How much gas do you use a day?

alocin

I've been trying to work out how much I'm spending on gas per day for central heating, hot water and the gas hob. I'm starting to make a note of my gas meter reading at the same time each day so I can make a chart - sad, I know! So I was wondering whether anyone else keeps track of gas usage like this, or if you just know roughly how much you're using?

I live in an end-of-terrace modern two-bed house, have the heating set to the thermostat throughout the day at around 18 degrees (got small pets that don't like the cold!) and then off at night, it's just me so there's not a lot of extra useage from hot water, etc. The first day's recording in this nippy weather was 4 units on a metric meter.

Npower say to work out the kwh you're billed in you times the units by the volume correction number (1.02264) and then the calorific value (40), then divide by 3.6. I've also seen another thread that says just times the units by 11.2 which sounds easier and gives about the same result! That would mean 4 units = around 45 kwh, at approx 8p per kwh is £3.63. Obviously this is based on one day so need to do this for a few weeks and average out, but for a full cold month of similar gas useage that's around £100. I might be buying my gerbils a hot water bottle and turning the thermostat down!

So anyone else got some figures for comparison?

aelitaman

You can record online using imeasure (do a google search) and that site will produce the graphs for you and compare you usage against people that live in similiar sized houses and number of people. You will get a bad energy rating because like me there is only one person in the house.

To answer your question with gas cooking and combi hot water I use 40Kw per week on average when the central heating is turned off. With the weather about 6C outside and with the heating on I use about 350Kw per week (50Kw per day). Last winter during the very cold spell that usage went up to 1000Kw per week so 142Kw per day.

If you are paying 8p per Kw for gas that is dear. I pay a standard charge and then 2.5p per Kw for my gas.

victor2

I too am one of those sad people who reads the meters every day! I have my readings for the whole of this year in a spreadsheet and calculate and graph the kWh (and hence cost). I even lookup the calorific value for my area to include that in the spreadsheet, like to see if my supplier is being fair - they are so far!
My 4 bed detached with gas CH/hot water and a gas hob has used an average of 64.2kWh/day this year, but is of course increasing with the onset of winter. Used 117 kWh yesterday and it hasn't been that high since last February.

alocin

aelitaman - I was with standard npower when I moved in, EDF said their online deal would be cheaper so agreed to switch then npower came along and said no their online deal was cheaper so I'm switching back - like a yo-yo! I got the figures off the npower intro letter which said something like 8p for X number of high cost units then 2.5p for the cheaper ones once the month's high units are used up. Is that really expensive?

SailorSam

http://www.imeasure.org.uk
If you join that site you can keep records of your own usage and compare it with others.

t0rt0ise

aelitaman wrote: »

You can record online using imeasure (do a google search)

Just a warning about imeasure. They don't appear to honour asking to be removed from their newsletter list and it comes so often it's becoming spamish now. I wish I'd never signed up with them.

aelitaman

alocin wrote: »

aelitaman - I was with standard npower when I moved in, EDF said their online deal would be cheaper so agreed to switch then npower came along and said no their online deal was cheaper so I'm switching back - like a yo-yo! I got the figures off the npower intro letter which said something like 8p for X number of high cost units then 2.5p for the cheaper ones once the month's high units are used up. Is that really expensive?

No that pricing sounds fine, you will use up the 8p units in no time at all so the majority of the gas will be at 2.5p

wibblehead

alocin wrote: »

I've been trying to work out how much I'm spending on gas per day for central heating, hot water and the gas hob. I'm starting to make a note of my gas meter reading at the same time each day so I can make a chart - sad, I know! So I was wondering whether anyone else keeps track of gas usage like this, or if you just know roughly how much you're using?

I live in an end-of-terrace modern two-bed house, have the heating set to the thermostat throughout the day at around 18 degrees (got small pets that don't like the cold!) and then off at night, it's just me so there's not a lot of extra useage from hot water, etc. The first day's recording in this nippy weather was 4 units on a metric meter.

Npower say to work out the kwh you're billed in you times the units by the volume correction number (1.02264) and then the calorific value (40), then divide by 3.6. I've also seen another thread that says just times the units by 11.2 which sounds easier and gives about the same result! That would mean 4 units = around 45 kwh, at approx 8p per kwh is £3.63. Obviously this is based on one day so need to do this for a few weeks and average out, but for a full cold month of similar gas useage that's around £100. I might be buying my gerbils a hot water bottle and turning the thermostat down!

So anyone else got some figures for comparison?

I'm another sad person

I have a spreadsheet with graph to chart my useage of gas daily. 3 bed Semi - heating on for 7 hours per day thermostat at 18 (11 radiators although 3 of them are set at 1) cost me £2.77 yesterday. It was 15 degrees when I got in from work yesterday but soon got back up there and was then 15 again when I got up this morning but again was soon back up again.

For got to add that I have electric for cooking.
The gas useage also includes 2 showers a day (one of them much too long!)

I used 104kwh which is a bit too much for my liking but whilst the snow is around I'll tolerate it.

victor2

wibblehead wrote: »

I'm another sad person

I have a spreadsheet with graph to chart my useage of gas daily. 3 bed Semi - heating on for 7 hours per day thermostat at 18 (11 radiators although 3 of them are set at 1) cost me £2.77 yesterday. It was 15 degrees when I got in from work yesterday but soon got back up there and was then 15 again when I got up this morning but again was soon back up again.

I'm similar, 10 radiators, no TRVs, thermostat set at 19, central heating on 10 hours a day. Cost me £3.17 for my 117kWh yeaterday. Most rooms are used and downstairs of the house is pretty much open plan. Wondering if it would be worth getting TRVs fitted?

wibblehead

victor2 wrote: »

I'm similar, 10 radiators, no TRVs, thermostat set at 19, central heating on 10 hours a day. Cost me £3.17 for my 117kWh yeaterday. Most rooms are used and downstairs of the house is pretty much open plan. Wondering if it would be worth getting TRVs fitted?

I wonder that too! I only have 4 radiators with TRVs at the moment and do wonder if it would be cost effective to change the others.

aelitaman

Trvs obviously help because if the thermo is in a room with a small rad that takes a long time to heat up you may get over temp in rooms that have large rads with no trvs. But if you run the heating only in the morning and the evening it may not be much of a problem.

Whereas if you run the heating all day it might be. At the weekends when I would have my heating on all day what I do is to turn the rads to zero in the upstairs rooms and the rooms I will not use when I get up, so basically the heating is just on in the lounge and the kitchen. Then at about 7pm or 8pm I turn the bedrooms and bathroom rads back on.

It is manual but works for me.