Using more gas in a cold winter

filbert_nutkins

Hello,

I've just had my bill for the winter period - a four month period from the end of october to now, so covering all the months of the very cold winter. I had a brand new condensing combi supposedly super efficient boiler put in at the beginning of the period so was hoping my usage would go down. However I have used just over 600 units of gas, which seems high to me.

The trouble is my comparisons are not good - last year the heating was broken, so I was heating with electricity so have nothing to compare with. The year before, however, I had an ancient, clunky back boiler, heating my water tank and the house in what I assumed was the most inefficient way possible, but in 6 months from October 2007 to April 2008 I used just under 1,000 units. It's frustrating because I don't really have any like-for-like to compare, but it looks as though my gas usage has gone up with the new efficient boiler which puzzles me.

I have a feeling that the 2007/8 winter was a mild one, so that could explain it, so I was wondering if people here could tell me what kind of differences they've seen in their usage over this cold winter compared to other winters. Have you used 100 more units to heat? More than that?

Any comparisons would be very interesting to me - thanks!

peachyprice

These are my usages from the last 3 winter bills, not much of a variance really considering.

30th Aug 2007 - 28th Feb 2008 1007 units
29th Aug 2008 - 3rd March 2009 1130 units
28th Aug 2009 - 4th March 2010 1128 units

This is with a fairly modern (4yo) boiler that does heating and water only, no other gas in the house.

HTH

Andy_WSM

filbert_nutkins wrote: »

but it looks as though my gas usage has gone up with the new efficient boiler which puzzles me.

I have a feeling that the 2007/8 winter was a mild one, so that could explain it, so I was wondering if people here could tell me what kind of differences they've seen in their usage over this cold winter compared to other winters. Have you used 100 more units to heat? More than that?

Any comparisons would be very interesting to me - thanks!

2007/8 was certainly milder. The Winter just gone was the Coldest for 30 years so you'd have to expect your heating costs to rise! The colder it is outside the more energy you need to maintain the same temperature inside.

My bills were about 20% higher this Winter than last - and last Winter was cold too - although not as prolonged as this one has been.

Mrs_Thrify

Hi, my gas bill is slightly less than last year due to having the CH on less and insulating the windows more. We have v.good wall and roof insulation.
We also light a coal fire late afternoons.

savemoney

See my post below I take regularly readings

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=30577843&postcount=9

filbert_nutkins

Thanks, these are really helpful - the 20% figure seems to match peachyprice's figures as well, so I think I'll multiply up my old usage by that amount to get an idea of what that boiler might have costed to run in this weather.
Let's hope it works out in the new boiler's favour or I'll be very depressed!