I do have dual fuel with them but was under the impression that the £100 discount (I'm paying by monthly direct debit too) is applied after one full year, which would make it apply on July 1st for me?

Just to clear up this issue. From your earlier post of your bill details you are being billed as an imperial meter.
Now to check if that is correct look at your meter, if an imperial it will have something like " cu ft" or "cubic feet" or even "ft3" on it, if metric it will have "m3" on it.
Hope this helps.

Magentasue

Crazy_Jamie wrote: »

I'm unsure of the temperature we heat the rooms to, but I'm going to go for 20-23 degrees or thereabouts.
Generally we'll turn the heating off at 10, and she'll turn it on when she gets in. That's something that can be looked at though.

I would say getting the temp right will save you more money than turning one radiator off. Turn the thermostat down one degree at a time until you've got it right. It depends on where the thermostat is as to what it needs to be set at but the lower, the less gas so have it so it's warm enough but not so it's too hot.

My gas meter is imperial and digital - says ft3 on it.

Crazy_Jamie

Magentasue wrote: »

I would say getting the temp right will save you more money than turning one radiator off. Turn the thermostat down one degree at a time until you've got it right. It depends on where the thermostat is as to what it needs to be set at but the lower, the less gas so have it so it's warm enough but not so it's too hot.

Stupid question coming up on this. I don't see a thermostat anywhere near my boiler. The closest thing I've got is a sort of dial for both water and heating that you can turn to set it to 'max', 'min', or anywhere in between. Would this work in the same way as a thermostat?

Magentasue

Crazy_Jamie wrote: »

Stupid question coming up on this. I don't see a thermostat anywhere near my boiler. The closest thing I've got is a sort of dial for both water and heating that you can turn to set it to 'max', 'min', or anywhere in between. Would this work in the same way as a thermostat?

No, I don't think so - sounds like that's for the boiler. Somewhere in your house, ours is in the hall, there's a timer/thermostat that you use to set the heating. Ours is combined - we set the times and temps.

Crazy_Jamie

Magentasue wrote: »

No, I don't think so - sounds like that's for the boiler. Somewhere in your house, ours is in the hall, there's a timer/thermostat that you use to set the heating. Ours is combined - we set the times and temps.

We do have a timer underneath the boiler, but I it's not a thermostat that I can see. Is it likely that there is a thermostat somewhere else?

Magentasue

Crazy_Jamie wrote: »

We do have a timer underneath the boiler, but I it's not a thermostat that I can see. Is it likely that there is a thermostat somewhere else?

Could be anywhere. If you search central heating thermostat on google images you'll see some different types. Do you program your CH to come on and off? If not, how do you turn on and off? If you have a programmer for times, you may be able to change the temp there.

Crazy_Jamie

Magentasue wrote: »

Could be anywhere. If you search central heating thermostat on google images you'll see some different types. Do you program your CH to come on and off? If not, how do you turn on and off? If you have a programmer for times, you may be able to change the temp there.

No we don't program it. If one person is getting up vastly earlier than the others in the house (which normally happens) they'll turn the heating on, and then the last person to leave will turn it off. Then in the evening first person is turns it on, and it's turned off when we go to bed. We turn it on/off using a switch on the front of the boiler. You can switch it to water, water and heating, or off entirely. Unless we're out of the house overnight we will generally keep it on water when we're not using the heating, because as it's a combi boiler it only heats the water we use (allegedly, anyway).

I'll have a look on Google for thermostat locations.

Magentasue

Well, if it's an old system, maybe they didn't fit a room thermostat. So ... if you have the heating on, does it never get so warm, you need to turn it down? Presumably you just turn it off? I suppose if your boiler happily heats your house to a comfortable temp without need for adjustment, that's OK when it's very cold. Not so good in milder weather. It would explain high gas use, I think.

savers_united

CJ
It looks like you do not have a room stat, only a boiler stat.
It is now law that when fitting a new heating system a room stat must be fitted, as your rented property is older then there was probably no requirement to fit a room stat, If it was your own place I would recommend you fit a wireless stat but no good to you in this case of a rented property.
Those dials on the boiler are basically setting the flow and return water of your heating system, i.e if you set it to max then the water leaves the boiler at 80 degrees, when it goes above this because the returning water is above a set limit the boiler will switch off until the flow drops below 80 degrees.
Thats the basics of it, not the best method for controlling the heat in your home but it will work, this will work even better if you have TRVs on each of the radiators to allow each individual radiator to be set to the correct temp, otherwise each radiator you switch on will bang out the maximum amount of heat and the boiler will continue to operate for longer as all radiators will be calling for hot water.
There are lots of variables such as the type of radiators, size, age etc.

However from what you have been saying the bill seems about right, from April onwards you will probably be using next to no Gas except for hot water, you will also get your £100 discount from Npower.
You will be looking at an annual bill inc discount etc of £550 per annum which is not bad in a poorly insulated property with poor heating controls.

Try setting the dial on the boiler to the mid position for a week and monitor your gas useage on the meter, and then put it back to max, you will see a massive difference.
The radiators though will not get as hot.

Finally do you have a shower or bath, a bath being filled once , twice a day will consule far more gas than a shower coming off a combi boiler.