Crazy heating bill £918 in 4 months!!!

Raz31

Please help!!!

I recently moved into our new home & had a baby all in the space of a few weeks - hectic to say the least.

The heating was on a lot due to the little one but I still didn't expect to get a bill for £918 for 4 months use from scottish power.

Since then I've tried to run the system more economically but I'm struggling to work out what is best. As my daily use is still about £6 per day

My current system is as follow

Rehmeha combi boiler:
Hot water temp (water out of taps) is set at 60 degrees - (If i turn this down to say 55 will this be hot enough still to kill bacteria when washing up)

Boiler temp for central heating is set to 65 degrees - it was at 75 but i turned it down after the bill came (i find at this temp it takes a long time to heat the house up)
What is the most efficient temp setting? (factory setting is supposed to be 70)


I have TRV on all radiators except for 3 bathroom towel radiators.

Wall programable thermostat in the landing with a single landing radiator with that TRV set at Max.

As the wife and little one are in most of the day the wall thermostat is set at 20 degrees and the bedroom & kitchen TRV's are set at 4
That seems to be a comfortable temp. All other TRV's are set to 1 as those rooms are not used. IS this high enough to stop damp/mould?

The living room is not used during the day so I've set the TRV to 2

Is it best to have the wall thermostat set at 18 and just to move up to 20 degrees for a few hours a day?
When I have tried this the the landing takes a long time to get to 20 so it will be too hot in other rooms.

Also when I come home in the evening & want to relax in the living room as the TRV has been set to 2 it takes a long time to heat up the the room.

I'm in the process of switching energy suppliers but I'm not sure what else I can do

Also not sure what to to with the bathroom radiators - I don't need them on all day so should I just turn them on & off manually?? One of the bathrooms is not used at all - I have reduced the flow in that one so it only heats up a little but I can i turn this off completely?

Can someone please help


Thank you

MallyGirl

one of the bathroom rads is probably the always on sort as you need one of those in the system - it should only heat when the boiler is on though. My hall thermostat is set to 15 and I just pop it up till the heating clicks on if we want to warm the living room more. The boiler goes off again at 9:40pm as we tend to be in bed by 10:30 and the warmth will last till then. I would pare down the times that the heating is on - babies are really quite resilient unless they are poorly. The Finns leave them out to nap in prams in the snow as a matter of course.

Nada666

If the manual suggests 70 then that is likely to be optimal - turning it down rather than up will only increase costs, not decrease them. (No need to set it above recommended temperature, though.) Radiators will be less responsive and you will end up spending more to achieve the same end (as indicated by your 'takes a long time' comment.) Put it back to the recommended optimum.

Leave the hot water at 60.

Raz31

Thank you

I've put it back up to 70 and I'll test it out

Thanks again

Smiley_Dan

What sort of house do you have - detached, terraced? When was it built? What type of walls, glazing? What insulation do you have and how much of it?

If you purchased recently this should all be on the EPC. Take a look at the "space heating" sections with the amount of kWhs required. It's all about the kWhs, baby.

captainhindsight_2

You should have the boiler temp as high as possible, then the room thermostat as low as possible. This means the boiler is on for the shortest possible time which means less gas used. If the manufactures recommends 70 this would usually mean this is the temperature at which the boiler operates at its most efficient.

If the house isn't insulated get it insulated from 1st April everybody in the UK qualifies for grants for loft, cavity, and even solid wall insulation and in most circumstances its free. This is regardless of location, income, benefits etc..

matelodave

Start reading your electricity & gas meter regularly and you will then be able to monitor what you are using and when. If you don't measure it you can't control it.
Try using less hot water, take shorter showers or shallower baths and don't let hot water run down the sink whilst washing or rinsing stuff. A Combi boiler is going full blast when you are using hot water so make sure you don't waste it. Wash up stuff in big batches and use a bowl.
If you've got a programmable stat then adjust the temperature * times to suit your lifestyle - ie warmer when you get up - cooler during the day when you are dressed and moving around and warmer again when you are sitting in front of the telly. Ideally you don't need to heat the bathrooms and bedrooms during the day if you aren't in them so turn the stats down. It takes a bit of effort but the alternative is high energy bills

Smiley_Dan

captainhindsight wrote: »

You should have the boiler temp as high as possible, then the room thermostat as low as possible. This means the boiler is on for the shortest possible time which means less gas used. If the manufactures recommends 70 this would usually mean this is the temperature at which the boiler operates at its most efficient.

I don't think it's that cut-and-dried. There's a lag between heating the water for the rads and pipes and the thermostat sensing the air temperature has risen, in the meantime your boiler is firing like the clappers and you have steep temperature rise/loss gradients with possible (temporary) over heating.

These things all depend on the situation... type of boiler, amount of pipes, types of rads, placing of the thermostat etc etc. One has to experiment, I think.

daveyjp

matelodave wrote: »

A Combi boiler is going full blast when you are using hot water

Not necessarily. A modulating boiler will reduce the burner output to maintain hot water at the desired temperature. Our hot water is set at 50 degrees and the burner starts at 80% output, but quickly reduces to 20%.

Raz31

Smiley_Dan wrote: »

What sort of house do you have - detached, terraced? When was it built? What type of walls, glazing? What insulation do you have and how much of it?

If you purchased recently this should all be on the EPC. Take a look at the "space heating" sections with the amount of kWhs required. It's all about the kWhs, baby.

Hi

We have a detached house, Built in the 60's as a bungalow but was recently renovated 2 years ago with an side extension and a loft conversion. Then we moved in just 4 months ago.
All widows have Double glazing

With regards to insulation - i don't know which type on the EPC it just states that the "Walls, Roof & Floor are insulated (assumed)"

The space heating per year 12433 kWh
Water heating 2653 kWh

Raz31

matelodave wrote: »

Start reading your electricity & gas meter regularly and you will then be able to monitor what you are using and when. If you don't measure it you can't control it.
Try using less hot water, take shorter showers or shallower baths and don't let hot water run down the sink whilst washing or rinsing stuff. A Combi boiler is going full blast when you are using hot water so make sure you don't waste it. Wash up stuff in big batches and use a bowl.
If you've got a programmable stat then adjust the temperature * times to suit your lifestyle - ie warmer when you get up - cooler during the day when you are dressed and moving around and warmer again when you are sitting in front of the telly. Ideally you don't need to heat the bathrooms and bedrooms during the day if you aren't in them so turn the stats down. It takes a bit of effort but the alternative is high energy bills

Thank you
I've started monitoring the meters regularly & I've adjusted when the heating come on & for how long now.
Hopefully I'll be able to keep costs down