Average gas/ elec use per square foot?

lifebegins

Does anyone know of any statistics I can look at which give gas/elec use per square foot i.e. takes into account how big the property is?

We currently have pretty scary bills (last year used 11000kWh of electricity and 62000 gas giving an annual bill of nearly £3000) but live in an big old house with a very old boiler and our usage is massively over the national average. But I want to see how reasonable it is for its size and set ourselves some kind of target.

I'm already getting an owl meter, we had our loft insulated a couple of months ago (it had absolutely none so will hopefully make a difference) but can't have double glazing or cavity wall insulation.

dunloadin

You'll be lucky to find any stats like that, but I can sympathise as I live in an old stone house as well.

The biggie for any house is the cost of heating; getting the loft insulation in is a good start, if you have old fireplaces that are still open blocking them off to avoid draughts will help...not the one with the gas boiler flue in it tho...can be a bit dodgy! We upgraded our gas boiler from the old inefficient back boiler to a new condensing combi and got the system flushed at the same time...made a big difference to the bills.

Try to avoid using plug in electric heaters, mind from the size of your electricity use sounds like you have a big spa or swiming pool!

If you can't have double glazing try putting clear plastic sheeting on the windows over winter, not ideal but will cut down the heat loss.

Cardew

Unless you heat with electricity(and you shouldn't with gas) the size of your house shouldn't be a factor in consumption - 11,000kWh is huge.

I wouldn't normally suggest changing boilers as a money saving measure, but if it is really old and with that huge consumption, it may be worth considering. You could see gas consumption drop by up to one third.

Really the size of the property is less of a factor than the insulation and type of use - e.g. out at work or in 24/7, rooms at 18C or 25C, etc.

aelitaman

My house was built in 1820 and is the solid wall type, old sash windows. high ceilings. It is 13.5m by 7.5m, 4 stories, bedrooms in the atic so no loft. I have no form of insultation, can not have cavity wall or loft insulation. The only thing that I do is try and contain draughts as much as posible by draught proofing doors and hanging heavy curtains over the sash windows where posible.

I have a newish combi boiler 87% efficient that heats the old style cast iron radiators, once they get warm they stay warm for a long period, this means that I turn the heating of at 8:30pm or 9pm if I am going to bed at 11pm as the residual heat in the radiators will keep the rooms warm.

Last year with the cold winter (which I think made a big difference to gas consumption) I used 25000Kwh of gas for heating and hot water and 3560 Kwh for electricity.

Hope this helps.