Advice on setting timer please

Flyingdragon

I live outside UK for 10 months of year, but have to keep some heating on in the 3-bedroom, detached house.

I have had gas central heating on only over the coldest months for 3 times a day for 2 hours each time, only when the temperature has got down below 10 degrees. Despite this, my gas bill has come to around £650 for the period, with my meter reading going from 532 to 1005 over the period from beginning December (when I joined Npower) to end of July.

Could anyone advise me please on what to do to help lower the cost? Should I have it on less often, should I have it on for a shorter time, should I have the thermostat set lower? I would appreciate some help.

Many thanks.

Smiley_Dan

So the thermostat is set to 10°? The heating shouldn't come on too often really. Is the thermostat working correctly?

Assume the house is insulated etc?

Robin9

With such a mild winter I doubt your heating ran at all.

You say you are away most of the year - were you at home at all Dec to July?

What about the hot water - is that timed - I would expect it to top up your hot water cylinder if you have one but if its well lagged the gas consumption would be minimal.

Re the £650 is this the sum of the DD's and are you well in credit?

Flyingdragon

Dear Smiley Dan and Robin, thanks a lot for replying.

The house is reasonably insulated for a 100 year old house - double glazing, loft insulation, but can't cavity wall due to construction.

I was at home only from the end of June, but didn't have heating on at all, and as soon as the weather became good in the spring, my neighbours switched off the timer, so let's say 3 months with the timer switched to come on 3 times a day. I am in Scotland, so the winter wasn't quite as mild as down south, but it certainly wasn't arctic.

The hot water, which is also on a 3 time a day timer, wasn't on at all until beginning of July.

I do have a gas hob, but again, this was only used perhaps 3 times a week since end of June, and then only for a relatively short time.

No, the £650 is what the bill was for the gas! and I am over £200 in debit!

It seems awfully expensive, and I'm due to leave again in a couple of weeks, so am rather worried about facing a bill of around £1300 for gas while I'm not actually here

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Flyingdragon wrote: »

...my meter reading going from 532 to 1005...

Is there any chance that your meter is reading cubic feet but you're being billed for cubic metres? It's been known to happen.

Smiley_Dan

Fruit_and_Nut_Case wrote: »

Is there any chance that your meter is reading cubic feet but you're being billed for cubic metres? It's been known to happen.

Wow!

If that's not the case, can only think the thermostat is broken and the boiler was firing all that time.

If you are concerned about "ticking over" and just having some heat in the house, 3x a day for 2 hours is probably overkill anyway.

That said, if the thermostat worked, it should be ok...

Can you re-enable the timer now, just to see if it is turning on? Needless to say, it shouldn't.

The other thing is a gas leak but I would've thought you'd know about that.

Flyingdragon

Hi F&NC

The meter reads in cubic feet, so has used 456 cubic feet, but on the bill it seems to do all the calculations


"We convert your gas consumption into kWh using the following formula

100s of cubic feet used (456) x Conversion to m3 (2.83)
X Calorific value (39.2) x Correction Factor (1.02264)÷ kWh conversion factor (3.6)" Cost of each kWh = 4.248 per kWh

So it looks like the sums are right. However, I can see that the average annual use quoted by companies is 13.5k a year, and we're already over that.

SD - I've just put the timer on again, but it hasn't kicked in, so it doesn't seem there are problems there with the thermostat. And the boiler is pretty new and serviced annually ( last time last week), so there are no problems there.

I've also put all gas off and checked the meter over 24 hours - no movement.

I'm flummoxed! (Makes me wonder if I've had invisible squatters who've had the gas on 24/7!)

But thank you all very much for your suggestions.

Twiggy_34

Nothing new to offer really, other than to ask if you have taken into account any standing charges from your supplier?

Flyingdragon

Hi Twiggy, thanks for replying.

There are standing charges, but they're a minuscule percentage of the total, so it's not that.

Ho hum :-(

Smiley_Dan

It's not unheard of for people's gas connections to be tapped into, but now we're really getting unlikely...

Can only think there was something wrong with the thermostat or timer.

Bigphil1474

Having the heating on for 6 hours a day when you aren't there seems a bit excessive to be honest. In winter, whilst we're there, we have ours on for an hour in the morning, and then from 5pm to 9pm in the evening. Obviously if it gets too cold we override the timer, but doesn't often happen. Having said that we have our thermostat at 18oC, and ours is mid terrace not detatched. Not a boiler expert but I suspect the energy used to get from 0 to 10oC isn't directly proportionate to 0 to 18 c, but then my gas bill payments are around £55 a month, and we had an £8 credit at the start of May (from October to April) - so we paid about £320 for gas used in the equivelant period, for higher temp heating.
We went abroad from Dec 2012 to February 2013, and we left the thermostat at about 15oC and changed the timing to come on for 2 hours from 5am, and then 2 hours from 9pm. Didn't have any issues, but we had a relative popping round a couple of times a week to check everything ok. The gas bill was less for that time, but honestly can't remember how much by.

Tricky one cos a burst pipe is the last thing you want, but seems excessive cost to heat an empty space. You could look at turning some of the radiators off maybe? so that the house is warmed but not every room.