At my wits end over my gas consumption

paulmapp8306

If you have a combi - you dont have a hot water tank so dont worry. You can leave the water on constant as well as Its only heating on demand - so if you dont use hot water you dont heat it (the benefit of combis)

I believe (though I dont have a combi) that the boiler should have a water temp setting. Set it to max (which will be 50-65 deg I think depending on type of boiler and age). Room temp is then controlled by the room stat (which you have at 20). You will use less gas becuse the radiators will be at their hottest, so the boiler wont be on as long (the room heats up quicker).

Just monitor your use. Its been cold the last 2 months - so most of us have used more than we normally would.

MillicentBystander

Surely the water temperature on a combi boiler should be set to a temperature which is hot enough to do things like washing the dishes, washing hands/face etc WITHOUT having to cool it down with cold water? Like I said earlier, heating water up to a temperature that demands you need to cool it down with cold water is wasting fuel.


PS I don't think you boiler in question is a combi.

http://www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=205747

paulmapp8306

That boiler is an older model - and not particularly efficient (E rating I believe). Its not a condenser so you should be able to set the temp to 60/65. Its also not a Combi from what I see, its a traditional, so you have a hot water tank somewhere.

http://www.homeheatingguide.co.uk/efficiency-tables.php?model=004033

On your timer, do you have separate settings for HW and CH?

paulmapp8306

MillicentBystander wrote: »

Surely the water temperature on a combi boiler should be set to a temperature which is hot enough to do things like washing the dishes, washing hands/face etc WITHOUT having to cool it down with cold water? Like I said earlier, heating water up to a temperature that demands you need to cool it down with cold water is wasting fuel.

No - because then the radiators wont be hot enough - unless it has duel temp settings - and the gas used to heat the home would be a LOT higher. As I said though - I dont have a combi so dont know if it has duel temp settings. If it does - then yes probably.

Its also not wasting fuel - because while your heating the water more - your using less of it per volume. It actually works out about the same.

MillicentBystander

paulmapp8306 wrote: »

No - because then the radiators wont be hot enough - unless it has duel temp settings - and the gas used to heat the home would be a LOT higher. As I said though - I dont have a combi so dont know if it has duel temp settings. If it does - then yes probably.

Its also not wasting fuel - because while your heating the water more - your using less of it per volume. It actually works out about the same.

yes. My post was originally posted when I thought the boiler was a combi. Don't have a combi myself but my son has a Vaillant combi and there are separate controls for heat and water temp.

Housework*Fairy

Thanks Paulmapp for your answer, I'm starting to understand my boiler a lot more now, seeing how it's not a combi boiler (Derhhh) and I can see that having the water on all the time is probably the answer to all my fuel woes. I'm going to turn the water on for two one-hour bursts per day to cut it down even more.

With the new timings however I'm still going up 2 units per day. My next door neighbour read her meter over 24 hours and she has the same use as me, and hers has only gone up one unit in 24 hours. She has her heating on 25 degrees too. Even if her boiler is an A rated one (which we don't know) would it really account for her using 50% less gas than me over a day?

closed

having the stat set at 25 doesn't mean the house is at 25, comparisons with neighbours don't mean much, as things will be different. 25 is hot, uncomfortably so for most people.

You'd get a much more informative answer by taking regular hourly readings while the heating and water is on, rather than asking for people to speculate.

The weather has been mild this week, is 5 hours heating necessary?

In cold weather, it's easy to use 2 imperial units in much less than 5 hours.

davo75

Thanks for this thread, have just read through most of it and is all really useful as I had a lot of similar questions about the ridiculous prices of my gas/electric!

I was searching around for answers to my questions and before finding this, found this infographic: http://www.economy-radiators.com/blog/uk-heating-in-the-home-survey-infographic

Ok it doesn't answer any of our questions, but at least you should know you're not alone in confusion and frustration in understanding energy costs!