gas bill

brooklyn07

I've just had my gas bill in for the period of 26th February til 29th march.

it was £47.50 which i thought was quite high. Its my first month in a house with gas supply so i've no idea whether this is high or not.

Basically the heating goes on from 8.30pm til about 10.30pm. I have a thermostat which is at 16 degrees and no more.
I have a combi boiler which heats the water aswell as the central heating.

I use one gas hob every evening to cook either potato's or veg, i have a shower in the morning and OH has a shower in the evening.
My oven is electric.

Is this high for a month? Its not an estimated bill - i gave them meter readings when we moved in and im on an online tarrif so i give them meter readings every month then they base the bill on this.

Few questions - is it cheaper to boil a kettle and use that water in a a saucepan for cooking or is it cheaper to just use cold and let the gas heat the water?

We have 2 rooms that we dont use - is it better to turn the radiators off in those rooms or leave them on so it heats the rest of the house?

I have dials on my radiator 1-9 is it better to have them set to maximum?

I have a towel rail in the bathroom will that be ok set to maximum? Will any of these things use less gas if they are turned down?

Sorry if these are stupid questions but I've never lived in a house with mains gas or even central heating before so this is all new to me!

ormus

1.50 per day is pretty cheap for heating & hot water.

try using an immersion heater for a day!

brooklyn07

ormus wrote: »

1.50 per day is pretty cheap for heating & hot water.

try using an immersion heater for a day!

well the reason i say this is because other people i've spoken to say that is quite high for the amount of time we have the heating on because they have theirs on for longer amounts of time and theirs is cheaper....

jafsie

Ormus, it is only on for 2 hours a day that's only about 1 week per month,

and it's only set to 16 degrees, you sure that sounds cheap?

phill99

Is it an estimated or actual reading? If the former, it will be a guess based on the previous years consumption. That will make a lot of difference.

In terms of the rads in the unused rooms, DO NOT turn them off completely. This will only lead to condensation problems in the winter. Turn them dowmn onto a low heta so that there is some background heating in those rooms to minimise condensation.

Canucklehead

brooklyn07 wrote: »

Is this high for a month? Its not an estimated bill - i gave them meter readings when we moved in and im on an online tarrif so i give them meter readings every month then they base the bill on this.

Hi, phill.....:D
GSR

OP you might try asking on the utilities forum more 'usage anoraks' there.;) Insulation levels will make a great impact on consumption.

Nile

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com"]forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

phill99

Canucklehead wrote: »

Hi, phill.....:D
GSR

Oooooooops

brooklyn07

ok thanks - well as for insulation we have cavity wall insulation - its not an estimated bill its an actual becuase i gave them the readings on the day we moved in and then the meter readings a month later - what i am doing wrong to make my bill so high??

savemoney

My bill from 26 feb to 25th March £57.35 Gas units converted = 1868.46 kWh used over 28 days (164 metric units over 28 days)

I had heating on up to 19c but not every night and some nights it hardly came on. There was a couple of baths that were used and washing up and a few bowels for washing car, bath is quiet small we mainly shower and usually use dishwasher (electric)

hannylou

Hello all

I have had my bill through ( moved to a new house in December, so its all been moved over to our supplier since end of jan)

my Gas bill was - £108.08 for 109 days worth of gas - think we used 34 units which is 1071 KWh

my gas is split into primary and secondary consumption charge - no idea about all this.

I have the heating on from 6.45-8am and then on again at 5.30-9.30pm, i have a bath pretty much every night and some times my OH will have one in the mornings.

Thermostat is on about 16-18C and we use a gas oven/hob

I am sure this is probs correct costings wise
I just wondered what i could do to help reduce the bills

Elec seems ok - £47.87 for 109 days