Doubled Gas usage with E-On

Rusty!

And that's why I put it was an estimated reading, so no-one took it as gospel

Magentasue

Rusty! wrote: »

And that's why I put it was an estimated reading, so no-one took it as gospel

I appreciate that, but an estimated reading is meaningless - you could have used double or half of what you stated. Or any other number.

KimYeovil

Woby_Tide wrote: »

If you search this forum you'll find hundreds of threads discussing what is normal useage in a multitude of property sizes

Which are all completely useless. With all the data the suppliers collect surely there can be a page to display the effect the day to day changes cause?

mech_2

bluemez wrote: »

Does anyone have any constructive advice please?

Yeah. Ignore the people who say heating demand could have doubled, tripled etc this winter. Total heating demand for the months Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb here in Manchester has only been 10% more than last year (based on temperature data, not meter readings). It can't have been that radically different elsewhere in the country. If you have really used double the gas of last year, you need to find out where the heat was going.

My concern is that we had some major building work done and I'm worried that this has somehow effected things in a detrimental way - does any one have a similar experience?

This could be significant. Hunting for new draughts might be worthwhile. Air can be forced through surprisingly small cracks with the forces of convention - all the air in a heated house wants to rise up like a hot air balloon and be replaced with cold air from below. Over a period of hours, even at seemingly a trickle, a lot of air can be replaced with cold air from outside, completely bypassing insulation.

bluemez

Thanks Mech - I'm in London so we wouldn't have seen temperatures as cold as you in Manchester, but I accept that they would be different to previous years - perhaps colder.

I should explain that the building work was a loft conversion - before you all start... that meant 1 extra radiator and a heck of a lot of extra insulation so we practically never have that radiator turned on and when it is, it's only turned on to the lowest setting or the room overheats in about 5 minutes. On the other side as I said we now have an open fire so we sometimes have one or both of the radiators in the living room turned off.

In total we only have 6 radiators and a towel rail.

I know that the bills were estimated in 2008, but the readings Nov to Feb 2008/9 suggest that they weren't that far off during that year which is surprising becaus efor most of Novemeber/December 07 we had an actual hole in the roof whilst they were doing the installation so I could accept that some of the extra usage not accounted for in the estimates over that year, but accounted for in the Novemeber reading could account for this.
However this then still leads me back to the confusion about the Nov 08/ Feb09 quota when we didn't have a hole in the roof and do infact have a very well insulated loft.

I'm very confused.

I think that the only thing to do is monitor usage on a daily basis to see if we have a problem, which is a real pain in the b*m.

Magentasue

Obviously good that your loft is well insulated, but won't the increased cubic capacity of your living space make your home more expensive to heat?

Rusty!

mech wrote: »

Total heating demand for the months Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb here in Manchester has only been 10% more than last year (based on temperature data, not meter readings)

That's all well and good, but 10% colder doesn't mean you 'only' use 10% more gas to get the temp back up.


Ps. Hit thanks instead of quote first time round

Ozzyman

I've had a similar thing with my gaff - 3 bed end of terrace maisonette (in London) houseshare with two other people - we've just a bill through for the period 20th Nov to 26th Feb for 13595 kWh. Our average daily usage for this bill was 140 kWh compared with 101 kWh the same period last year.

I thought there must have been some mistake when I got the bill through (this usage equates to about £515 or £170 a month). Seems outrageous but I guess it's possible (although still seems unlikely) we've used 40% more heating per day than last year.

As bluemez says it would be good to get some other egs if people are willing to share?! (in kWh if poss as I don't know how the other unit measure relates)

jimexbox

Ozzyman wrote: »

in kWh if poss as I don't know how the other unit measure relates

24 nov - 23 feb = 7311 kWhs - like I said in my previous post, 3 bed detached, 7 rads, thermostat set at 20c with the GCH on for 5-6hrs a day. With summer quilt used to good effect watching TV in the evening.

mech_2

Rusty! wrote: »

That's all well and good, but 10% colder doesn't mean you 'only' use 10% more gas to get the temp back up.


Ps. Hit thanks instead of quote first time round

If outside temperatures are 10% further away from the threshold temperature at which heating becomes neccessary, energy usage for heating will go up 10%. It's that simple. The threshold figure is usually taken to be 16 degrees C, which seems cool, but most houses have other forms of heat which will keep the house warmer that outdoors (body heat, solar heat gain, waste heat from electrical appliances).

If you want to be more accurate you could compensate for seasonal changes in solar insolation of any south-facing windows in the property, but for the period we're talking about that effect is small as the day length is at its least variable.

This principle is probably where the "save 10% if you turn your thermostat down 1 degree" rule comes from. If UK temperatures during the heating season average 6 degrees C (I haven't bothered to find out what it actually is), then the heating system needs to add 10 degrees of heat. Turn the thermostat down a degree and the threshold outside temperture now becomes 15 C. The heating system now only has to supply 9 C of heating. Gas usage for heating then goes down 10%. (It's probably not accurate, but it is only a rule of thumb after all).