Gas Usage Advice... Just had Bill :(

angelatgraceland

I have an old boiler which cannot have a timer fitted. Ive just put out the pilot on this as it was boiling the water 24/7. I now use my electric immersion for about an hour a day maximum. Im saving about £4 a week on gas at a rough guess. My last quarterly gas bill was £272 for a family of 5 in a 4 bed house. We have gas c/h but hardly use it even in the winter. I think the previous bill was underestimated but we are paying £54 per month for gas so, £648 per year-this is rather a lot I think as we are also paying £75 per month to EDF for electric! Hence the cutdown on the gas-it will help and hopefully save about £200 per year. We never heat the house above 21 deg in the winter while we are home and dont heat it at all when we are out(which isnt a lot). We normally just use the gas fire in the lounge so I blame my central heating boiler for the bills-boiling water I didnt need. W/M and dishwasher are cold fill these days so unaffected if water not hot. It is only for washing up as we have electric shower. If its not hot enough I boil a kettle to pep it up now!

cutebabe01

Thanks Everyone for All Your Great Suggestions

Hot water timer now changed to come on:
06:30 till 07:30 in the morn
16:30 till 18:30 in the eve

I will also use the timer for the heating to come on at the suggested times in the winter.

Once again thats for all your help and advice.

oldagetraveller

You state that it is a four bedroom, three storey house with just two adults. Are you only heating the rooms you need to, that is are all or most the radiators on when the heating is on. If so, turn the radiators off in any unused or empty rooms or turn the thermostatic valves (if fitted but should be with a new build) to the frost or a very low setting. That should save a fair bit of gas?

cutebabe01

oldagetraveller wrote: »

You state that it is a four bedroom, three storey house with just two adults. Are you only heating the rooms you need to, that is are all or most the radiators on when the heating is on. If so, turn the radiators off in any unused or empty rooms or turn the thermostatic valves (if fitted but should be with a new build) to the frost or a very low setting. That should save a fair bit of gas?

That is actually a very good idea.

I figured that if you leave rooms colder then that would cool the whole house?

Jandy1234

Hi, we were using 5 units a day in the winter, for a four bed semi with loft conversion. I have noticed a dramatic drop in our gas bill since we stopped having the timed water heating on ( 1.5 hours in the morning) and changed to putting the heater on for a tankfull at a time. Our boiler can heat a tankfull in half an hour. You might want to experiment with different amounts of time until you find the least it takes to get the amount of hot water you need. If you can find your hot water thermostat you can save money by turning that down also.( usually near the tank itself) Best advice re heating seems to be to keep all the radiators on the 1 or 2 setting ( ie. lowest available but constant heat) Keep all the doors and windows shut and look into insulation such as door curtains, curtain liners and draught excluders. We started curling up under a duvet whilst watching the telly and it saves a fortune in heating bills. Hope this helps you, best wishes from Jandy

Cardew

Jandy1234 wrote: »

Hi, we were using 5 units a day in the winter, for a four bed semi with loft conversion. I have noticed a dramatic drop in our gas bill since we stopped having the timed water heating on ( 1.5 hours in the morning) and changed to putting the heater on for a tankfull at a time. Our boiler can heat a tankfull in half an hour. You might want to experiment with different amounts of time until you find the least it takes to get the amount of hot water you need. If you can find your hot water thermostat you can save money by turning that down also.( usually near the tank itself) Best advice re heating seems to be to keep all the radiators on the 1 or 2 setting ( ie. lowest available but constant heat) Keep all the doors and windows shut and look into insulation such as door curtains, curtain liners and draught excluders. We started curling up under a duvet whilst watching the telly and it saves a fortune in heating bills. Hope this helps you, best wishes from Jandy

Jandy,
I appreciate you are trying to be helpful but I don't think some of your advice is sound.

Firstly re temperature of Hot water in tank. There is plenty of advice available (look at the web) that you should not turn the temperature of your water down for health reasons. This quote sums it up:

What is the best temperature for domestic hot water supplies? On the one hand, the need to avoid bacteriological risks (such as those
associated with Legionella) indicates that water should be heated above 60°C.

Secondly most people will not notice a 'dramatic drop in gas bill' by your method of heating water. Domestic Hot water does not account for a large proportion of gas bills and a well insulated tank does not lose heat quickly.

I am also not sure what you mean by putting the radiators so that you get "lowest available but constant heat" (I assume the 1 or 2 setting refers to Thermostatic Radiator Valves -TRVs?)
Obviously the cooler you have the room the lower the consumption of gas. However virtually every gas boiler is more efficient when the water is at a higher temperature.

A TRV on a low setting will not alter the temperature of the water, or indeed provide 'constant' heat. All they do is shut of the supply of water to the radiator when the set room temperature is reached.

tomtomtom_2

You need to find out whether your gas meter is imperial or metric as 6 units can be 66 kwh (m) or 188kwh (i) i think

angelatgraceland

Ive had an electric timer fitted to my immersion now so the gas saving is about £6 a week and I heat the water now for 1 hour in the morning and half an hour early evening. I read the meter today and it worked out at 3 units for 45 mins so its about 60p per day. Other stuff was aslo on though. I estimate heating water on electric is about £3 per week so I have probably cut the cost in half. It is always worth comparing many methods I think. Also, electric doesnt need the same serviciing as gas so often is less expensive than it first appears.

roses

That's nothing, from Jan - September this year my gas bill was £532.24 in a three bed terraced house with three adults. Heating on from Jan - beginning May for 2 hours in the morning & 6 hours in the evening with thermostat at 21'C. This was with British Gas.

Terrylw1

Tobyruby wrote: »

I know it's comparing apples with oranges, but I got a bill for almost £800 for 6 months worth of gas. I live in Northern Ireland which seems to be the rip off centre of the world for all utilities. I am not currently on mains gas. It is LPG that is allegedly metered into the house from a tank down the road. I complained about the bill, eventually going to my MLA (MP equivalent) only to discover that the LPG market here is unregulated. So they can charge what they like. I use gas for heat, hot water and hob cooking. The house is brand new, double glazed, insulated etc. etc. and apart from not using the gas at all, there seems to be no other way to cut down my bills. Mains gas is coming - praise be - but they have to dig a pipe under the river to get to us. Who knows how long that will take.

Different regulation practices on utilities as well over there. The industry has been playing catch up on Englang/Wales/Scotland. Suppliers over there have been contacting Suppliers within England to discuss how they introduce a lot or practices to bring their service forward over the past 2 years.

Carry on with the complaints, regulation is most likely playing catch up on LPG as well.