High gas and electricity bill

blade81

Hi,

I have worked out my last quarter gas bill as £278 and £196 for electricity. My bills are usually reasonable however have been using central heating a lot more recently, even so the bill is quite high. I have a Worcester greenstar 28i junior combi condensing boiler. The CH thermostat on the boiler itself is set on the highest position no 6. Eco is also not highlighted. This is the defaults set during install. If I reduce the thermostat to a lower positive will this reduce cost ? Does it affect how hot radiators get? All the radiators have TRVs.

Thank you

JJ_Egan

Yes and yes subject to TVR settings that may be to high .
Meter readings is what you want .

Pete_Smith

Reducing the thermostat will reduce gas useage and costs.The radiators will get slightly cooler though.



What size a house do you have?


We hava a 4 bedroom bungalow and your usage is more than our,but not by a huge amount.


Also are you on an expensive tarriff,or with one of the big 6 suppliers by any chance?

[Deleted User]

@blade81

A lot of things affect the amount of energy used for heating.

Size of property
Age of property
Double Glazing
Loft Insulation
Type of Walls
Location - Scotland tend to have colder winters than Cornwall, rural colder than city
How warm you like the property

Costs are affected by the tariff you have chosen or have let the energy company choose for you.


I have a BW CDi boiler and set my CH thermostat on the boiler to 5 which provides more than enough heat to the radiators. If I turned it higher, it would burn more gas but should in theory heat up the house faster but I've never done that. The house gets up to temperature in under an hour in the morning and we maintain that temperature until nearly midnight.
However just because it works for me, it may not work for you. A lot of this is down to living in a well insulated property so my annual gas usage is below the national average by some margin while still keeping a warm property.

Robin9

Just a thought or two

- 1)if your tariff fixes have run out then you will be on a standard tariff.

2) Estimated or actual readings ?

blade81

Hi these are actual readings. I’m on the standard BG tariff. The house is 2 bed and box room terrace two floors on the front side and three storey at the back with the basement.

The loft is insulated and I have double glazing sash windows. Al the radiators TRVs are switched off and only on in the rooms we use. What number would you reccomend putting the boiler thermostat down to? Would you also switch eco on ?
Thanks

Nikki

Robin9

blade81 wrote: »

...................... I’m on the standard BG tariff. .....................i

Why ????? Put your actual consumption into a comparison site and swop to something much cheaper. !!!!!!

[Deleted User]

@blade81
Is the ECO switch on the hot water side of the controls?
For my combi, it only affects the water. When ECO is lit, then there is no preheating of the water. The preheating action turns the boiler on once an hour for 2 minutes to heat the small amount of water in the combi. So when ECO is on, the water takes longer to heat up as it always starts from cold. It running a bath then not an issue. But for quick hand washing, you may find it a pain.
I have ECO on but it is a personal choice. It will save gas but not masses compared to the heating.

As for the heating side of the boiler, you can try a day with the thermostat turned down from MAX by 1 number so down to 5 in your case. If it doesn't work for you then turn it back up. It will not harm the boiler but by turning it down a bit, you may find the house doesn't warm up fast enough for you. Or it may.
An action plan may be
1. Take a gas meter reading last thing at night.
2. Next night last thing read the gas meter.
3. Turn the boiler heating thermostat down by 1 unit (so from the MAX of 6 to 5)
4. In the morning when you get up is the house warm enough?
5. At night at roughly the same time, read the meter again.

Has the meter reading changed massively from day 1 to day 2? So did the turn down make a difference to gas used.
At step 4, if the house is too cold for you then don't be afraid to turn the boiler back up. This is really a personal experiment of what works best for you. Sometimes we spend money on heating where others wouldn't because we have different tolerances to the cold. You also want the house to be at a safe living temperature.

matelodave

Another way to save money is to rinse stuff including your hands with cold water.

Every time you turn on the tap a combi boiler goes into full bore heating mode just to heat a small amount of water, much of which then sits in the pipework to get cold until the next time.

As others have said, turn the boiler down to 5, possibly even 4 to see what effect it has on your heating comfort and energy consumption.

Monitoring your consumption on a daily basis for a couple of weeks will give you much more info than having a panic once a quarter when a bill come in.

You could get onto a much better tariff than the BG standard one so put your annual consumption into an energy comparison site to see if you can get a better deal.

grumpycrab

matelodave wrote: »

Every time you turn on the tap a combi boiler goes into full bore heating mode

I cannot get my OH to understand this; more recent combis have an electric pre-heater to get warm/hot water to the taps a bit quicker; a better system would be to delay boiler ignition by, say, 10 seconds - to allow my OH to rinse her hands
Oh, and its not the use of gas that concerns me with combis in this situation - its the continuous cycling of relays/valves - one reason why the life of combis is limited.

st999

Another way to save money is to rinse stuff including your hands with cold water.

Yeh, try telling that to my wife.

She won't even put her hands under the water till she sees steam.
I just get I pay for the gas as well.