Combi Boiler using tons of gas.

adandem

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.

.

That is the correct place for a thermostat, the idea is that you can then control each room according to need without the boiler cutting out. If it's in a warm location it will cut out but might be needed in colder areas.

Doozergirl

The beginning of winter is a bad time to move in to a house, in terms of gas bills. Usage is a lot higher in winter, in theory you could use nothing at all between eg. May and October but when you pay by direct debit, it spreads the cost of winter over the entire year.

The energy companies, of course, like you to credit the account over the year to help pay for winter when it comes, but you're backwards so you end up paying heavily for winter then your dd should hopefully drop down a bit. We were too when we moved in. We're also using a lot more than you - I wish my usage looked like yours!

Ellioru

Doozergirl wrote: »

The beginning of winter is a bad time to move in to a house, in terms of gas bills. Usage is a lot higher in winter, in theory you could use nothing at all between eg. May and October but when you pay by direct debit, it spreads the cost of winter over the entire year.

Aye, we were expecting something high but not as high as it is so it was a bit of a shock!

I spoke to Npower a few hours ago and they've asked me to keep a record of what I'm using and how much it's using unit wise. They said that once I've done this they'll see if they think there's a problem or not. The lady I spoke to seemed to think something was wrong because I mentioned whenever I used hot water the gas kept going higher and higher at a fast pace without stopping. Guess I'll see when I contact them in 5 days time.

JohnB47

That's a very high consumption. I think your thermostat is in a bad location actually. It's in an area that cannot be appropriately influenced by the central heating (you say there's no radiator in that area and it stays pretty cold). That means the system, when started by the timer, is staying on permanently and sending all it's heat to those radiators that don't have thermostatic valves - TRVs. (You say you've turned the TRVs down so those radiators may heat up a little at first, then the TRVs will shut off and all the heat will go to the other rads). That's not a good design. The best thing to do is move that thermostat to a room that does have a radiator but one that doesn't have a TRV fitted. Then, over time, get used to what temp you need to set it to, and what to set the various TRVs to, that will give the overall heating you need. Moving the thermostat is not a big deal. Its a relatively simple cable between boiler and thermostat.

Rodney_Trotter

Did you give an accurate metre reading when you moved in?

Ellioru

JohnB47 wrote: »

That's a very high consumption. I think your thermostat is in a bad location actually. It's in an area that cannot be appropriately influenced by the central heating (you say there's no radiator in that area and it stays pretty cold). That means the system, when started by the timer, is staying on permanently and sending all it's heat to those radiators that don't have thermostatic valves - TVRs. (You say you've turned the TVRs down so those radiators may heat up a little at first, then the TVRs will shut off and all the heat will go to the other rads). That's not a good design. The best thing to do is move that thermostat to a room that does have a radiator but one that doesn't have a TVR fitted. Then, over time, get used to what temp you need to set it to, and what to set the various TVRs to, that will give the overall heating you need. Moving the thermostat is not a big deal. Its a relatively simple cable between boiler and thermostat.

Yeah, it's not best place, but even taking all this into consideration when I have my heating on for about an hour in the morning, an hour when I get home, and then on my days off I don't overuse it nor does my partner so it still doesn't isn't adding up to me.

Rodney_Trotter wrote: »

Did you give an accurate metre reading when you moved in?

Yes.

Mr_Ted

Ellioru wrote: »

We do have a thermostat, however we generally leave it at 10/15,

This is fairly low, as the norm for comfort is 21

wrote:

and turn down the dial on the boiler

This would mean the system will not heat the house as quick, the norm setting for the rads to reach their optimum working temp is 72' C for the heating circuits

wrote:

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.

This would mean that if the room they are in are not reaching the set temperature they would still come on and only go off if the room does reach the set temp

wrote:

The other radiators don't have a valve.

These rooms will be receiving the fullest temp that is set by the water in the circuit, which may not be sufficient

wrote:

We have loft insulation, we do not have cavity wall insulation- we have double glazing.

So the house should retain heat well

wrote:

because we find it's extremely hot when we put it on the lowest thermostat temp.

This contradicts all the above which are basically limiting the heat into the house

I would suspect that due to all the above restrictions the boiler is doing a lot of cycling, on/off repeatedly, which will use a lot of gas

I would suggest setting the boiler stat high, CHECK the room stat operation and that it is not DIRECTLY in a draught, set the existing trv to the setting that give your required comfort needs, set the room stat to a desired temp which you will only find by trial and error for the whole house to be comfortable for your requirements, have TRV's installed on all but the one that will affect the room stat;)

Ectophile

Since nobody else has mentioned it yet...

Have a close look at your gas meter and see if it reads in cubic metres or cubic feet. Then have a look at your gas bill and see if that is the same.

There have been cases when people have cubic feet gas meters, but the gas company have assumed it's cubic metres, and charged a lot more.

espresso

Ectophile wrote: »

Since nobody else has mentioned it yet...

Have a close look at your gas meter and see if it reads in cubic metres or cubic feet. Then have a look at your gas bill and see if that is the same.

There have been cases when people have cubic feet gas meters, but the gas company have assumed it's cubic metres, and charged a lot more.

If the gas supplier had incorrectly assumed that it was a metric meter (cu M) this would cost less!

AndysDad

Mulder00 wrote: »

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.

Each of my units (100 Cu Ft) is equal to roughly 30 Kwh just over £1 for 1 unit.