very high reading - help!

geet

macman wrote: »

'Gas unit' size depends on whether your meter is metric or imperial-which is it?


it is metric - i checked the bill. so i calculated that one unit gas comes to 1X39.9X1.02264 divided by 3.6 = 11.33426 kWhs @ 4.596 = 0.52 pence. which is right as my bills will be approx £150 (gas units alone) if i use 10 units a day!!! apart from that there is the standing charge approx £5 a month and electricity.

to recap i got a bill of £225 for 47 days in my new flat while in my previous place i was paying £50 per month direct debit the last two years and have not had to increase it at all. and now to get it down to £50 a month for gas alone i should use only 3 units a day!

i still can't figure out if this is right unless it is possible to say approximately how many hours of radiator use (say one), 3 units of gas heats up.

am i going about it the right way? thanks

sniggings

remember your last place you probably had a credit on your gas bill going into winter, no way would you have only been using 3 units a day in winter.

This is the way direct debits tend to work, you use next to no gas in summer/spring and maybe not that much in autumn but still pay your £50, come winter your usage goes up but you have a credit built up to cover this.

Starting in a new place in winter, you have no credit so feel the shock of what the cost of gas really is...people hear the yearly figures quoted all the time but when you consider most of the usage is in only 3-4 months, it really makes you wonder how someone living in a country that is cold all year round manages to pay these costs?

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

sniggings wrote: »

remember your last place you probably had a credit on your gas bill going into winter, no way would you have only been using 3 units a day in winter.

This is the way direct debits tend to work, you use next to no gas in summer/spring and maybe not that much in autumn but still pay your £50, come winter your usage goes up but you have a credit built up to cover this.

Starting in a new place in winter, you have no credit so feel the shock of what the cost of gas really is...people hear the yearly figures quoted all the time but when you consider most of the usage is in only 3-4 months, it really makes you wonder how someone living in a country that is cold all year round manages to pay these costs?

Quite.

We have amongst the cheapest energy in Europe, how do people in Budapest (for example) survive winter?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25200808

macman

geet wrote: »

macman wrote: »

'Gas unit' size depends on whether your meter is metric or imperial-which is it?


it is metric - i checked the bill. so i calculated that one unit gas comes to 1X39.9X1.02264 divided by 3.6 = 11.33426 kWhs @ 4.596 = 0.52 pence. which is right as my bills will be approx £150 (gas units alone) if i use 10 units a day!!! apart from that there is the standing charge approx £5 a month and electricity.

to recap i got a bill of £225 for 47 days in my new flat while in my previous place i was paying £50 per month direct debit the last two years and have not had to increase it at all. and now to get it down to £50 a month for gas alone i should use only 3 units a day!

i still can't figure out if this is right unless it is possible to say approximately how many hours of radiator use (say one), 3 units of gas heats up.

am i going about it the right way? thanks

No, it's not. It depends on room size, rad size, ambient temp, boiler settings, insulation-far too many variables.
Your budget expectations are unrealistic: the average dual fuel bill is now going north of £1,400 pa. However remember that your usage will tumble in the spring when the heating goes off, compared to now.
If your previous DD didn't rise in 2 years, then something was awry, as prices increased hugely in that time.
Why not do your calcs in kWh's, which is what you are actually billed in?

geet

Agreed, the winter reading is higher and that i should not expect the average of my previous flat as i am starting on this new flat in winter. And yes, I also agree the calculations have too many variables, but thought it might give me an idea. so, i did this exercise and i am confused.
i shut down all radiators except the living (on thermostat 3) and bedroom (on thermostat 1) for the same nine hours and still got a reading of 6 units!!!! i was expecting 3!
recap - i got 9 units with radiator on in living room (on thermostat 3), both bedrooms (on 1), hallway (on 2), kitchen (on 2) and the small one in bathroom (on 6). Plus two showers.
i am worried coz we cannot afford to pay £150 as DD per month. we did have only three radiators (without thermostats) in the previous flat as against six in the new place which is why i was preparing for a double reading of £100 for a month in winter...

sniggings

the power needed to heat the air depends on the ambient temp, was the test carried out with all variables the same apart from the stats? even if it were, turning a rad off or down does not save that much, the big cost is heating the water, the water, instead of going to all rads is now limited, which yes saves money but don't expect a marked decease.

3 units I would say is a worth while saving, not sure how much you were expecting to save? we are only talking the water that has already been heated, not traveling an extra few feet.

Make sure they average your DD out over the full 12 months, it should get it near to what you were expecting, but they do tend to over estimate in the winter and set DD higher than they should be in my experience.

geet

sniggings wrote: »

even if it were, turning a rad off or down does not save that much, the big cost is heating the water, the water, instead of going to all rads is now limited, which yes saves money but don't expect a marked decease.

Thanks, never thought of that but where exactly is the water getting heated? if it is heated water travelling then what is the thermostat doing?

3 units I would say is a worth while saving, not sure how much you were expecting to save? we are only talking the water that has already been heated, not traveling an extra few feet.

i thought i would bring down 9 units to 3, but it came down only to 6, but then i guess it is only economies of scale not plain equation.

Nada666

sniggings wrote: »

turning a rad off or down does not save that much, the big cost is heating the water, the water, instead of going to all rads is now limited, which yes saves money but don't expect a marked decease

I think you need to call out an engineer to check your set-up! (Or do you live in an open-plan house?) (Or are your children/partner/dogs incapable of closing doors behind themselves?)

sniggings

Nada666 wrote: »

I think you need to call out an engineer to check your set-up! (Or do you live in an open-plan house?) (Or are your children/partner/dogs incapable of closing doors behind themselves?)

what? you have lost me.

sniggings

geet wrote: »

Thanks, never thought of that but where exactly is the water getting heated? if it is heated water travelling then what is the thermostat doing?

the rad stats are only limiting the amount of hot water getting into the rad, less hot water entering the lower the temp, the water is still at the same temp,the main room stat is the one controlling when your boiler fires up.