Average UK Gas Bill 2014?

oldskoo1

Where do you live? 12c overnight and only getting to 17c does sound like the insulation is poor.

The houses i've been living in recently loose 2-3c overnight on the hall stat. Maybe 4c is lost overnight when it gets to a constant sub zero like last winter.

It is going to be hard to reduce consumption if the house leaks heat through the windows, walls and roof.

Loft is the easiest one to check. How much insulation is in there?

Are all radiators getting equally hot?

Do you have TRVs

Do you know if it has cavity walls and are they filled?

Double glazing look ok, no condensation between the panes or loose seals?

Red08

So its not just me who has seen a bill increase then..
I live in London 2bed g.f flat
cavity wall ins, double glazing, floor insulation paint (surprisingly effective) gas hob fan oven & combi boiler new heating system replaced in '11
Am with EDF duel fuel Apr'15 £100 > winter use now £116
I put my heating n 3 hours a day have turned off hall heater, and turned down bathroom & living room heaters, only bedrooms are on max, cook for like 30mins hob
Hot water is only boosted on when needed otherwise always off.. we have an elec shower baths are becoming a luxury..
Any less and id be miserable.. although im fast becoming miserable with watching and feeling guilty about rising bill costs!
Long gone are the days of 24/7 heating and a £60 duel fuel bill that i had 7 yrs ago when i first moved in
I'll carry on trying to improve insulation.. but it is just too ridiculous.
:mad:

Bark01

When factoring year on year savings don't forget to account for the weather - 2102-2013 winter long and cold - 2013-2014 winter mild.

You should see a reduction this year simply by the fact of it being incredibly mild.

MintyCyrmu

The house is a rental (can't afford to buy).

Double glazed throughout although it feels colec near every window (no draughts)

I don't think there's cavity insulation, but there is loft insulation except on the double extension flat roof (my bedroom!).

There's an area in nearly every room where the paint is peeling off the walls due to condensation. We had the letting agency send a 'handyman' around and he basically blamed that on us for not ventilating enough, which is nonsense, even so, cross ventilate now for a couple of hours a day (house gets FREEZING) and it's made no difference other than us being colder than usual.

The living room (most heated) was at 18 degrees last night at 21:30 when the heating went off. By Midnight it was just under 15 degrees and feeling quite nippy.

I like how this thread is evolving, there's a lot of good information here (not just for me, but anyone else who's interested). I think we've established that I can spend a little more on the heating without it being wasted (seems the average bill is higher than mine so I'm not losing money that way) but I do think that insulation is an issue - not sure where though.

I'm also wondering if the house had an issue with damp in the past and that's where the moisture is coming from, our condensation can't all be down to every day living....my daughter's bedroom has rampant condensation underneath the window area. We never dry clothes in there and it's the warmest room in the house!

good_advice

I would side with the handy man - sorry!
You do have to open windows and doors every day.

I noticed last night when family member had a power shower that the bathroom wall was very wet to touch. The wall away fro the shower. I opened the window and the wall then soon dried.
Same in the kitchen. I open the back door when cooking the dinner.

Our house is often under 18C in winter now. Times are changing, we have adapted to cooler living to keep the fuel bill down.
I wish the warmer weather would hurry along. Winter seems such a time.

MintyCyrmu

As I said above, we cross ventilate now for many hours and it's made no difference to the condensation in that area at night.

The windows and doors are open on all upstairs rooms for a good 6 hours.

They're closed during the night, but that's when they're lived in, and if left open it's absolutely baltic!

oldskoo1

This is a tough one

That amount of open window time is certainly going to increase your gas bills as you are loosing all your heat. If it's like my house my boiler is on 3-4x longer in the morning as opposed to just maintaining internal heat.

However condensation is a problem even to health as I'm sure you know and doing your best to solve.

Unfortunately it's a tough call. If having the windows open doesn't solve it i would guess the problem is in the walls. Badly installed wall insulation can act as a bridge for moisture which can cross the divide to your internal walls.

Lack of air bricks, covered up air bricks, closer window vents, badly filled cavity can create the issue.

The best solution is keep ventilation what cooking, washing etc, keep doors closed whilst doing these things, contain it and run a dehumidifier. You might need to run it a lot initially but then and hopefully it becomes more manageable.

I'm not saying it will solve it but it should help but it will cost you.