My gas is £10 per day! What can I do?

coffeehound

With draughty windows, it can be worth using some tape to draught-proof them where practical. Something like white duct tape works well and doesn’t draw the eye on white paint. You may notice an immediate improvement. With a draughty house you may not need any further trickle ventilation provision, but leaving one window untaped at the front and rear should allow more trickle ventilation if required. That also leaves those windows free to be opened when you want to do a full airing.

nigelbb

DavidA wrote: »

Thank you. With a young family and a busy work schedule, I'm quite time poor. It would help me to understand which of these is likely to give me the best result so that I can figure out what order to tackle them. I suppose most will need the services of a professional. So...

- Set thermostat, including hot water, to timer.
- Find a cheaper tariff.
- Roof insulation.
- Draft proof doors and windows. Needs a carpenter.
- Floorboard gaps.
- Water tank insulation.

How does that look?

You are missing the simplest, quickest & highest priority way to reduce your heating bills i.e. switch to a cheaper gas tariff. You can do that TODAY & it will cost no money & only five minutes of your time. If you are paying £10/day for 220kWh you are paying way over the top. You should be able to find gas at 3.3p/kWh which will immediately (OK, in 2-3 weeks) reduce your bill by 25%.

Robin9

Have a good look at you Hot Water Cylinder - it may already be a fully insulated type.

Are there any makers names / model or type numbers on it.

If it looks like bare copper it needs a jacket.

dunstonh

. I don't fully trust them because the room temperature often seems to be different to the target temperature.

The digital thermostats usually round to nearest 0.5%. I have one of those wireless thermostats (looks like same brand, although different model). Our thermostat is in the display unit, not a base unit. I also have a digital weather station monitor right next to it with more accurate readings. The differences in the thermostat are usually no more than rounding.

Also, remember that the thermostat system will have a tolerance before it triggers the system.

However, any small differences pale into insignificance compared to leaving the system on 24/7. If you are paranoid about it though, get a small wireless thermometer and place it next to the display.

If your thermostat is in the base unit, that is the location that matters. If it is in the wireless display unit, then that is the location that matters. We were unsure with ours initially as the instructions all talked about a base unit but we couldn't locate it (just the timer panel and a wireless temp display). So, I put the wireless monitor in front of a burner and the temp rose quickly (you could use fridge (slower to react) or radiator if you don't have a burner).

If it's in the wireless display, you are going to influence the system. Put it on a cool window sill and it will read colder than the room. Put it in the warmest part of the room and it will read that bit. Put it in the kitchen and expect your heating to go off when cooking. So, think about the location.

DavidA

Damn! You people are good. Thank you.

Progress. I have programmed 2 of the 3 thermostats. As was mentioned above, there's an 'auto' setting that allows me to set times and temperatures and then figures out the most economical way of achieving it. Or so it says. The third thermostat has a partially functioning LCD, which means I can't see if the time is am or pm. I'll get this repaired.

I switched suppliers using moneysavingexpert and got gas at
3.250p per kWh, which seems better than EDF.

I sent an email to a company specialising in insulation.

I haven't been able to get into our loft as it's a two person job and it's only me home today. Here's some pictures of whats up there though. Is there some way that I can reduce my water heating bill?

Boiler and water tank.


Not sure what this does.


I guess this is the combi?

Robin9

"The third thermostat has a partially functioning LCD, which means I can't see if the time is am or pm. I'll get this repaired."

Possibly batteries - cost you a £1. Can you identify the maker / model. ?

ianto11

Pic 2 is frostat and pipestat, designed as a frost protection for the boiler if the loft temp gets too low.
If frostat temp drops below 5 deg C, it'll fire the boiler, once the return water temp to the boiler reaches 15 deg C boiler goes off.
The above are usual settings for these protection stats, but check what they are set at as these effectively override heating controllers to ensure boiler protection. You look to have an unvented indirect cylinder which is manufacturer insulated, so no benefit of an extra jacket, pipe lagging looks ok as well

Edit : just noticed the pipestat does appear to be set on 15, so happy days

50Twuncle

Just how many of you - turn your heating on in October and off in April - relying on room thermostats to switch the pump on and off ?
No wonder you are using £300 of energy every month
Try manually switching ON the heating when it gets cold (say 16 degrees c) and OFF (by default) the rest of the time - that way, you may get closer to my bills of £30 per month (dual fuel)
Our house is a well insulated, double glazed, 3 bed semi that is warm all year round

nigelbb

50Twuncle wrote: »

Just how many of you - turn your heating on in October and off in April - relying on room thermostats to switch the pump on and off ?
No wonder you are using £300 of energy every month
Try manually switching ON the heating when it gets cold (say 16 degrees c) and OFF (by default) the rest of the time - that way, you may get closer to my bills of £30 per month (dual fuel)
Our house is a well insulated, double glazed, 3 bed semi that is warm all year round

You have a different definition of "warm" than I have if you don't switch on your heating until the temp is down at 16C.

matelodave

It's not exactly comparing similar houses - a well insulated, three bedroom semi isn't quite the same as a kinda drafty old victorian house with single glazing, no curtains, sash windows, no carpets and gaps in the doors (and possibly solid walls with suspect insulation up in the roof as well).

Lifestyles could also be different with either more or fewer people in the place etc so it's unlikely that most people would easily get down to £30 a month (he probably doesn't get WHD either).

As said, the OP has already stsrted by getting a better tariff and tweaking his timers and thermostats. the next major job is tackling the insulation and draughts/drafts