Parents Energy Usage

gener8or

My parents 62-65 live in 1 1930's detached solid wall 4 bedroom house. They are there most of the time and are not careful about usage.

But I nearly fell off my chair today when my dad said he spends with M&S Energy (standard NSC tariff) 185 for gas and 65 electricity. Couldn't believe it.

So I rang M&S Energy and checked his usage, they state he uses 5948kwh of electricity and 48295kwh of gas.

I know he needs to learn about energy saving but hes spending 3k a year! do you think this could be wrong?

Thans

WestonDave

Electricity is around what I'd expect on a normal tariff for someone who doesn't watch what they use. Gas is horrific but again it depends how they use gas - system boiler with a tank of hot water that is heated twice a day and left to go cold, plus a heating system which is used like my mother uses it (so you could fire pots in the house like a kiln!) and it would be fairly easy to rack up a very high bill.

Its possible it could be wrong but the number of meters which are wrong is very very small so I'd be looking at behaviour and heating settings first. How do they operate their heating - is it on constantly, on a system thermostat, radiator thermostats or timed periods during the day, and how warm does the house feel when you are there?

gener8or

Thanks for the feedback.
Is a conventional boiler with header tank and water tank in the airing cupboard. Its a Potterton boiler installed about 20 years ago.

It does feel warm enough, but not too warm, one thermostat and no radiator stats.

molerat

gener8or wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback.
Is a conventional boiler with header tank and water tank in the airing cupboard. Its a Potterton boiler installed about 20 years ago.

It does feel warm enough, but not too warm, one thermostat and no radiator stats.

First thing to do then. Loft insulation ? Can be got free.

WestonDave

Depending on the amount used for showering etc and how the water is left on, I'd expect a boiler like that to use roughly 10,000kWh a year based on knowing what we use now and how that altered when we changed from an old boiler like theirs to a combi.

That still leaves them using nearly 3 times the gas we use for heating. I'd expect some of that to be accounted for by a bigger house (ours is a 3 bed detached), some of it the lack of insulation (ours got graded very well for an EPC) and some of it because I suspect we like ours cooler than most.

We run ours set to 18C during the day, 14C overnight, doesn't run the shower (comes off the electricity) in a house with full loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and double glazing. We are also in the Bristol area which has meant relatively mild winters compared to some areas - we have friends near Manchester who have had weeks on end with snow on the ground - we've not had that.

I'd say its high, but I'm not convinced its high enough all considered to suggest a metering problem.

gener8or

Thanks again guys.

House is in Birmingham loft was last insulated when roof was replaced 1995.
Would fitting the thermostatic valves make a difference?
Alos they have a gas fire in the living room...

pinkcheshirecat

We have a 4 bed detached 1930's house. I can't give you kWh figs, but we pay about 120 per month combined. We have double glazing, loft insulation of 350mm and cavity wall insulation and TRVs. At present we have the heating on for a couple of hours in the morning and from 3pm to 9pm. Thermostat at 18 or 19. Condensing combi installed in 2008. HTH

WestonDave

Is the gas fire a boring uglyish one with the old style ceramic elements that glow red, or alternatively a stylish open flame one? Asking because some of the prettier gas fires are ferociously inefficient - one showroom told us a particular fire we liked was indeed very good looking but less use than breaking wind in a snow storm at actually heating anything!

molerat

gener8or wrote: »

Thanks again guys.

House is in Birmingham loft was last insulated when roof was replaced 1995.
Would fitting the thermostatic valves make a difference?
Alos they have a gas fire in the living room...

The loft probably has very little insulation then, 270 - 300mm is the new norm. Rad stats enable each area / room to be controlled at a certain temperature, without them you simply have a manual on / off switch which means rads either boiling or cold.

WestonDave

Rad stats will still mean radiators are either boiling hot or cold - they don't really vary the temperature they just shut off the flow of hot water to that radiator when the air temperature reaches the set level. The actual radiator temperature is determined by the temperature of the water circulating from the boiler. They are still useful as one house thermostat will tend to be a poor way of controlling the comfort levels in the various rooms - you might have a south facing room which is getting a lot of heat from the sun on a clear winter day getting the same input from the heating system as a cold north facing room. With rad stats (TRV's) the warmer room will shut off the radiator so the heat goes all to the colder room and then the system can shut down.

gener8or

Thanks again, I think I need to educate my dad on saving energy a bit, problem is he needs to save energy.

Need to look at the thermostats and insulation for a start. I did a comparison tooday on uswitch his tarrif with M&S is 2900 and with spark energy its 2200, h was amazed at the saving.
I was amazed at how much he was using.

The gas fire is open flame but dont know how efficeient it is?