Very high gas bills

System

Davearia wrote: »

In paranoid mode, watched the boiler fire up, set for 19c. In just over 5 minutes the meter have clocked over .4m3 of gas. I know it is firing up first thing but does that not seem a lot?

In the 15 minutes it took to get to 19c the meter says I've used around 1m3

What is the size of your boiler in kWs? I ask because I have a 24kW boiler and I monitor gas usage every 15 minutes using an optical spot reader attached to the outside of the meter. When there is a large demand for heating, then the boiler will operate close to its max output. Once the house is within a set temperature range then a modern boiler will modulate: in my case, down to 5kW. Even this can be too much and the boiler will then cycle on/off.

Last Sunday was a particularly cold day and there was about a 5C difference to eradicate when the heating came on. My gas consumption was 1.12CM3s or approximately 12.5kWhs in the first hour. It average about 0.4CM3s/hour for the rest of the day. Actual usage depends on many factors. Not least the size of your boiler; the size of your house; the level of insulation in the property; the type and placement of heating controls and your preferred temperature. I have a well insulated house and a zoned heating system. Once all the zones are up to temperature, then the boiler consumption drops off markedly.

All that said, I have lived in rented properties in the past where the sole thermostat was placed in a cold hall and it never reached the set temperature. Turning it down meant that other rooms didn't get any heat. Gas consumption was high.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Good morning Davearia,

Thank you all on the thread for the excellent advice and information that you've posted.

Most of the questions I would ask have been [FONT=&quot]answered[/FONT].

It sounds like the gas has always been billed using accurate meter reads. As molerat says have there ever been any estimated bills, as my first thought was this is a catch up bill.

House Martin, has made a good point, we can put a check meter in, but if there meter isn't faulty we do charge for this.

Do speak to us, we have areas of the business that can help you, they'll look at the usage with you.

Helena

Merlin139

Could not get back on last night but did a bit of thinking.

You might not be able to change the amount of Gas you use but if you are not on the best tariff you may be able to reduce the amount you pay. When was the last time you did a comparison?

How big is your house? Square meter wise? Just wondering how much you have to heat? Do you have insulated walls?

I am at home all day so our heating is on all day too. Set to 21 from 07:30 till 09:00 then 19 till 17:00 when DW and DD get home back up to 21

Just checked since 10:00 17/01/18 till 10:00 today we have used 32 units of Gas so around 362 kWh's

Why not get E.ON to install a Smart Meter? It may only be 1st generation so not able to change companies but it should be accurate. You would also be able to see when you are using the most.

Cardew

Davearia wrote: »

Sorry Cardew,

I'm hopeless at these calcs but I must have used much more than 60KWh?

Worked out the 1m3 is 11.22 kwh

So as "In just over 5 minutes the meter have clocked over .4m3 of gas." that means it has used approx 5kWh in 5 mins

Now your boiler is rated at 28kW so it is impossible for it to use 5kWh in 5mins.

Boohoo

Cardew wrote: »

So as "In just over 5 minutes the meter have clocked over .4m3 of gas." that means it has used approx 5kWh in 5 mins

Now your boiler is rated at 28kW so it is impossible for it to use 5kWh in 5mins.

Maybe the OP is reading the meter wrong or if correct is there a leak.
I don't know if this has been asked before but could the OP put up a photo of the meter so people can check if the readings are correct.

Davearia

Tried adding pictures but as a new user I can't sorry

So can a 28KW boiler use use 5kWh in 5mins, likewise can it use more than 28KW in an hour?

System

Boohoo wrote: »

Maybe the OP is reading the meter wrong or if correct is there a leak.
I don't know if this has been asked before but could the OP put up a photo of the meter so people can check if the readings are correct.

If there was a leak in the pipework between the meter and the boiler then I would have thought that the meter would just keep turning irrespective of whether the boiler was on or off. There would also be a constant smell of natural gas in the property.

I agree with Boohoo and I apologise if this sounds rather patronising. My meter presently reads 25267.210. The meter reading that I give to the supplier is 25267. There have been cases where people have misunderstood the request only to send in 5 figures on a metric meter; ie, a meter reading 00067.210 has been misread by the consumer as 67210. The last (right hand) digit on a gas meter always turns rapidly when gas is being consumed. The danger of going for a smart meter rather than a check meter is that the OP might be fine going forwards, but it might be extremely difficult to check an old meter that has been lost in the system.

Davearia

We have discounted the last three digits when giving the meter reading so it currently around 32768.392 so it would be 32768, can't upload pictures to show that unfortunately.

Sorry forgot say I don't think there is a leak. Turned off the boiler last week and the meter stopped dead and no noticeable smell of gas

System

Davearia wrote: »

We have discounted the last three digits when giving the meter reading so it currently around 32768.392 so it would be 32768, can't upload pictures to show that unfortunately.

Sorry forgot say I don't think there is a leak. Turned off the boiler last week and the meter stopped dead and no noticeable smell of gas

In that case you need to grasp the nettle and ask your supplier to install a check meter.

Davearia

@Hengus you were mentioning earlier how boilers modulate. First thing at 8:00 am it took 15 minutes to get to 19c where it used 1m3 of gas but as you said there will be a big demand initially and the boiler may work at max which might explain this. But subsequent times since when the temperature drops just beneath 19c and the boiler kicks in, the meter usage looks just the same i.e. no sign of modulation. The readings on the meter suggest this also. Could this be the problem? i.e. boiler not modulating?