Gas consumption high but is there anything we can do?

fritillaria

Hi, just looking for a bit of advice and/or opinions ...

We live in a rented ground floor 2 bed flat. Not long after we moved in last summer we started to notice that while the condensation was no worse than previous properties we were finding things -untreated wood furniture, duvets and fabrics in storage, clothes etc - turning green and mouldy.
We did our research, got silica pouches for drawers and wardrobes, opened windows a crack for ventilation and put our GCH on a constant low temperature. We seem to be just about on top of the mould problem but I think our bills are pretty high!
We have the GCH and boiler, gas hobs and a gas fire which we try to just use for the girls after bathtime 3 times a week (though it has been left on once or twice ) and our recent bill said we used on average 90.23 kWh per day in January and March (highest it's ever been despite the fact I'd turned the GCH down in January!). Our electricity is about 13 kWh per day which seems about right considering there's someone in and using tv, computer etc from about 6am til gone midnight every day.

So do you think this is about right considering we use the GCH? Is there anything cheaper we could do to prevent the mould? Is our gas consumption ridiculously high???

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

macman

Turning your heating up does nothing whatsoever to prevent mould. Mould is caused by damp and condensation, which results from inadequate ventilation. Warm air holds more moisture than cold, so turning the heating up is simply masking the problem by preventing the moisture condensing out so easily. But once it hits a cooler surface, it will still do so. More ventilation or dehumidification is the solution.
90kWh's daily would be 32,850kWh pa-that's double the national average if continued all year round.

cutestkids

If you have a problem with mould then there is too much moisture in the air, the best way we have found to combat this was to buy a dehumidifier it cost us around £150.00 and is large enough for an average 3 bedroomed property,

You should also ventilate your home I open the bedroom windows for a short while every day even in winter and the vents are never closed, our back door is open when I am cooking to prevent steam building as well.

I have found that the house feels warmer without having to turn the heating up, this is because damp air is colder than dry air and the dehumidifier has helped with that.

udydudy

I think the gas usage is way too high. We live in a victorian(no wall insulation) 3-bed house and our consumption used to be around that until we found out we were being wrongly billed.

It could be(or not) a similar problem. you have not mentioned whether you are prepay or post pay but anyway Check your Electricity meter and see if it says m3(metric meter) , then check with your energy supplier what type of meter they have on their system.

It is a common problem that loads of metric meters when installed have not been updated on the national database. So you may be billed as a imperial meter(ft3) and that would be 2.8 times what your consumption should be.

The reason is with imperial meters they mutiply the units from your meter by 2.8(the other mulipliers remain same irrespective of meter) to arrive at kwh. With metric meters they do not use this 2.8 multiplier.

So if the unit reading from a metric meter is used to bill an account as if it has an imperial meter then your bill/consumption is 2.8 times. I recently received £3200 in 5 years overpayments from my current supplier and my previous supplier. In my case the culprit was British Gas who installed the metric meter but did not update the national database.

victor2

As already suggested you need a different approach to the damp issue.
That may reduce your gas usage as well. It does seem a little high - I averaged 94kWh of gas per day from January to March in a 4 bed detached house with gas CH and HW, plus a gas hob. The weather is getting warmer now anyway (bar a bit of predicted snow!), so it will be easier to ventilate your flat and you won't need the heating on as much.

fritillaria

Thank you for all the replies! I trawled MSE last summer and put in place all the advice I read about avoiding condensation and mould (except buying a dehumidifier a I read mixed information on the subject and it seemed costly but now I might think again!). We had so much rain and so little sun last summer which I don't think helped!
We keep the flat ventilated by having windows open just a crack at all times, open windows after showers/cooking, avoid drying washing indoors etc etc. We keep the gch on at a constant temperature to avoid condensation forming with a drop in temperature as advised by the government! But since january we've kept it at the setting recommended for spring/cool summer which was why I was surprised at the rise in fuel consumption.

I've just checked the meter and it's imperial but thank you Udydudy!

I guess I must be missing something but like you say the weather should get better again soon... once this snow and hail passes

Thanks again all

ariba10

Have a read of these two sites.

http://www.harfordsonline.com/downloads/condensation%20info.pdf

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ageng/structu/ae1204w.htm