Is Gas usage this low even possible?

oellph

Quick question. I'm trying to understand how a friends gas usage can be so incredibly low and we've been comparing figures, methods of heating etc for a while and now I'd welcome some outside opinions

He has an imperial meter and from 10th September till 4th Dec used 369.6kwh, which on his tariff came to £18.71. Gas is used for CH, cooking and hot water, with heating being used for an hour or so in the morning and 4-5 hours in the evening. The house is an end terrace 4 bedroom victorian house. Evenings they keep the temp around 16-17c (so not amazingly warm and part of the reason to keep gas usage low).

That works out to about 11.79kwh per day which I find amazing. Hell this last week with the cold snap we've blown through 900kwh alone!

Cardew

Are you sure he hasn't used 369.6 gas units?

If he has been billed for only 369kWh it can only be because estimated meter readings have been used; either an over-estimated reading on the last bill(10 Sept), or under-estimated on 04 Dec,

[Deleted User]

Hi,

are you comparing apples with apples, imperial/imperial, or apples with pears, imperial/metric?

Have a look here.

oellph

We're on m3, but I've been accounting for that and using the right calculations. He says the meter clocked up 32 units from Sept-Dec. So 32 imperial units x 2.83 for m3 = 90.56. Roughly 1014kwh.

victor2

That's extremely low. Presumably he has a combi boiler and doesn't bath or shower using it's hot water supply. Does he smell?:D
16 to 17 is also low. 19 is as low as I'll go with my heating and even that is not exactly comfortable. Probably doesn't cook much either!
See if he can give you daily figures for this current weather.

oellph

Two people staying in the house, I think they shower each day They do tend to use a duvet on the sofa, dressing gowns to keep warm etc. We couldn't (nor would want) to do the same with our 2 year old son around. They have a condensing combi boiler with room thermostat.

This isn't about jealousy btw. Well kind of I'm just trying to determine if there's anything he's doing that we could also be doing to lower our gas costs.

paulsad

Has meter been tampered with?? Thats my only thought - my bills are huuuuge and we're freezin most of the time. Think I'm payin for the whole street.

macman

If you are sure that his readings are correct, then I would suspect that the meter is faulty.
Are you 100% sure that it's an imperial meter not metric?

Cardew

macman wrote: »

If you are sure that his readings are correct, then I would suspect that the meter is faulty.
Are you 100% sure that it's an imperial meter not metric?

If it was a metric meter it would be even less kWh used.

32 gas units on a metric meter would be approx 360kWh instead of approx 1,000kWh on an Imperial meter.

The short answer is he has probably misread the meter. Don't forget the old Imperial dial gas meters were easy to misread as the pointers moved clockwise and anti-clockwise on alternate dials.




Dial or 'clock' type meters

When reading your dial meter, always remember that dials next to each other revolve in opposite directions.
Ignore the dials marked 100 per rev and the large dial. Ignore the red dials. Read the other dials from left to right and write down the number that the hand has passed.
This meter reads 6653.
Note - If the pointer is between two figures, write down the lower number. However, if the pointer is between 9 and 0, write down 9.
You will now need to subtract your previous reading from your present reading to work out the number of cubic feet of gas used.


http://www.edfenergy.com/products-services/for-your-home/my-account/how-to-read-your-gas-meter.shtml

Andy_WSM

oellph wrote: »

This isn't about jealousy btw. Well kind of I'm just trying to determine if there's anything he's doing that we could also be doing to lower our gas costs.

Er, yeah. They sit around all wrapped up because their house is freezing cold and you don't!

I'm not knocking your choice to have the heating higher - it wouldn't be my preference to be trapped under a duvet all evening either...

dannymccann

That is really low, mine is absurdly low really, 16th Sept - 4th December my electricity is 5kwh a day and gas is 20kwh a day with 2 full time adults and gas for cooking, heating and showering. The bill for the period was jsut over £100 with SP Online 9.

They've done well to get those figures in a 4 bed Victorian terrace, mine is a 3 bed newbuild midterrace!