Gas Kw useage, new gas metre fitted

Paular0n

Moved into new house 31st Aug 2010. Just noted new meter installed June 2010. Three bed detatched one person resident. High winter bill. Have queried with Scottish Power. Have calculated that I use approx 1.33 Kw per hour use of gas if I have heating and hot water on. Been told that ! to 3 Kw is average day use. And that my use is average. Can't seem to get across to the well meaning folk I have chatted to on phone that I am stating hourly use and they are talking daily average. All I am trying to find out is ...... Is my hourly consumption normal? Is it possible that the new meter is faulty? Do I need a new boiler? Advice from anyone please as I sit in day clothes and dressing gown with no heating on. Should I downsize to a one bed?;)

macman

At 1.33kwh, even if on 24/7 and 365 days a year (which it obviously won't be), you would only be using c. 11,600 kWh p.a. The average for a 3 b/r property with gas CH and DHW would be c. 17,500kWh pa. So your consumption seems very low. Are you confusing kWh with meter units, which will be cu m on a new meter?
Your hourly consumption is a bit meaningless-what is your annual consumption, or your consumption over the 6m since you moved in? How high was your 'high' bill?
11,600kWh would result in a bill of only about £350pa-far too cheap for a 3 b/r detached house.

HappyMJ

Paular0n wrote: »

Moved into new house 31st Aug 2010. Just noted new meter installed June 2010. Three bed detatched one person resident. High winter bill. Have queried with Scottish Power. Have calculated that I use approx 1.33 Kw per hour use of gas if I have heating and hot water on. Been told that ! to 3 Kw is average day use. And that my use is average. Can't seem to get across to the well meaning folk I have chatted to on phone that I am stating hourly use and they are talking daily average. All I am trying to find out is ...... Is my hourly consumption normal? Is it possible that the new meter is faulty? Do I need a new boiler? Advice from anyone please as I sit in day clothes and dressing gown with no heating on. Should I downsize to a one bed?;)

1.33kw?? That isn't much. My gas boiler uses 14.65kw/h.

Have you/they calculated it as 1.33kw * 24 hours * 91 days = 2904 kw on the bill. That's still very low. 3kw per hour would be closer to average.

How many kw do you have on the bill? What's the unit rate? Any standing charges? Any IGT charges?

mattcanary

I notice your meter was changed last year. Have the bills been basing your usage upon an imperial meter being in your home. This means your bills would be around 3 times higher than they should be.,

penrhyn

Metre, the fundamental unit of length in the metric system.
Meter, device that measures and records the quantity, degree, or rate of something.

I thank you!

rockin_plumber

penrhyn wrote: »

Metre, the fundamental unit of length in the metric system.
Meter, device that measures and records the quantity, degree, or rate of something.

I thank you!

:think: What a good way to make a new member feel welcome

But as you have so many posts that gives you the right

I take it you never read the actual post just the title and thought :eek: must correct that....

If you actually read the post, meter was spelt the way intended on two other occasions, so was probably a slip of the finger when entering the topic title.

pedant, person making display of his or her learning; learned person paying excessive attention to details.



Well Done :T


And welcome to the OP

anniecave

As the posters above say, one unit on the meter is not the same as 1 KWH

How many kwh per day have you been using as per your gas bills? Are the bills based on actual meter readings?

Do you have your heating on 24/7 or only for a few hours per day?

How many bedrooms is your property?

rockin_plumber

Just for reference to compare, I have a metric meter, 2 bed house, combi boiler, non-condensing boiler, heating on most of the day, the heating is only on between 6:30am and 10:30pm on a room stat so obviously goes off when the house is warm enough.

In the 4 weeks from 4th Jan to 1st Feb I used 142 units
Which is 1581.23 kWh
Averaging out at 56.47 kWh per day
And hourly at 2.36kWh over a 24 hour period

But as the boiler is only timed to be on for 16 hours a day (although not running constantly for this time) it would work out at an hourly 3.52 kWh

This may help for comparison.. or just confuse matters

zagfles

Paular0n wrote: »

Moved into new house 31st Aug 2010. Just noted new meter installed June 2010. Three bed detatched one person resident. High winter bill. Have queried with Scottish Power. Have calculated that I use approx 1.33 Kw per hour use of gas if I have heating and hot water on. Been told that ! to 3 Kw is average day use. And that my use is average. Can't seem to get across to the well meaning folk I have chatted to on phone that I am stating hourly use and they are talking daily average. All I am trying to find out is ...... Is my hourly consumption normal? Is it possible that the new meter is faulty? Do I need a new boiler? Advice from anyone please as I sit in day clothes and dressing gown with no heating on. Should I downsize to a one bed?;)

Like others have alluded to there's a terminology problem here.

1) kW is the rate at which you use gas. It is not a quantity
2) kWh is the quantity of energy you use - if you use gas at a rate of 1 kW then in an hour you'll use 1 kWh.

You seem to be talking about an quantity (ie kWh) whereas SP seem to be talking about a rate (ie kW). They seem to be saying that the average day use rate is 3 kW, which would result in a quantity used of 72 kWh over 24 hours.

To complicate matters further, your gas meter reads cubic metres whereas you are billed in kWh. As an approximation one unit on your meter will be about 11 to 12 kWh - it varies depending on the calorific value of the gas you are supplied.

So if you notice your meter going up by 1.33 units per hour, multiply by about 11.5 and you are using gas at a rate of about 15 kW, which means you are using a quantity of 15 KwH per hour.

Confused??

anniecave

zagfles wrote: »

So if you notice your meter going up by 1.33 units per hour, multiply by about 11.5 and you are using gas at a rate of about 15 kW, which means you are using a quantity of 15 KwH per hour.

That's useful information zagfles, as this would mean the opening poster is using a similar amount to us.

We have been using about 100 kwh per day over the cold period in gas. That's a 3 bedroom terrace house but there isn't double glazing on a lot of the windows and I don't think the central heating is as efficient as it could be. We have the heating on as little as possible, but it's normally on 2-3 hours in the morning, and 3 hours in the evening, plus an extra hour here and there as necessary.

Gives you some figures to compare with anyway.