How much gas do you use a day?

victor2

I can keep the mystery of how the digital thermostat (which is in the hallway and part of the open plan) and boiler timer works to myself, but if the OH saw TRVs everywhere it would soon be a case of her turning them all up full because she was cold!;)
I have the heating off during weekdays as it's only me in the house - I just wrap up warmer. Might look into getting a programmable thermostat rather than TRVs, but even with that I doubt if I'd see much of a saving as the heating goes off once it's past bedtime and only comes on a bit before we get up.

lozzaman

Burning through a rather ludicrous ~245KWh a day at the moment (22 cubic metres) - I hate the cold.

wibblehead

Brrrrrrrrrr! or Grrrrr! 105kwh used yesterday - going up and it's likely to be more today as I've been at home and just had to turn the heating back on as I was freezing. I suppose I have a little way to go to reach Lozzaman's useage. Roll on Spring!

wibblehead

Used 119kwh of gas yesterday but then I had the heating on from 5:45 in the morning until 9:15 in the evening. That'a a total of 15.5 hours. I suppose that's not too bad considering the weather!

victor2

My daily cost for gas and electricity hit £5 yesterday. Hasn't done that since last February. Roll on Spring!

dundeedoll_2

Hi, can anyone help me, please?

I have tried to get my head around it and work it out logically, but can't seem to. (The first units @ so much charge, then remaining units @ different price are confusing me I think)

20.09.2010 meter reading 9820 (hcf)
28.11.2010 " 9868

---

48

Converted to kwh 1,544
(using energylinx)


Primary units charged @ 6.643p
secondary " @ 3.216p

(This all aligned beautifully when I wrote the post out but as soon as I post it it all goes all over the place - sorry)


Also how do you all work out how much it costs per day?
Just say for example I've used 4 on my meter a day, this converts to: 129 kwh
Again, how do I know what price from above to times it by?

Hope I've explained my question in a way that someone else will understand what I mean

I have GCH - vailliant combi fitted 2005. I had it to come on at 4pm until 7.30pm @ 14 degrees. I have found that with the cold the house got down to 8 degrees :eek: before 4pm so I put it on 24 hrs @ 10 degrees when I went to work last wednesday.

I have only turned the thermostat up to 12 - 13 this weekend while I've been home and the house is not as cold as normal.

I have a gas hob and shower using combi.
( I usually have a get in bath, turn on shower to get wet, turn shower off, put on shower gel/scrub etc, turn shower on to rinse off.......done type of shower most nights!
'Kevin the teenager' gets in the shower every morning at 7.58am and doesn't turn it off until 7.18 :eek: DESPITE being told every morning NOT to just leave it running!!! :wall:) Then I have to put the dehumidifier on for 2 hours :mad:

Rant over!

victor2

Couple of issues with converting your gas meter readings to cost, which usually mean you'll get very close to the actual bill, but rarely hit it exactly...

The Calorific Value of the gas you use is an important part of the conversion from HCF to kWh. It is usually a figure between 37.5 and 43 and the National Grid publish it daily for each of the 16 gas distribution areas defined in the UK. Stornoway has LPG and a totally different figure, but hopefully you aren't there!
Your billing company probably use an "average" value for your entire billing period and the variations in it will only make a difference of a matter of pence. My experience with e.on is that their "average" is a little below that reported by National Grid for the same period and region.

More significantly, is the number of kWh the primary rate applies to. If that is say the first 2,680 kWh per year, then that equates to about 7.34kWh per day. So long as you always use at least that amount (which most domestic users will), then you can use that in a formula to estimate your cost.
If your bill is for exactly a quarter, then 670 kWh will be charged at the primary rate, even if you had some days when you used no gas at all, so it shouldn't be thought of as strictly a daily allowance.

Sorry, that went on a bit and didn't actually give you a formula, but you can monitor your cost fairly closely, just don't expect to hit it to the penny. I'm usually within less than a pound of my quarterly bill.

dundeedoll_2

victor2 wrote: »

More significantly, is the number of kWh the primary rate applies to. If that is say the first 2,680 kWh per year, then that equates to about 7.34kWh per day. So long as you always use at least that amount (which most domestic users will), then you can use that in a formula to estimate your cost.

Also how do you all work out how much it costs per day?
Just say for example I've used 4 on my meter a day, this converts to: 129 kwh
Again, how do I know what price from above to times it by?
Primary units charged @ 6.643p
secondary " @ 3.216p

Thanks for your reply.
So using my example for daily use above it would be: (roughly)
7 x 6.643p = £0.46
122 x 3.216 =£3.92
cost for day £4.38 ish

victor2

If you really want to know the current calorific value or CV for your area, you can get it from http://marketinformation.natgrid.co.uk/gas/DataItemExplorer.aspx
Expand the Calorific Value box, select your area and enter a date range. The area will be indicated on your bill and the references on the National Grid page are:
Calorific Value, LDZ(EA) - Eastern
Calorific Value, LDZ(EM) - East Midlands
Calorific Value, LDZ(NE) - North East
Calorific Value, LDZ(NO) - Northern
Calorific Value, LDZ(NT) - North Thames
Calorific Value, LDZ(NW) - North West
Calorific Value, LDZ(SC) - Scotland
Calorific Value, LDZ(SE) - South East
Calorific Value, LDZ(SO) - Southern
Calorific Value, LDZ(SW) - South West
Calorific Value, LDZ(WM) - West Midlands
Calorific Value, LDZ(WN) - Wales North
Calorific Value, LDZ(WS) - Wales South
Calorific Value, Scottish Independents - Scottish Independents
Calorific Value, Stornoway - Stornoway
Calorific Value, Stranraer - Stranraer

The value of 40 you have used from energylinx is pretty close though - mine is currently 39.3 and would give 126kWh instead of the 129 you had for 4 HCF (I find I have to record the tenths of HCF from my meter when looking at daily usage). The complete formula for converting the reading from HCF to kWh will probably be printed on your bill and that will save you looking it up on a website once you have a CV you are happy to use.
Your example is correct, IF the number of kWh used for the primary rate I gave as an example is also correct.

The good news is calculating your daily electricity cost from a meter reading is a walk in the park once you've dealt with the gas!:)

Dave_save

I use a spreadsheet and take weekly readings. Last week's gas usage was 380 kWh, although it looks like this week will be around the 400-420 mark (so 55-60 per day I suppose). I live in a 3 bed semi with gas condensing CH boiler and gas cooking. TRV's are on all rads except one, and we tend to have the room stat set at around 19-20C. Heating is on for around 2 hours in the morning and around 6 hours in the evening.