Working out gas

TMODAlpha

Hi, this is my first post here and I'm looking for a bit of advice.

Me and my girlfriend have moved into our first house, rented because our age means we wouldnt easily get a mortgage.

Basically, our gas meter is imperial and I can not for the life of me work out a rough guess of our gas use over the last week. It keeps coming out at £30 for a week, which is crazy.

It's a 3 bed semi, very open so gets warm quickly, heating it on twice a day and the oven is electric. No one here through the day, only in the evenings and morning.

I've read that imperial meters are usually 1 unit = 100 ft cubed of gas, but working it out that way means we have used about 30p.

Any help much appreciated, one with the readings:

When we moved in it was: 0634.505
Now it is: 0649.405

The .40 is in red and the 05 was on a dial. The first 4 digits being black number.

Making a difference of around 15 units. I'm working it out with a price rounded up of 7p for kwh.

Anyone shed some light on this for me? If it is £30, I best watch what I'm doing with the gas. I've only managed to use 1 unit today so far, which means the other days I have been using double.

I've not had a bill yet, so dont know the calorific value or the correction.

Thanks

notbritishgas

For an imperial meter you are correct that 1 unit is 100 cu ft.
As a rough guide each unit is 31.5 kwh, so your 15 units is 472 kwh.
Your 7p per kwh would be for the primary units which you will use during the year anyway so best to use your secondary units which will be about 3p per kwh, so 472 kwh will cost about £15.
If you want to be totally accurate then some of the kwh will be at the higher rate, how many will depend on your tariff but should not be too many as only 1 week is involved.

HappyMJ

TMODAlpha wrote: »

Hi, this is my first post here and I'm looking for a bit of advice.

Me and my girlfriend have moved into our first house, rented because our age means we wouldnt easily get a mortgage.

Basically, our gas meter is imperial and I can not for the life of me work out a rough guess of our gas use over the last week. It keeps coming out at £30 for a week, which is crazy.

It's a 3 bed semi, very open so gets warm quickly, heating it on twice a day and the oven is electric. No one here through the day, only in the evenings and morning.

I've read that imperial meters are usually 1 unit = 100 ft cubed of gas, but working it out that way means we have used about 30p.

Any help much appreciated, one with the readings:

When we moved in it was: 0634.505
Now it is: 0649.405

The .40 is in red and the 05 was on a dial. The first 4 digits being black number.

Making a difference of around 15 units. I'm working it out with a price rounded up of 7p for kwh.

Anyone shed some light on this for me? If it is £30, I best watch what I'm doing with the gas. I've only managed to use 1 unit today so far, which means the other days I have been using double.

I've not had a bill yet, so dont know the calorific value or the correction.

Thanks

It's around 31kw per 100 cubic foot of gas. So 15 units *31kw *.07p = £32.55 which isn't too bad but if it's too much for you then turn the temperature down. Is the house well insulated. How is the water heated?

TMODAlpha

£15 would be a lot nicer, shouldnt even be as high as that. What is the difference between tier 1 and 2 then, and when are they used?

The water temperature is pretty high, so I guess that would be a start. The house is very well insulated, just that I have been off work this week and been feeling cold quite a bit, so just keep popping it on.

Which is better, a lower temperature for longer or a higher one for shorter time?

This is a new account with British Gas, so I imagine that we will be on the higher tier for a bit of it. I will work it out in a bit.

TMODAlpha

Looking at it, I've used nearly 550 kwh, and I'm on a quarterly billing cycle. Although I'm about to leave within the month.

Do you think they will apply the quarterly tier 1 of 660 kwh or the monthly of 223 kwh?

I really hope they don't apply the quarterly for a months usage.

KimYeovil

The tier 1/tier 2 price is not an issue - it is distributed on daily basis according to how many days the bill actually covers. You will be charged for about 7 tier 1 units each day. If the bill covers 21 days you pay for 21 days of tier 1 units. If it covers 60 days you pay for 60 days of tier 1 units.

macman

TMODAlpha wrote: »

£15 would be a lot nicer, shouldnt even be as high as that. What is the difference between tier 1 and 2 then, and when are they used?

The water temperature is pretty high, so I guess that would be a start. The house is very well insulated, just that I have been off work this week and been feeling cold quite a bit, so just keep popping it on.

Which is better, a lower temperature for longer or a higher one for shorter time?

This is a new account with British Gas, so I imagine that we will be on the higher tier for a bit of it. I will work it out in a bit.

£60pm to heat a 3 b/r house in winter is really not expensive given current pricing, your consumption will plummet once the warmer weather comes. If you have gas CH then you can easily use 80% of your annual consumption during the coldest 3 months of the year.

debs626

Sorry for hijacking this thread ..... does anyone know of the web site where you enter your meter readings, date, supplier and tariff and it works out how much your bill will be ?

I formatted my PC and lost all my book marks ..... have been googeling and searching for the last hour

Thanks in advance

macman

Any comp site will do that, just calculate your units consumed and enter that as your annual consumption.

debs626

macman wrote: »

Any comp site will do that, just calculate your units consumed and enter that as your annual consumption.

What do you mean when you say "comp" company? computer? compute? competent?

Can you link me to one of these "Any comp site" please

Thanks in advance

macman

Comparison site: energyhelpline, uswitch etc. Any of the ones recommended on the MSE main board wil do the job.