The great gas rip off.

incubus72

Could someone please explain to me how the price of gas is worked out ?. I signed up with Ebico as it sounded like the cheapest option for gas in my area however I now feel that I am ripped off. Instead of paying around 3.87p for a KwH for gas i'm paying about 25p an hour,now i'm not an expert on these things but I was always under the impression that a KwH meant the price per hour. Also I wonder if someone could tell me,should your gas be cheaper the longer you have left it on ?,I still seem to be paying around 25p per hour after my gas has been on for 3-4 hours. If anyone can help it would be much appreciated.

daveyjp

3.87p is the cost per unit of gas - gas is converted to be charged in kWh - the same as elecricity.

If it is costing you 25p per hour you are burning 6.45 kWh of gas every hour. (6.45 x 3.87=25p).

incubus72

daveyjp wrote: »

3.87p is the cost per unit of gas - gas is converted to be charged in kWh - the same as elecricity.

If it is costing you 25p per hour you are burning 6.45 kWh of gas every hour. (6.45 x 3.87=25p).

Thanks for the reply Davey. To me 25p an hour for gas seems extremely excessive,especially when in comparison my oil filled radiator only costs just over 4p an hour to run,sadly that only heats 1 room though. My sister who has a 4 bedroomed house spends less on gas a week than I do so there must be a problem with either my meter or connection to the gas supply.

Premier_2

You should only be paying 3.675p per kWh (inc VAT) for gas from Ebico
http://www.ebico.co.uk/gasrates.php

1kWh is 1kW (1000W) used in 1 hour.

Depending on your form of heating, gas is usually anywhere in the region from 60% - 90% efficient (excluding gas fires designed for visual affect rather than heating purposes)

Direct electrical heating is usually about 100% efficient, although oil filled radiators may be a little less due to any hysteresis losses that may occur in the heat change of the oil.

As you can see, electricity prices vary by region, but are typically 12-14p per kWh
http://www.ebico.co.uk/ratesbyregion.php

If you are only paying 4p per hour, then you are only using 1/3 of a kWh i.e 1/3 the heat input ... and hence the respective heat output. (or in your case 1/3 of just over 1/6 the amount of gas i.e. 1/18th!!!)
(unless you are on cheap rate E7 units which are about 5-6p per kWh)

In short, the gas is costing you more because you are burning a lot more energy, despite the significantly lower price per energy unit. Hopefully you are benefitting from the extra warmth that energy is providing by heating the whole house rather than just 1 room.