40000KWH Gas Usage?

working

Correction: they do have cavity wall insulation.

HappyMJ

working wrote: »

Correction: they do have cavity wall insulation.

How much insulation in the loft? My house was built in 1995 and only has 100mm of insulation. The current standard is 270mm. The 100mm should fit between the joists and another 170mm thick layer on top of all of that. 270mm is almost a foot. I must get around to topping it up someday.....

Pincher

With a layer of rockwool, you can't use the loft space. With carpet and underlay, lots of storage space. The card board boxes act as extra insulation. In fact, there's no reason why you can't get empty cardboard boxes and lay them on the loft floor. Some old curtains on top is good to keep the dust off.

dogshome

I don't think insulation or the lack of it can give an answer to this problem - If this house is leaking heat now it was always leaking heat at the same rate, yet the Gas consumption has doubled !

It's more likely that there is a foul-up somewhere in the billing
If your parents have not kept the past bills ask the supplier to supply copies, (They have to supply them ), for say the last 4 years - then go through these establishing what the consumption was for each seasonal Qtr and what it was a year to pinpoint just when the consumption jumped up

macman

If they have turned the 'stat up from say 21C to 25C in the last season or so, or increased the hours, then consumption might well have doubled.

jalexa

working wrote: »

It was using approx 1 cubic metre per hour yesterday with the house warm so boiler not working flat out

There is a misunderstanding there about the boiler. A boiler rarely works "flat-out" in heating mode because the output is limited by the capacity of the emitters (radiators).

1 cubic meter per hour is approximately 11kWhrs. A better "test" is to check how "hot" the radiators are. Estimate a large hot radiator to be 3kW and small hot radiators to be 2kW. I would be astonished if the radiators weren't close to maximum rated heat output trying to maintain a 25deg stat setting.

macman

If you are 'keeping the house warm' in order to try and reduce the gas consumption of the boiler then I'm not surprised that the consumption has soared-it doesn't work like that.

working

macman wrote: »

If you are 'keeping the house warm' in order to try and reduce the gas consumption of the boiler then I'm not surprised that the consumption has soared-it doesn't work like that.

Sorry, I didn't mean that. I was trying to explain the rate the meter was incrementing to maintain temp.

I'm not one of those believers in keeping the heating on 24/7 with the belief that it's cheaper (nor do I wish to start that debate...:))

blue_monkey_2

Where is the thermostat situated?

Ours is by the front door so when we open the door, the heating kicks in because the heat has just escaped - and we only have ours on 20. The other thing they could do is, if it is by the front door, then get a thermal curtain across. We used to have one of the old front doors with glass in the front and it was freezing by the door, now we have a new one and it is definately much warmer - go by the back door though (same kind of door) and it feels Arctic!! It just never seems to warm up. While you might think the heating is set at 25, it would depend on where the thermostat is - it might be reaching 25 in one of the colder rooms but 30 in the rest of the house.

I do think that if it is colder then it will come on more, also if the house is anything like ours, the rooms backing onto the outer walls are freezing cold and the ones attached to next door are warm. We do not have a cavity so we just suck it really as the room is not getting any warmer and we spend most of our time in the warmer rooms - but if the stat is in one of the colder rooms then the heating would come on more as it is constantly trying to keep that room at temperature.

I do think it has been colder the last couple of years and therefore the heating would have to come on more as the temperature around the stat comes on to try and get that room warm again.

blue_monkey_2

Oh, and try to get them to turn the stat down by 1 degree every 2 weeks so they get used to it slowly rather than all at once and they will adapt to it easier.

We go to my friends who have it set at 24 and we go in cardigans or jumpers with t-shirts underneath as it feels like being on a tropical island!!