Insane gas usage, how can I reduce it?

[Deleted User]

My gas usage seems to be about 4x the national average and I'm struggling to see why.

We used 12134 last quarter. I have verified that the meter reading is correct. We have an Imperial meter, the numbers add up. We are with Scottish Power and this equates to about £2300/year, which according to the comparison sites is either the cheapest or can only be beaten by a few quid a year.

We have gas central heating and a gas hob cooker that isn't used that much. How on earth are we using so much gas? The boiler is only a few years old was serviced last year. Our house has four bedrooms but only three adults live here. It's always bloody freezing anyway because although there is loft insulation there is no cavity wall insulation. We asked about having it installed but the exterior brickwork needs rebuilding because the ties have all come away, and it will take a few years to save up for that before anything can happen.

In any case, I just can't see how we can be using so much gas, especially since it apparently isn't heating our house much anyway.

Anyone got any ideas? Is there anything we can do to reduce consumption, short of not heating the place and not cooking anything? Could there be a fault somewhere? Is there any way to get help with the repairs that need doing before the cavity wall insulation can be put in (one person is a pensioner, another has major health issues so can't work, the other has major health issues but does work full time)?

Our bills are just insane. I know gas has gone up a lot but this is madness.

good_advice

How long is the CH on for per day? and HW?
How many radiators?

[Deleted User]

What temperature is the house? What size is the house? What is your usage for a whole year rather than just the winter quarter? Has your usage just suddenly increased, or has it always been that high?

shireknight

Might be worth taking a meter reading then not using the CH for a day or two to see if the meter reading still goes up or not, your usage sounds suspiciously high to me.

matelodave

Are you reading your meter regularly or just responding to a ginormous bill. If you don't read your meters and monitor what you are using then you can't control it. When you know how much you use and when you use it you will be able to do something about it.

Have you got controls on your central heating, timers, thermostats on the tank and in the house. TRVs on the radiators. How much loft insulation have you got ideally you need about 10-12", is there insulation on the hot water tank - another jacket over the exiting one even if its foamed will be beneficial. What about double glazing?

There is quite a lot you can do to tweak the heating & hot water to save energy but only if you've got controls and know how to use them. You can also use less hot water, do a some darughtproofing, close curtains at night.

Nada666

If you have no insulation then there is little wonder that your usage is so high. Sometimes if you have a cold house you have to accept a cold house and only have the heating on for a few hours in the evening. If anyone is at home during the day then make sure they open windows and doors and thoroughly air the house. Whilst you are still wide awake accustom yourself to a cool home and postpone heating until evening.

Until you have made the improvements you will either have to limit yourself to a cosy nook or pay the money for the heating.

If you want to live in a house that is twice the size and one and a half times the height then of course you are going to use more than the average. Can you batten down in the kitchen and a room off it - use curtains etc? Or is the arthritis such that you can't even wander through cooler rooms for a half hour? If not you simply have to pay the bills.

Nada666

(Oh, but, of course, 12,000 kWh over a winter quarter is nowhere near four times the national average - only one-and-a-half to twice. You cannot extrapolate from winter over the whole year. And it will not cost £2,300 per year. 12,000 kWh at, say, 4.2p is £500. Where on earth are you getting £2,300 from? That's eight or nine hundred pounds over.)

(Mind you, considering how mild it was this winter... )

[Deleted User]

You need to make sure you're looking at your average use over the long term. Others have mentioned that one quarter is not good enough, but it will still vary enormously from year to year.

I have a 3 bed semi with 8 rads. The first floor is solid wall, ground floor uninsulated cavity, windows are single glazed, the loft is insulated (4"). The location is Essex, and room temp is about 18-19C. My consumption is 13,500kWh averaged over 20 odd years, but it varies from 5620kWh to 21620kWh.

MallyGirl

we have a large house, high celings and astronomical bills so we have just stopped heating the rooms that aren't used much like the dining room. We turn the radiators off in those rooms. If we are having people round to dinner (rare) we turn the rads on again the day before. We have stripped floors with a crawl space under downstairs so no insulation, single glazed sashes, no cavities in wall to fill, so you do what you must. We don't heat the bedrooms at all, apart from my daughter's a bit, but they do have secondary glazing which takes the edge off. When we replaced the boiler we got the top floor (OH's office if he works from home) rads put on a separate circuit so we don't heat up there if it is not being used.
The roof is insulated but there is nothing more to do - we just accept that this sort of house is going to be colder than average and the bills will be high. We all have nice warm fleeces and slippers - my Mum always brings woolly shawls when she visits. It would be cheaper to live in a modern house with lower ceilings but that isn't my style.

Johnandabby

[Removed by Forum Team]

To be honest, from the figures you've provided there it's the electricity usage that seems really high. 4,800 kWh in 4 months is very high if you're using gas for heating and hot water. Have you changed to low energy lighting? Checked that you don't have the electric immersion heater heating up your hot water? Use electric plug-in heaters?

Also this is for a 4 month period, so isn't a quarter. Your gas bills are about the same as mine, but your electricity bill is nearly 3 times mine and I work from home with a large server and multiple computers etc... My electricity usage is fairly consistent throughout the year, but my gas drops to nearly nothing in the summer months.

Smiley_Dan

"DELETED USER", maybe you should be looking at the ECO, not the Green Deal? See http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Take-action/Find-a-grant/Green-Deal-and-ECO#eco and https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-programmes/energy-companies-obligation-eco particularly CERO. I'm not sure how the condition of the walls will affect this but EWI or IWI may be a possibility.