High gas bill and house takes ages to heat up

becciboop

Hi all
I got a gas bill at the weekend for £45 for 18 days (10th Nov - 27th Nov)..to me this seems high. We have been using the central heating for around 4/5 hours a day and maybe a bit more at the weekend. The house takes ages to heat up, around 3/4 hours. The boiler is old. We have loft insulation but not cavity wall insulation, we also have double glazed windows, although they are old too.
The radiators seem big enough to heat the space but it just takes so long for the house to heat up. Not sure if I need a new system.
Has anyone else had this problem?

Sooki

Have you bled your radiators recently, this might help.

becciboop

Sooki wrote: »

Have you bled your radiators recently, this might help.

No, haven't bled them. I will try this thanks. Do you think that could be it? They do get hot but not boiling hot. I have the thermostat set to 20 degrees.

good_advice

It seems about right compared to my bill. Heating is costly.
With bills constantly on the increase we have to live in cooler /cold homes.
Not nice and we are to find the cash! can only cut back so much!

All we can do is go on the comparison sites to see if we are on the cheapest tariff for our area.

Layer up with clothes. Vest, base layer and jumper.
Hot Water bottle.

keystone

If they are hot at the top they don't need bleeding. Waste of time.

Your problem is you are always heating a very cold house. If it takes 3/4 hours to get anywhere near temperature and you only have it on for 4/5 hours a day (assuming two 2½ hr bursts one in morning and another in the evening) then the arithmetic tells you it will never get warm. You need to rethink your operating times a bit methinks.

Physical size of rads isn't the issue. Whats their BTU rating and what are the BTU requirements of each room? Online calculators can be found to work that out for you. If the rads are undersized (from a heating POV) you will be adding to your woes.

Cheers

becciboop

keystone wrote: »

If they are hot at the top they don't need bleeding. Waste of time.

Your problem is you are always heating a very cold house. If it takes 3/4 hours to get anywhere near temperature and you only have it on for 4/5 hours a day (assuming two 2½ hr bursts one in morning and another in the evening) then the arithmetic tells you it will never get warm. You need to rethink your operating times a bit methinks.

Physical size of rads isn't the issue. Whats their BTU rating and what are the BTU requirements of each room? Online calculators can be found to work that out for you. If the rads are undersized (from a heating POV) you will be adding to your woes.

Cheers

We actually dont have it on of a morning, the timer is broken. So we turn it on about 6pm and then off at 10pm. Of a weekend it is on more as we are in the house more, say 2 hours in the morning and then 4 hours in the evening. I will have a look at the BTU calculators.

keystone

Thanks. So the house never really gets warm under the current regime.

Cheers

becciboop

It gets bearable, but not hot really. Not as hot as I'd expect if the heating was on for 4 hours.

Innys

I think Keystone's point was if you have the heating on for only 4 hrs a day, you have it off for 20 (obviously).

In the current weather, that simply won't be enough. Arguably, it would be better to have it on for two lots of two hours, separated by 12 hours. The ambient temperature when the heating was off would then be a lot higher and the heating wouldn't have to work so hard when it eventually came on.

Lube

If you house is really cold then obviously take longer to heat the house up. Mine takes around 20-30 minutes to reach 20c from around 16c which is around lowest temp we get in our house with heating off at midnight until we need it next day. We dont have cavity walls on loft insulation

ali-t

My house has got huge rooms and although it is very well insulated it does take ages to heat up. Last year over a 6 week period I had a gas bill for over £150 which shocked me, I don't know if it is going to make much difference but this year I have been putting the heating on for less time (around 2 hours) and using a 2kv heater in the room I am in to keep it at a really hot temp.

Leaving the room is painful after a few hours due to the cold in other rooms but as I live alone it isn't really an issue as I don't need to keep the whole house warm.

I bought expensive heaters but then got 2 of the circa £20 ones from B&Q and they keep the place toasty.