How much should GCH cost to run?

lstar337

Snakey wrote: »

I know it's rude to ask for advice and then argue with it, but since I have moved flat I have been on a prepayment meter with a stinkingly high (to me, anyway) daily standing charge and I have still not been paying anything like ten pounds a week for electricity. It's been more like £2.50-£3, with half of that being the standing charge, and that's with a horrific looking ancient fridge freezer on the go as well.

So £2.50/week and half is std charge (so you say), so you have been using £1.25/week. Say a unit is ~13p then you're using about 9.6kWh/week, or 1.37kWh/day.

That's pretty low usage. I thought my usage at ~3kWh/day was low, and I can only manage that because the PV solar array takes away all my base load plus extra on top.

I'm guessing you don't really use anything electrical, at all?

Snakey

I hadn't given it much thought until this thread, but you're right. I don't own a TV or a games console, I eat my main meal at work, I do have a laptop and internet router but I don't use it much, my landline phone is a cheap one that doesn't need to be plugged in, I don't even have an electric alarm clock. It's more or less just the fridge and a lightbulb!

How much of this will change as I settle in to my new place I don't know, but I'm not quite ready to sign up to a £40 a month on-account payment on a "just in case" basis. The only real unknown quantity for me is how much the gas will cost.

macman

You are simply not comparing like with like-your old property had no CH and so your bills would be massively lower.
If you use the CH, then £480pa is not expensive for the average property for gas at all.
The average dual fuel tariff is now north of £1,250pa.

Snakey

Yep, I get that heating has to be paid for while putting on another jumper is free. My question was about whether it sounded right to people that hot water and heating would cost £68 a month on average (if I can nitpick you there, twelve lots of that is north of £800 a year).

The electricity issue is something of a red herring. They've estimated my usage at £40 a month which it never was in the old place and I see no reason why it will be in the new place. From the perspective of my electricity meter, there's no difference between no heating and gas heating. We just got sidetracked into talking about it because people were querying the amount.

tim9966

I used £200 last year for gas living on my own for hot water and heating, so you could easily use less than £800 a year.


Last winter was very mild with no snow where I live, and I don't like it hot. About 18C is more than enough for me.


Electricity I use between £18 and £23 a month, but I do cook a meal most nights which you don't do.

lstar337

Snakey wrote: »

I hadn't given it much thought until this thread, but you're right. I don't own a TV or a games console, I eat my main meal at work, I do have a laptop and internet router but I don't use it much, my landline phone is a cheap one that doesn't need to be plugged in, I don't even have an electric alarm clock. It's more or less just the fridge and a lightbulb!

Livin' the dream!:D

Seriously good money saving.

With that kind of usage you should be looking at NSC tariff's.

Gas will cost as little or as much as you want (+SC), you are in charge of if/when it comes on.

What does it say on the property's EPC about insulation and whatnot?

andrew-the-cat

I never used GCH in my old house as it was so inefficient and badly insulated that it cost an absolute bomb to use. There were also no thermostats at all and once you turned it off the house was cold again in about 15 minutes. I'm from a cold country anyway so I wasn't bothered about it only being 5c in the house, that's pretty much my comfort zone.

I have moved to a new build house now though and it's super efficient. I haven't had a chance to use the central heating yet as it's obviously the wrong time of the year but according to the EPC, my combined heating and hot water costs would be approximately £888 over 3 years which works out at £296 per year.