Can 20 mins of central heating and two showers REALLY cost £6 in gas?

CazGreg

I checked my tariff and am on a cheap one. Yes, I use a meter (because I owe EDF some debt which they only take off on Wednesdays) but the standing charge is only 10p a day.

Today, I only had the central heating on for 20 mins because I was mostly out. Two showers were had today (brief) and I did 10 mins of washing up with hot water.

Yet that has cost £6 in gas, according to the meter. How can this be? We know we have no leaks and that boiler etc. is working properly, as it was checked recently.

Is this really the cost?

VfM4meplse

That is steep! Could anyone else be accessing your supply?

zzzLazyDaisy

CazGreg wrote: »

I checked my tariff and am on a cheap one. Yes, I use a meter (because I owe EDF some debt which they only take off on Wednesdays) but the standing charge is only 10p a day.

Today, I only had the central heating on for 20 mins because I was mostly out. Two showers were had today (brief) and I did 10 mins of washing up with hot water.

Yet that has cost £6 in gas, according to the meter. How can this be? We know we have no leaks and that boiler etc. is working properly, as it was checked recently.

Is this really the cost?

Not enough information....

Whether £6 is reasonable or not will depend on lots of things - do you live in a modern one bed flat, or a drafty old victorian four bedroomed house? Was the CH thermostat at 18 degrees or 30 degrees? Do you have double glazing? Loft insulation? How do you get your hot water - combo boiler or hot water tank?

It isn't really about how much the gas has cost, but how many units you have used, and whether it is possible to get that usage lower.

CazGreg

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Not enough information....

Whether £6 is reasonable or not will depend on lots of things - do you live in a modern one bed flat, or a drafty old victorian four bedroomed house? Was the CH thermostat at 18 degrees or 30 degrees? Do you have double glazing? Loft insulation? How do you get your hot water - combo boiler or hot water tank?

It isn't really about how much the gas has cost, but how many units you have used, and whether it is possible to get that usage lower.

Surely even if all of those were 'worst case scenario', £6 would still be too expensive??
And a lot of those aren't relevant. I stated I had the heating on for 20 mins - so things like insulation, double glazing, drafty old house aren't relevant. It was running for 20 mins, therefore even if my house was chilly the units used would be the same.

CazGreg

VfM4meplse wrote: »

That is steep! Could anyone else be accessing your supply?

Fairly certain that would be impossible due to the way it's set up - but thanks for the suggestion.

keep_calm_and_carry_on_2

Im on a pre-payment meter (E-on). Our heating is set to be on for 5 hours a day, hot water for 2 hours a day. So 35 hours of heating and 14 hours of hot water a week, which takes roughly £10 out of the meter.
So, yes, i think there might be something wrong somewhere with yours!!
Might be a fault with the boiler ..... have you had it serviced recently? Last year i was using double the gas AND electric that im using now .... turned out i had 2 leaks and a faulty fan (which never switched itself off) in the boiler hence it was running away with g & e!!

rogerblack

In short - no way in hell.
6 pounds will be around 100 units, maybe as many as 150 or more.

100 units in an hour is 100kW.
Your average domestic gas supply simply can't supply this.
You've either read the meter wrong, or it's completely broken.

bengasman

Not possible to £6 that fast. The usual reason for this, is doing the calculation wrong e.g. reading volume for kW.

jamespir

i found when we run a bath we use 50p

Cardew

A big CH boiler might use 40kW. So for 20 mins heating, say 14kWh around 56pence with gas @ 4p/kWh.

You don't say if you have a combi or not, but another 20 mins in the shower is a further 56P

Those are 'over the top' estimates for consumption - it is highly unlikely you would use that much gas.