Gas usage seems too high

MrChips

I've been with Scottish Power for 9 months now and just noticed the rate of gas that they claim I am using. Over the 9 months since October 2012 my bills suggest I have already used 32,000 kWh. Projecting for the whole year at the same (summer) rate of the last three months implies an annual use of around 40,000 kWh.

This seems very high to me. The property is a 1930s 3 bed semi-detached, and the occupants are my wife and I and our 2 year old son. The building is only occupied in the early morning and evenings on weekdays. We turn the heating off when we go on holiday. We don't have the heating on all day or anything like that.

Does that level of use seem implausible, or is it possible if, say, insulation is poor or some other valid factor. Basically I'm trying to work out if I should just shrug it off or spend some time trying to get to the bottom of it.

Thanks!

EDIT - just to confirm these levels are based on meter readings, not Scottish Power estimated readings. My experience and some internet research suggests typical use would be more likely in the 15,000 - 20,000 kWh range. We have only lived here for 2 years so not much experience to check against but I will look into previous usage with the supplier before we moved to SP last year.

notbritishgas

With overly high gas bills the first thing to check is that SP are billing you for the correct type of meter, imperial or metric.
Check which you have, metric will be marked M3 or similar and imperial will have ft or feet or similar.
Then check the bill to see how many kwh 1 unit has been converted to. Then post back.

MrChips

Will do it this evening. I can tell you that SP are scaling up my units by a multiple of 2.83 which seems to be a conversion but not sure if this is to convert from metric to imperial or vice versa. I think this scaling implies they reckon it's an imperial.

So if it is metric then problem solved, but if it is imperial then back to the drawing board...?

penrhyn

For a quick and dirty estimate.
If your meter is imperial then multiply the units by 30 to get Kwh.
If its metric you multiply by 10 to get Kwh.

Wywth

MrChips wrote: »

Will do it this evening. I can tell you that SP are scaling up my units by a multiple of 2.83 which seems to be a conversion but not sure if this is to convert from metric to imperial or vice versa. I think this scaling implies they reckon it's an imperial.

So if it is metric then problem solved, but if it is imperial then back to the drawing board...?

That is the conversion factor used if you have an imperial meter.

http://www.ukpower.co.uk/home_energy/gas_meter_readings/

You need to find out what type of meter you actually have. If it's actually metric, you are being billed 2.83x too many kWh.

MrChips

Gas meter is imperial - it refers to ft3.

Latest bill shows 206 units used between 28 March and 28 June, converted by SP to 6475 kWh. I.e 1 unit = 31.43 kWh.

Wywth

Oh dear, then it seems you are using a large, but not implausible, amount of gas.

The average is 16500kWh per year. We live in a 3 bed semi (no kids), but not as old as yours so probably better insulation.
We also know we are low users, but use just over 8000kWh per year total (more like 9000kWh with last winter ), and I note you estimate you'll use that amount in just 3 months during mid summer :eek:
(We do not use gas to cook)

MrChips

We do use gas to cook but all the same that seems like a lot to me! Which makes me wonder if there's a fault somewhere, or something isn't quite right...

molerat

Have you got any actual meter readings and dates over the period you have lived there as out of context one off readings often give a misleading view of your actual usage. You need to take daily readings for a while then come down to at least weekly to get a proper picture of your seasonal use.

MrChips

Hi all - a quick update. Following the earlier posts I amended our heating timers to reduce the daily dose of water heating from 5 hours to 2 hours. I don't think the central heating has had to come on at all in July due to the hot weather (I turned the thermostat down to 15C). As a consequence of these changes we only used about 400 kWh of gas during July which seems a big improvement to me. Over the course of June we used three times that amount (and we were on holiday for a third of the month with the water and central heating switched off). I guess I may have discovered the culprit!

dogshome

It seems you have an 'Open Vented' heating & hotwater system - Storage tank in the loft and a Hot water storage tank.

You have rightly found that a well insulated Hot water tank can keep water hot all day with just one or two short bursts from the boiler, BUT heating the tank on constant doesn't explain away the projected 40,000 kwh annual useage.

Check the insulation and draught levels in the house, paying particular attention to the the loft.
In simple terms you are useing gas via the boiler & radiators, to heat the air within the house - Keeping that hot air within the living areas of the house means less work for the boiler.