Combi Boiler using tons of gas.

Ellioru

I recently moved into an end terraced, two bedrooms, we're paying £400pcm. We've recieved our first bill from Npower, the dates spanned from 19th November while the 10th January, our electric has come up at £49.39 which is fine, however our gas has come up as £272.46.

We have a combi boiler and a lot of nights we will switch it off on the radiator symbol and just leave it on the tap, or we will switch it off completely at times. Me and my partner work full time so it's not like we are in the house 24/7, we expected a bit more usage over the christmas period as we had a lot more time off but I just cannot get my head around this bill.

I decided to try turning on the boiler on, and setting the temperature on low throughout the night (I know a lot of people say this doesnt work and a lot think it does, so I thought I'd test for myself). When we first booted up the heater it was using gas like nobodies business, then it settled after around an hour or so and was only moving very slowly. This morning before work I turned on the water and it was again using tons of Gas. I had the tap on for literally a few seconds to clean out a cup.

I've spoken to my Mum who has her heating on 24/7, whenever I go to hers I /have/ to open the windows because of how hot it is, and she's paying around £70.00 p/m, and every person I've discussed this with agree that this is an extortinate bill.

I'm stuck with what to do at this point, I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong - this is my first house I've rented and all of this is new to me. I did a few calculations and so far today (bearing in mind I calculated this around 10am), I've spent around £4.00 on Gas.

Any advice on what I can do? I'll be calling Npower tonight to have a word, I just wanted to get some opinions first on if this sounds right or not.

sk240

It sounds as though you dont have a thermostat, and are just physically turning the heating output on and off?
If thats the case i would invest in a thermostat.
Do you have thermostatic radiator valves (turns each radiator on and off maintaining a constantly temperature) so you don't waste energy heating up the room too much.
Again i would recommend these as well.
What make and model boiler is it? if old may only be 60% efficient.
Whats your loft insulation like, do you have cavity wall insulation and double glazing?
If the house is poorly insulated, with no temperature control then that cost over nearly 2 months is easily believable.

Ellioru

sk240 wrote: »

It sounds as though you dont have a thermostat, and are just physically turning the heating output on and off?
If thats the case i would invest in a thermostat.
Do you have thermostatic radiator valves (turns each radiator on and off maintaining a constantly temperature) so you don't waste energy heating up the room too much.
Again i would recommend these as well.
What make and model boiler is it? if old may only be 60% efficient.
Whats your loft insulation like, do you have cavity wall insulation and double glazing?
If the house is poorly insulated, with no temperature control then that cost over nearly 2 months is easily believable.

We do have a thermostat, however we generally leave it at 10/15, and turn down the dial on the boiler because we find it's extremely hot when we put it on the lowest thermostat temp. Half the radiators in the house do have a thermostatic radiator valves these are in the main room and bedroom, these are turned all the way down 90% of the time. The other radiators don't have a valve.

We have loft insulation, we do not have cavity wall insulation- we have double glazing. Our boiler is "baxi combi 105 he".

ilikewatch

Where is your thermostat located? -ideally it should be in a room that you use a lot, and the radiator in the room with the thermostat should be left on it's hottest setting.

e.g. My thermostat is in my lounge, and is set to 18C - the thermostatic radiator in the lounge is set to it's highest setting. As soon as my lounge reaches 18C the boiler shuts off until the lounge temperature drops again.

ilikewatch

Where is your thermostat located? -ideally it should be in a room that you use a lot, and the radiator in the room with the thermostat should be left on it's hottest setting.

e.g. My thermostat is in my lounge, and is set to 18C - the thermostatic radiator valve in the lounge is set to it's highest setting. As soon as my lounge reaches 18C the boiler shuts off until the lounge temperature drops again.

If I set my thermostat to 18C, but it was in a room where the radiator was turned down, the thermostat might never reach 18C and would run the boiler constantly, overheating the rest of the house.

Also, find out the model of thermostat you have and search for a manual for it if you don't already have one!

macman

If your room 'stat is set to 10/15C (that is incredibly low) and the house is still hot, then it's clearly not working, and is constantly calling for heat. Can you hear it clicking on and off as you turn it? Typical CH setting s 18-21C.
Even at today's temps in SE England (about 4C outside), the ambient temp inside a house is not going to drop as low as 10C, so the 'stat wouldn't ever be triggered to call for heat when at such a low setting.
When you switch the hot tap on, of course your gas consumption will soar-the combi is then running at full output to heat the water on demand.
Post your actual kWh consumption, as £££ bills tell us nothing about your actual usage.

loracan1

What sort of tariff are you on? Were the meters read in November, have they been read now or estimated and had the bill been underpaid before then?

JohnB47

As per loracan1 - check your bill. It should tell you if the two readings that the bill is based on were estimated or actual.

Ellioru

When we change the thermostat, it does click yes so I believe it to be working. The placing of it is a bit silly if you ask me, it's next to the front door, and in the landing there is no radiators so it's generally pretty cold.

The readings are correct. The bill for a 4 week period, which was from the 19th November until the 19th December it says we used 246 units, which equated to 2732 kWh which is 3.558p per kWh. We're on a fixed price plan too.

The way my mind works is that if I'm not using it and turning my boiler off a lot (which I have done previously, but since the bill I've tried changing my usage habits to see if it helps) should be saving me money, not be giving me large bills.

AndysDad

Ellioru wrote: »

When we change the thermostat, it does click yes so I believe it to be working. The placing of it is a bit silly if you ask me, it's next to the front door, and in the landing there is no radiators so it's generally pretty cold.

The readings are correct. The bill for a 4 week period, which was from the 19th November until the 19th December it says we used 246 units, which equated to 2732 kWh which is 3.558p per kWh. We're on a fixed price plan too.

The way my mind works is that if I'm not using it and turning my boiler off a lot (which I have done previously, but since the bill I've tried changing my usage habits to see if it helps) should be saving me money, not be giving me large bills.

246 units is very high for 1 months use in a 2 bed end terrace.I use about 90 units /month in a 4 bed detached house.Thermostat set to 20 degrees.

Mulder00

AndysDad - you're talking in units, are you talking the same units? The kWh value doesn't seem outrageous based on what's described, maybe slightly on the high side.

I don't have proper values yet for our new place, but I dug out some readings from last year and for our two-bedroom terraced house (two people living there, working during the day), we used 2970 kwH in January and 2150 kwH the month before, the other winter months we averaged around 2500 kwH.

There wasn't a proper thermostat though, but I had it on timer - only coming on during the times we're at home and then off at night.