How to work out heating costs

Emily1991

Hi I'm a student currently living in a 5 bedroom house with 4 other students. We can't afford to pay expensive heating bills but we do want to put the heating on sometimes now the weather is getting colder. Does anyone know how to work out how much it costs to have the heating on on a cost per hour basis for example? We want to be able to work out how much we can have the heating on before we get a terrfyingly high bill!! Thanks

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

Gas Heating? Electric? Oil? LPG? Heat pump?

Atidi

Emily1991 wrote: »

Hi I'm a student currently living in a 5 bedroom house with 4 other students. We can't afford to pay expensive heating bills but we do want to put the heating on sometimes now the weather is getting colder. Does anyone know how to work out how much it costs to have the heating on on a cost per hour basis for example? We want to be able to work out how much we can have the heating on before we get a terrfyingly high bill!! Thanks

Students, eh? :cool:

Amount of energy consumed per hour x cost of energy = cost of energy consumed per hour.

HappyMJ

Emily1991 wrote: »

Hi I'm a student currently living in a 5 bedroom house with 4 other students. We can't afford to pay expensive heating bills but we do want to put the heating on sometimes now the weather is getting colder. Does anyone know how to work out how much it costs to have the heating on on a cost per hour basis for example? We want to be able to work out how much we can have the heating on before we get a terrfyingly high bill!! Thanks

It will be a high bill but when divided by 5 it isn't that high. I would estimate a 5 bedroom house with gas central heating on about 10 hours a day set to a reasonable temperature well insulated and the doors kept closed would cost you not much more than £150 per month (in winter) or £30 a month each....£1 per day or about 10 pence per hour per person. That really is just a wild guess...you need to know what temperature you set it to, what sort of boiler you have....there are far too many variables for an accurate figure. You could try reading the meter every day and calculating the cost in a spreadsheet or weekly if you can't be bothered to read it every day would be OK for most people. I enter the figures into http://ebico.imeasure.org.uk/ which tells me the cost on a weekly basis.

macman

Not studying physics or maths presumably?
Every electric heater (every electrical device, indeed) has a rating plate on it showing the consumption in watts or kW.
So a heater rated at 2000 watts (2kWh) will use 2Kwh, every hour, if full on.
That will cost 2x your unit kWh rate for electricity, typically 12p. So 24p per hour.
Bear in mind that using electric heating instead of gas CH (if you have it) will cost 3-4 time as much per kWh. Gas is around 3.5p per kWh.

chris1973

That will cost 2x your unit kWh rate for electrcity, typically 12p

Unless of course you are an Economy 7 customer, where the average daytime price - post increase - is 20p KW/H

12p per KW/H - a wet dream for E7 customers believe me.

Of course they may also have a prepay meter, again very rare to find 12p KW/H as these also tend to track the standard tariff rate of credit customers

We want to be able to work out how much we can have the heating on before we get a terrfyingly high bill!!

The problem with sharing bills is the fact that people are individuals, and one person may be happy sitting in a freezing cold room, whilst another isn't warm until the thermometer passes 21c. This may mean that somebody may have a fan heater running constantly in their bedroom, whilst another has a minimal amount of heating.

Obviously the person using the heater will use more energy than those who don't and will be responsible for running up a large percentage of any bill, but whose personal heating requirements will be subsidised by everybody else.

The same can also apply to central heating, as obviously everybodies' comings and goings may be different, leading to the house being occupied by at least one person at any time day or night. Thermostats also get adjusted mysteriously depending who is in at the time. Even in a centerally heated house, its not unknown for somebody to smuggle in a fan heater for when the C. heating is off and they want to play X-Box all night.

So there are lots of variables in relation to your question. But yes, this is the time when you find out just how expensive it is to run a house etc, so think of it as a learning curve!

Cardew

chris1973 wrote: »

Unless of course you are an Economy 7 customer, where the average daytime price - post increase - is 20p KW/H

12p per KW/H - a wet dream for E7 customers believe me.

Well in the Midlands area at least, people are going to have some pleasant dreams.

There are several companies offering Tier2 electricity on an Economy 7 tariff for around 12p - OVO at 12.358p/kWh including VAT being an example.

Using energyhelpline I couldn't find one at 20p let alone that being an average price.

macman

Since the OP has not been back in 10 days, and has presumably frozen to death in the meantime for fear of putting the heating on, it's largely academic now.

FAI

Emily1991 wrote: »

Hi I'm a student currently living in a 5 bedroom house with 4 other students. We can't afford to pay expensive heating bills but we do want to put the heating on sometimes now the weather is getting colder. Does anyone know how to work out how much it costs to have the heating on on a cost per hour basis for example? We want to be able to work out how much we can have the heating on before we get a terrfyingly high bill!! Thanks

Hello Emily1991,

I recommend that you run the heating for a few days or a week having first read the gas and or electricity meter before you start and then again after you finish.

Make a note of the outside temperatures (max and min) because as it gets colder your heating bill will go up due to the increased difference between indoor and outdoor temperatures.

Take your tariff details and work out the cost you have incurred. This will at least give you an idea for autumn and spring costs and you will need to estimate what the winter period will be.

I hope this helps.

PasturesNew

Read both your meters every day and calculate the amount.... so you can quickly spot if somebody's got a sneaky fan heater on the go.

PasturesNew

How much heating costs depends on a mixture of: What tariff you are on; the volume of the house; output of the radiators; temperature/boiler settings; efficiency of the boiler; difference between inside temperatue and outside temperature; how quickly the house loses heat through walls/chimneys/windows; how often people do daft things like leave windows/doors open.

It's a bit of a moving target.