Help please gas usage through the roof!!

macman

lil_me wrote: »

From my online bill

What the bill says isn't a concern really as much as that our usage has doubled when the heating etc is on less In comparison to last year when the temperatures were about 10 degrees lower

I've left a message with the council to request a pressure check as suggested by a friend who is a gas engineer

Prices before vat for mine

3.457 per kwh secondary
7.541 per kwh primary

They split it on each bill so I don't just pay the primary first then secondary. Last bill was £21.86 for a weeks usage including the VAT. Average is 53 units per day recently but sometimes more and sometimes less hence over that week it was £21.86. Takes a couple of days to generate the bill so I can't see how many primary and secondary units were billed yet for that one. Previous bills it's usually 1/6th or so in primary units

This is the responsibility of your supplier-nothing do do with the council.

lil_me

Council are responsible for supply from meter to appliance? It's a council property

zagfles

lil_me wrote: »

From my online bill

What the bill says isn't a concern really as much as that our usage has doubled when the heating etc is on less In comparison to last year when the temperatures were about 10 degrees lower

I've left a message with the council to request a pressure check as suggested by a friend who is a gas engineer

Prices before vat for mine

3.457 per kwh secondary
7.541 per kwh primary

They split it on each bill so I don't just pay the primary first then secondary. Last bill was £21.86 for a weeks usage including the VAT. Average is 53 units per day recently but sometimes more and sometimes less hence over that week it was £21.86. Takes a couple of days to generate the bill so I can't see how many primary and secondary units were billed yet for that one. Previous bills it's usually 1/6th or so in primary units

Primary units are always charged first, for a fixed number of units per day/quarter/year, usually a low proportion of average use. Unless you are a very low user it's exactly the same as having one rate (the secondary rate) plus a standing charge.

SP seem to mostly use 670 per quarter for the primary units, so if that's the case for your tariff, the easiest way to work out the cost for your usage is to find the "standing charge" - which is the premium for primary units - 670*(7.541-3.457) = £27.36 per quarter, about 30p per day.

The multiply the kwh you've used by the secondary unit rate ie 53*0.03547 = £1.88 per day, plus the "standing charge" is £2.18 per day, £2.29 after VAT.

Which is a bit less than the £21.86 per week you wrote above - maybe your tariff has a higher number of primary units? It'll say somewhere.

But even £21.86 is very reasonable - are you sure you didn't use electric heating more last year? Immersion?

cepheus

If you could provide the type of dwelling (eg 3 bed semi) and level of insulation (filled cavity walls, attic insulation) it may be possible to compare with others. Then we can determine if your first or second group of figures may have been mistaken.

lil_me

We have no other form of heating or water heating, all gas, even the shower is direct from the combi

3 bedroom link, one house one side 2 the other, no loft so no insulation and sloped roof/ceiling before that. Unaware of any insulation. Parts of the Walls are asbestos and the house is past it's use by date. Boiler is a Vaillant. Downstairs all open plan apart from small front entrance hall. Even back door comes directly in.

What's alarmed me isn't if we were below average, even in the previous property 3 years ago which was a 3 bed detached we used the same per day average in winter of 23kwh per day

The figures don't worry me. Once the bill is in I've got enough maths ability to sort that, I'm not concerned what is the average for our type of dwelling, just what could cause us to use double when it's warmer outside/inside, heating is on less etc

cepheus

I guess the advice is the get some insulation or cuddle up to the dog. It all sounds very frugal to me.

I use more than that with only 2 bedrooms and loft insulation although I have it at a much higher temperature. Not sure why the discrepency though, unless the original reading was wrong.

jalexa

lil_me wrote: »

What's alarmed me isn't if we were below average, even in the previous property 3 years ago which was a 3 bed detached we used the same per day average in winter of 23kwh per day

I don't mean to disbelieve you but that is an exceptionally low number. So the issue is not really why you are using more in your current home but why the previous usage was exceptionally low.

I do have a theory however, the "23kWhr/day in winter" is an erroneous figure resulting from an imperial meter reading being calculated as metric.

brewerdave

Are you sure that the boiler was actually operating all the time last Winter??? If its a combi and was losing water pressure then once the pressure drops below a set figure the boiler doesn't fire up - were you topping up every day or two??
Alternatively as per Jalexa - dig out an old bill and check that it has been calculated on the same basis ie metric not Imperial

cepheus

Another possibility is that you may have been absorbing heat from your neighbours last Winter. Are any of the houses empty now? If your home is joined onto several others, and you probably kept your temperature much lower than theirs, the temperature of their dwellings would be a major factor in determining the amount of gas you use.

I guess it helps your heating bill if you live next to someone who is chronically cold, perhaps old rather than young, if that doesn't seem too selfish! My mum who raises it up to 25C must be paying for next doors heat (17-18C) almost entirely!

jimjames

jalexa wrote: »

I don't mean to disbelieve you but that is an exceptionally low number. So the issue is not really why you are using more in your current home but why the previous usage was exceptionally low.

I do have a theory however, the "23kWhr/day in winter" is an erroneous figure resulting from an imperial meter reading being calculated as metric.

We had exactly that situation. Usage seemed very reasonable until we found it was actually 2.8x(?) lower than it should have been as the meter was imperial read as metric.