Nice people thread part 8 - worth the wait

PasturesNew

I've rarely had/used heating. We had a coal fire when I was at home and was brought up in a cold house.... in my own place I am under a blanket 24/7, only putting the heating on when it's ridiculously cold and for a minimum time. I treated myself to two hours of heating this afternoon partly so I could do a gas meter reading/check to find out how much heating this place does cost per hour. Not sure if my maths is right/wrong though as the meter moved 0.5 units and the BG website says gas is under 5p/unit .... so it cost me under 3p, which I find unbelievably low.

neverdespairgirl

My parents' house is heated by an oil-fired boiler. It's quite a big house, and costs silly money, even with my mother's attitude to heating.

This summer, they are installing a bio-mass burner which will replace almost all the oil consumption, and will be fueled by their coppiced wood.

LydiaJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've rarely had/used heating. We had a coal fire when I was at home and was brought up in a cold house.... in my own place I am under a blanket 24/7, only putting the heating on when it's ridiculously cold and for a minimum time. I treated myself to two hours of heating this afternoon partly so I could do a gas meter reading/check to find out how much heating this place does cost per hour. Not sure if my maths is right/wrong though as the meter moved 0.5 units and the BG website says gas is under 5p/unit .... so it cost me under 3p, which I find unbelievably low.

Your gas meter is probably in cubic metres (if it's newish) or hundreds of cubic feet (if it's old). It should be labelled to say which. BG use conversion factors to convert those into kWh. The BG website will quote prices per kWh, so that you can make a direct comparison between how much energy you get for your money from gas and from electricity.

Converting cubic metres of gas to kWh depends on lots of things, including the quality of the gas in your area, and the temperature. (Gas expands when heated, so when it's warm, your cubic metre of gas hasn't actually got as much mass of gas in it, therefore less energy.) However, as a first approximation, you can take an imperial "unit" of gas (100 cubic feet) as about 32kWh and a metric "unit" of gas (1 cubic metre) as about 11kWh.

So, if your meter is imperial, you've used about 16kWh at a cost of 40p or so, whereas if your meter is metric, you've only used about 5 or 6 kWh at a cost of 28p or thereabouts.

LydiaJ

I have a neuralgia-type pain throbbing for a few seconds every minute or two in the rim of my ear. It is very annoying. I am hoping it might go away if I get some sleep. Good night all. Sleep well, NP.

neverdespairgirl

Ouch, good luck getting rid, Lydia.

Generali

Lovely sunny Autumnal day in Sydney. 20C or thereabouts.

I couldn't find my daughter's football ground so we went to the park instead which was a lovely, if slightly damp, experience. I was trying to explain to a mate at work what it's like being a Dad. The good and the bad. I bloody love it, me.

lostinrates

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

My parents' house is heated by an oil-fired boiler. It's quite a big house, and costs silly money, even with my mother's attitude to heating.

This summer, they are installing a bio-mass burner which will replace almost all the oil consumption, and will be fueled by their coppiced wood.

Oh dear:(.

Hope it ends more happily than ours!

PasturesNew

LydiaJ wrote: »

Your gas meter is probably in cubic metres (if it's newish) or hundreds of cubic feet (if it's old). It should be labelled to say which. BG use conversion factors to convert those into kWh. The BG website will quote prices per kWh, so that you can make a direct comparison between how much energy you get for your money from gas and from electricity.

Ah... thought I must be doing something wrong. It's a new meter, so m3

I just checked, it is showing "unit rates"

Unit rates for this tariff
Your cost per unit for (my postcode)

Standing charges are in pence per day. Rates are in pence per kWh and include VAT.

4.427

So that's misleading - to say it's the unit rate, then in tiny/faint writing to say rates are in pence per kWh.


So now I am confused. Is the rate of 4.427 the unit rate, as the big writing says, or the kWh rate, or are they the same as it's an m3 meter... or what?


http://www.britishgas.co.uk/content/britishgas/products-and-services/gas-and-electricity/our-energy-tariffs/tariff-rates.html

Generali

A google search throws up this, can't vouch of its accuracy, Pastures old thing:

Convert units used on meter to kWh (Kilowatts per hour) - this is the formula British gas use to convert. M3 x 1.02264 (VCF) x Calorific Value (CV) divided by 3.6 = kWh (kilowatts per hour)
* For Calorific value (CV) on metric meters, press Button A and skip to menu option 16, this will give you the calorific value (this changes every week, normally on Wednesdays at 2am) being used that week.
Once you have the calorific reading, convert this into BTU's - British Thermal Units - by dividing the CV number on your meter by 0.0373 - use this figure in the formula above.

Good luck!

Generali's Saturday 5pm Checklist

Had nice day with the kids? (tick)
Sunny weather? (tick)
Kids exhausted? (tick)
Bought dinner? (tick - Steak with 'sauce echalotte', salad and homemade chips) (tick)
Sitting down with nice glass of wine? (tick)

PasturesNew

Generali wrote: »

A google search throws up this, can't vouch of its accuracy, Pastures old thing:

That's not even my type of meter - that sounds like one of those storage heater systems, Economy7 or whatever.