Gas CH bill sky high - Help is needed...

becksfaz

Think I'm gunna give the TRV fitting thing a miss - just found out on average thar it saves about £10 a year on energy (within 5-10 years you get back what it costs to install). This is a rented house. Might not be here in 12 months, never mind 5 or 10 years. Will have to get my head around the stupid + and - dials.

HappyMJ

becksfaz wrote: »

Think I'm gunna give the TRV fitting thing a miss - just found out on average thar it saves about £10 a year on energy (within 5-10 years you get back what it costs to install). This is a rented house. Might not be here in 12 months, never mind 5 or 10 years. Will have to get my head around the stupid + and - dials.

That's £10 per TRV per year based on standard non DD gas charges. The 10 year payback time is taking into account an extra £100 of labour by getting someone in to install them. You can install these yourself although it's not the easiest DIY job.

Cardew

We should get one thing clarified about 'scorching hot' radiators.

The temperature of the water circulated in the CH system has nothing to do with the TRVs. If the room is cold it doesn't matter if the TRV is set to '1' or '5' the radiator will get equally hot because it is the same water circulating. What will happen of course, if the radiator is at '1', it will shut off the supply of water to the radiator(sooner than '5') which will start to cool down.

I explained previously why in a cold bedroom when the TRV is set to '1' the radiator could be scorching hot(because the room is not up to temperature) while in the lounge the radiator could be cool with the TRV set to '5'( because the room is up to temperature.)

Incidentally regarding TRV settings I posted:

There are different types of TRV but the setting are usually 1 = 16C 2 =18C 3 = 20C 4 = 22C 5 = 24C

jalexa

becksfaz wrote: »

Programmable thermostat? How's that work?

It replaces the existing stat and allows different temperature settings at different times of day. So a setting for the morning, a lower daytime temperature, higher again evening and before bed then a lower (or off) temperature overnight, plus a frost protection setting.

An easy job for an electrically competent DIYer.

Examples here (ones with programmable in name, or search for "programmable"), without any recommendation...

http://www.screwfix.com/c/heating-plumbing/room-thermostats/cat831444

Personally I recommend Honeywell.

becksfaz

Cardew wrote: »

We should get one thing clarified about 'scorching hot' radiators.

The temperature of the water circulated in the CH system has nothing to do with the TRVs. If the room is cold it doesn't matter if the TRV is set to '1' or '5' the radiator will get equally hot because it is the same water circulating. What will happen of course, if the radiator is at '1', it will shut off the supply of water to the radiator(sooner than '5') which will start to cool down.

I explained previously why in a cold bedroom when the TRV is set to '1' the radiator could be scorching hot(because the room is not up to temperature) while in the lounge the radiator could be cool with the TRV set to '5'( because the room is up to temperature.)

Yes I understand all this but the scorching hot radiator set to 2 hasn't been shutting down (room was absolutely roasting) and the one set to 0 shouldn't be getting warm so they were faulty. Had this confirmed today as the landlord sent someone to look at the tvrs - although they have chosen not to replace them, just turn off the water supply to those 2 rads altogether?!
Also I wasn't in any way been critical about what you'd explained to me about the tvr settings - I was simply re-explaining what I'd understood. You've been really helpful with explaining them and I've realised now that I didn't understand them cos they aren't bloody functioning correctly in my house!

macman

So you will now have no heat output at all from those 2 rads...your LL is a cheapskate.

becksfaz

I mentioned on here yesterday that I was putting my heating on a timer - I had it set to 18 when on constant. I find this temp fine, boiler was kicking in approx every hr to top up temperature. Now - My friend came round today, she has her heating on a timer and in the evening puts thermostat up to 24 and once it kicks off she lowers thermostat to 17 and says the boiler doesn't come on again before timer goes off cos her house doesn't get cold enough. Due to a fault with the heating (now rectified) I woke up to a boiling house this morning (24) and manually kicked heating off at 7.20am (timed to 8am). I went out and when I returned at 1.30pm, hall thermometer still said 18. I was shocked how much heated had been maintained. Is it better to whack heating up high and have boiler coming on less?

becksfaz

macman wrote: »

So you will now have no heat output at all from those 2 rads...your LL is a cheapskate.

Not necessarily - I think it was done for the following reasons - One of them I wanted off anyway cos it was in the ensuite and that already has a heated towel rail in there, so rad not needed. The other rad is in master bedroom - which has 2 rads - we had one of them off anyway so one with broken trv is now off and the other back on. I would have prob done the same. Plus, the trv could be replaced foc for him as he is on British gas homecare.

leah2249

Hi, I could also do with some advise. we have moved into an 1850 4 bedroon property. we have 2 combi boilers and gas CH.
Sine moving in 6 weeks ago, we have had 2 gas bills equalling £250. We currently have one boiler set at 9 degrees, which is in the extension, and all the radiators are turned off. Therefore the only usage on this is for our shower.
The second boiler heats the rest of the house, however we have turned all radiators off, except 2 and only have the thermostat set at 16 degrees. The heating is set to come on for 2 hours in the morning and 4 hours at night, however it has not been cold, so it has rarely come on.
The other evening, we sat in the cold to check there was no leak, and we did not use any units, however only takiing a few showers and washing up is using about 7-10 units aday.
we cannot afford this, and clearly something must be wrong.
I have turned the temp on both boilers right down.
what else can we do!!!

HappyMJ

leah2249 wrote: »

Hi, I could also do with some advise. we have moved into an 1850 4 bedroon property. we have 2 combi boilers and gas CH.
Sine moving in 6 weeks ago, we have had 2 gas bills equalling £250. We currently have one boiler set at 9 degrees, which is in the extension, and all the radiators are turned off. Therefore the only usage on this is for our shower.
The second boiler heats the rest of the house, however we have turned all radiators off, except 2 and only have the thermostat set at 16 degrees. The heating is set to come on for 2 hours in the morning and 4 hours at night, however it has not been cold, so it has rarely come on.
The other evening, we sat in the cold to check there was no leak, and we did not use any units, however only takiing a few showers and washing up is using about 7-10 units aday.
we cannot afford this, and clearly something must be wrong.
I have turned the temp on both boilers right down.
what else can we do!!!

Stop using hot water? Are the bills taken from actual meter readings that you provided? Was the opening meter reading that you took the same as the one printed on the bill? Some people who leave a property will cut a few hundred units off the meter reading when they provide closing meter readings in an attempt to save money and rip off the next customer or the supplier.