Please help FTB: Gas bill killing me!

farazfastian

I'm a first time buyer, moved to my new 2.5 bedroom semi-D house on 26Nov,10. Just received my 2 months Gas bill and I’m shocked as it's whopping £220 for just little over 2 month which is way too much. Please help me to reduce it. My wife and 1 year old son stay at home all the time we don't run heating in the night at all but my wife turn the heating on for 3-4 hours then turn it off then on again for 3-4 hours after 2-3 hours in day time. Here's bill details:

26 Nov,10 17760
02 Feb,11 18257

No of Days: 69
Units Used: 497
Units per day: 7.2

On top of above bill we're still not satisfied with the heating as upstairs get cold within half an hour of turning heating off. It's an old condensing system but the boiler and hot water cylinder replaced in end of 2009. I do have following problems with the heating system:

- there's no thermostat the only thing we have is the low-high dial in the boiler so there's no way to set exact temperature. Will this help in reducing the bill?

- timer just work on 2 settings so i can set just morning and afternoon and can't do like turning heating on for half an hour after every two hours. This will definitely help i believe?

- upstairs get cold very quickly i believe its coz of thin insulation in the loft, i did get British Gas engineer to check loft insulation and he recommended 10 inches of insulation on top of boarding as he said i can't have boarding on top of insulation this will compress it and it'll start releasing the heat. But i don't wana loose loft space, what to do?

- bathroom radiator get half cold after every 3-4 days then i've to do the bleeding again and again

- will having radiator pads behind radiator help in keeping the heat inside? Also we don't have cavity walls in the house.

Please advise what should i do, to drop the bill?

Many Thanks
Faraz

farazfastian

Also i tried to keep the low-high dialer to 75% to keep the heating on all the time, so that boiler turn-on and off automatically to maintain the temperature but it didn't help at all as boiler was on all the time. Don't know whats wrong with the heating.

macman

With the heating on 8 hours+ during the coldest winter for decades, £110 a month doesn't sound that excessive-that's about £3.50 per day. It should drop back considerably now the weather is milder.
I assume you have a metric meter (meter marked cu. m?), if so £220 is about right for 497 units, that's around 5,647kWh.
TRV's on the rads and a proper digital programmer will give you more control over the system.
You can remove the loft boarding and insulate up to the top of the joists, if the existing insulation is less than that. Any more will require battening the joists.
Double glazing?
I'm assuming you are already on the cheapest tariff-if not get to work on a comp site now.
'Maintaining the temp' is not cheaper-all the time the boiler is on, it is burning gas and costing you more.

spiro

You lose loft space or you lose heat, which do you want?
With modern guidelines being 10" in the loft I suspect most/all new builds will lose the use of the loft because thats about 7" higher than the joists.

withabix

Loose?

The word is LOSE.


Arghhhhhhh!

suey2

wasbeingrudemyself

farazfastian

I'm on EDF Online S@ver v7 Electricity/Ga and i beleive it's the cheapest i can get but i'll keep an eye on it.

I do have TRV's with all the radiators what i was asking about is the pads behind radiator to stop loosing heat via walls as i don't have cavity walls.

I'll definitely get thermostat and digital programmer installed asap but i don't how big is this job.

I do understand 11" is the ideal requirement for insolation on the cost of storage space but what about things like space board from Knauf which does both?

http://www.space-insulation.com/board.html

p.s. I'll check the meter details tonight.

JJ_Egan

What about the Energy saving scheme for insulation and lagging and even cavity insulation . That can help keep the heat in .
Cannot remember the name it uses now nor date for it to be wound up but your energy supplier should have details ..

I am paying gas + elec £100-£110 a month average during the cold months .
Central heating on 7am to 10PM .

If you are heating a cold house then letting the house get cold again its probably going to cost more than keeping a stable temperature even if its a bit on the low side .

jje

jackieglasgow

Are you doing things like drawing the curtains at night, using draught excluders, closing doors upstairs - all these things help to keep the rooms a bit warmer and keep the heat "in" a bit longer if your home is poorly insulated.

victor2

farazfastian wrote: »

I'm on EDF Online S@ver v7 Electricity/Ga and i beleive it's the cheapest i can get but i'll keep an eye on it.

I do have TRV's with all the radiators what i was asking about is the pads behind radiator to stop loosing heat via walls as i don't have cavity walls.

I'll definitely get thermostat and digital programmer installed asap but i don't how big is this job.

I do understand 11" is the ideal requirement for insolation on the cost of storage space but what about things like space board from Knauf which does both?

http://www.space-insulation.com/board.html

Rather than use that, just put extra wood on top of the joists to increase the height, put a good layer of insulation in the deeper gap and put chipboard on top in the areas you want to use for storage. It'll cost less and only take a little extra work.

A digital programmer will give you more control and shouldn't be too dificult to fit or get installed. You can read your meter daily or weekly to get an idea what it's going to be costing you now the harsh winter we've had is hopefully behind us.

moonrakerz

macman wrote: »

With the heating on 8 hours+ during the coldest winter for decades, £110 a month doesn't sound that excessive-that's about £3.50 per day.

That is what I was using at the very peak of the cold weather - not bad to keep me and the cat nice and warm !