Am I using too much gas for my property?

Dreaming_2

Hey there. Just got a ghastly bill - £230 in gas for the period 1 Dec - 15th Feb. I didn't take any meter readings in between so can't break it down any more than that.

The thing is, per day, we average out using 85kWh of gas per day. We live in a 3bed mid terrace, have heating on for 3.5hrs a day and leave the hot water on 24 hours a day. No gas appliances except the central heating.

It just struck me as for the same period its nearly double our electricity bill, despite the fact we are heavy electricity users (3 full gaming desktop PCs, tv, electric oven / hob / washing machine / tumble dryer / shower).

The electricity bill seems fine, could be lower but seems ok. The gas bill though seems to have no grounding in reality, the consumption is just very high for the time we use the boiler. But if its similar to others experience I'll just leave it there.

macman

Are both opening and closing readings actuals, or is it a catch-up bill? But even assuming 85kWh per day actual,that seems perfectly reasonable for some of the coldest weeks in 50 years. Over 10 weeks that's £23 per week, or £3.30 a day.
Really no need to leave the hot water on 24/7 though, a properly lagged tank will keep it hot for hours.

Dreaming_2

Yea they're both actual opening and closing readings. Just my friends down the road who have their heating on more than us averaged 75kwh (they live in a 4bed detached). My friend who lives on his own in a 3bed detached used 50kwh as well so that's why I felt like it was out of kilter with what other people were using.

Only reason I left the hot water on was so that the thermostat in the boiler could control it - when its up to temperature turn off, when it falls down a bit heat it back up - meaning you can wash your hands in the middle of the night no prob.

Cheers for the help though

cajef

Dreaming wrote: »

Only reason I left the hot water on was so that the thermostat in the boiler could control it - when its up to temperature turn off, when it falls down a bit heat it back up - meaning you can wash your hands in the middle of the night no prob.

And that is probably why you have a high gas bill, the boiler is constantly firing up just to top up the hot water, a properly insulated hot water cylinder should retain the heat enough to wash hands in the night in hot water.

dannymccann

Agree with Cajef - in our old flat we had a leccy shower so only needed the immersion for washing up and washing hands after using the loo, 30 minutes on Eco7 kept enough water hot all day for that easy enough!

macman

Dreaming wrote: »

Yea they're both actual opening and closing readings. Just my friends down the road who have their heating on more than us averaged 75kwh (they live in a 4bed detached). My friend who lives on his own in a 3bed detached used 50kwh as well so that's why I felt like it was out of kilter with what other people were using.

Only reason I left the hot water on was so that the thermostat in the boiler could control it - when its up to temperature turn off, when it falls down a bit heat it back up - meaning you can wash your hands in the middle of the night no prob.

Cheers for the help though

The temp of the hot water in the tank should be regulated by the 'stat on the tank, not by the boiler stat.
You can't compare usage in different properties-everyone has different insulation standards, preferred temp settings, etc etc.

Dreaming_2

cajef wrote: »

And that is probably why you have a high gas bill, the boiler is constantly firing up just to top up the hot water, a properly insulated hot water cylinder should retain the heat enough to wash hands in the night in hot water.

Turned it off allday now to just 7-8am and 4-5pm, so hopefully should be better.

The thing is though, if the cylinder is properly insulated then the water should reach a stable temperature surely and the boiler won't heat it up further?

I'll post back in a bit with some results. The other thing is, the energy usage seems consistent with the previous tenants, just higher than I would expect for our use