Silly potential gas bill

Thomo2710

Hi all,

I own my first house and this is my first winter paying bills.

And the gas bill is giveing me headaches.

House info

• The house is generally a cold house!
• Double glazed Windows but not PVC
• No cavity but is getting done (75mm cavity gap)
• Ive done no favours by putting down laminate throughout downstairs apart from kitchen that has cermaic tiles. (concrete subfloors)
• Boiler is an old Vailiant Turbomax 24e (energy rated D) thats pushing 10 years old. Not serviced since 2007 i believe
• 9 radiator 3 bed semi - all new rads and all new copper.

So up until now i have been putting the heating on timer for 7.30-9.30 and thats it. All TRV's on full downstairs and only the bathroom TRV on upstairs, other upper rads are off.
So blasting the heating for 2 hours to heat up a cold house. And its cold again within 10 mins of it going off.
This is working out at roughly 1 imperial unit a day.

But its too cold - rang B.Gas in a strop the other night about their charges and they suggested turning everything down and running the heating for longer but at a lower heat.

So yesterday i set the timer on the boiler 6am-9am and 2pm-10pm, all TRV's down to 2 and temp on the boiler to 3/4 full.

Checked metr before going to bed last night and it had used 4 imperial units.

Doing the maths i worked out that that will be a bill of nearly £130 for the MONTH if i continue like that.

That figure cannot be right surely? Thats the best part of £400 for the winter quarter.

Is this figure realistic in this crazy day and age? I cannot believe anybody can sustain bills like that!

My gas bill for Aug-Oct was £31 and thats actual reading not estimated.

Is my boiler that unefficient that its burning gas like an addict burning heroin?

Please help.

Forgot to say - im using the term Imperial unit as thats what its classed on my bill - my gas meter is read in cubic feet.

Thomo2710

i got to my figure by this:

Meter yesterday morn 1813 (cubic feet) yesterdya after heating went off 1817

4 x 2.83 x 39.3212 x 1.0226400 / 3.6 = 126.44kWh x 30 days = 3793kWh for the month

First 223kWh at 6.621p = £14.76
Next 3570kWh at 3.050p = £108.88
+ the VAT

I have worked this out correct havnt i?

Rikki

You will use a lot more gas in the winter. My August to October bill was similar to yours and I expect my next bill to be nearer £200 as I now have the heating on.
It will cost me between £400 and £500 for the winter two quarters. Old boiler but regularly serviced. 13 radiators, two turned off and two just open via the thermostat. Wooden double glazed windows.

To be honest gas bills are high in the winter so you have to budget, close doors, use draught excluder's and wear warm clothes.

This is your first house and winter bills plus the weather is already cold. Everybody's house is different.

DUTR

Rikki wrote: »

You will use a lot more gas in the winter. My August to October bill was similar to yours and I expect my next bill to be nearer £200 as I now have the heating on.
It will cost me between £400 and £500 for the winter two quarters. Old boiler but regularly serviced. 13 radiators, two turned off and two just open via the thermostat. Wooden double glazed windows.

To be honest gas bills are high in the winter so you have to budget, close doors, use draught excluder's and wear warm clothes.

This is your first house and winter bills plus the weather is already cold. Everybody's house is different.

Perhaps if OP may save some by switching from a standard tariff, my bills since last year were £307 then £196, then £56 and £137, my boiler is over 18years old and will only get replaced when it packs up, if it is cold heating comes on :j, the Kwh was just slightly under the 20500kwh average quoted around,just over 15,000 kwh were used between november and may and about 4800kwh between june and nov.

anotherbaldrick

Hi Thomo.
Your existing boiler is a non condensing combi with a efficiency of 79.6% . If you replaced it with the eqivalent condensing boiler it would be 91.5% . Ie 12% better.
How much insulation do you have in the loft ? That is the first thing to look at ! If you only have 100 mm or so top it up to 250mm.
My Autumn quarter last year was 4632 Kw-£160 for gas (4 bed det) but we are well lagged and have an efficient boiler.

savers_united

As anotherbaldrick states, check your insulation first as a new boiler is going to cost £1k plus and return savings of around £60 per annum at current rates, it would take almost 12 years just to get back what you paid for the boiler and that's with one of the cheaper ones fitted.

You will always use the most amount of gas in the first 2 hours of use (maybe longer depending on insulation levels and outside temp), then it will settle down.

It like when you start a car on a cold morning, have a look at the computer, MPG is well down, once car has warmed up and on the move the MPG starts to increase until it reaches its optimum, same in a house once the rooms get up to temp the system settles down and less gas is used, in your situation you are never really warming the house up just taking the chill off the air.

Don't care what others say, if your at home its best to run the system on low heat constantly than keep switching on and off as temp drops back.

Thomo2710

Rikki wrote: »

You will use a lot more gas in the winter. My August to October bill was similar to yours and I expect my next bill to be nearer £200 as I now have the heating on.
It will cost me between £400 and £500 for the winter two quarters. Old boiler but regularly serviced. 13 radiators, two turned off and two just open via the thermostat. Wooden double glazed windows.

To be honest gas bills are high in the winter so you have to budget, close doors, use draught excluder's and wear warm clothes.

This is your first house and winter bills plus the weather is already cold. Everybody's house is different.

I understand bills will be considerably higher in the winter but at that rate by bill for Oct - Apr is going to come out at nearly £800 for the 2 quarters and that surely cannot be right?

Thomo2710

DUTR wrote: »

Perhaps if OP may save some by switching from a standard tariff, my bills since last year were £307 then £196, then £56 and £137, my boiler is over 18years old and will only get replaced when it packs up, if it is cold heating comes on :j, the Kwh was just slightly under the 20500kwh average quoted around,just over 15,000 kwh were used between november and may and about 4800kwh between june and nov.

i am looking into moving the gas from BG standard but waiting for Npowers price hike announcement (it at all)

Working out my usage via NP Sign Online 20 tariff with dual fuel discount it still woprks out to £92 per MONTH. I just cannot believe this high firgure is right!

My mums house is older than mine - 3 bed semi, 9 year old boiler, no insulation, cracks in the wall and heating on 27/7 throughout winter and her quarter bill is only £200 odd!

Thomo2710

anotherbaldrick wrote: »

Hi Thomo.
Your existing boiler is a non condensing combi with a efficiency of 79.6% . If you replaced it with the eqivalent condensing boiler it would be 91.5% . Ie 12% better.
How much insulation do you have in the loft ? That is the first thing to look at ! If you only have 100 mm or so top it up to 250mm.
My Autumn quarter last year was 4632 Kw-£160 for gas (4 bed det) but we are well lagged and have an efficient boiler.

Dont now how thick it is but there is plenty in there!
Will get up there and measure this weekend but im sure it will be more than 100mm.

Put it this way in the snow this Jan when we agreed to buy the house it was the only house in the street that had snow on the roof.

HalloweenJack

it would likely be a good idea to service your boiler sooner rather than later tbh