Gas usage is too high!

trina2782

I've just moved into a rented property with a prepaid smart meter, my gas credit is going down alarmingal fast so I've looked into my usage and on one day I used 65 kWh of gas when I had all the radiators turned down and the boiler at about 50 degrees my heating was only on for 4 hours and I used the shower for about 20mins - is this too high? My energy supplier said when my heating came on it was a steep incline not a gradual one as they'd expect so could there be an issue with my boiler? I've spoken to my agent about it requesting I have this checked and she said no one in the property had reported this issue before. I'm really worried as I'm a single parent with 2 young children and can't afford that level of gas usage! 😰

MWT

You don't mention how large the property is, but just as a comparison point, that sort of usage is roughly the same as ours and we run the heating 24/7 with the room thermostat set to 20C. This is for a 5 bedroom house with good insulation, double glazing etc. and radiators in all rooms.

Can you give more details on the type of boiler you have and if you also use it for hot water (likely), size of property, number of radiators etc.

Setting the boiler to 50 degrees may not be helping either as that is low if this is a typical system feeding radiators around a largish property and hot water via and indirect cylinder...

Gerry1

Did you get a new key? If you're using the one from the previous tenant you could be paying their arrears.  You'd be better off with a credit meter and then switching suppliers, your kWh rates are probably crippingly expensive.  Even if you don't change the meter you can still switch supplier, although you'll never get the cheapest deal with pre-paid.

PennineAcute

If it is cold, I can use 45kWh a day.  That is heating, shower and cooker.  Cooker uses around 2kWh a day and shower between 3 and 4.  This is for a ground floor, one bed flat.

For me, that is around £1.40 a day.  On prepay rates it would be a lot more.

trina2782

It's a fairly small 2 bed end terraced with a little kitchen extension it has 6 radiators but the one in the upstairs hallway is off, yes the boiler does run the hot water and I have that turned right down too as the water was coming out steaming hot but even though I've turned it down the water is just as hot! I'm not sure what type of boiler I have my agent is trying to get me a manual but I haven't heard back on that yet. 
The supplier reset my meters when I moved in so I don't think it's from the previous tenant and I'm trying to move/change meter but my supplier won't let me change to credit meters until I've been with them 3 months and struggling to find anyone cheaper who can support my smart prepay meter! 
The more I look into it the more I feel this kind of usage for such a short period of heating means there is something not right somewhere.

Gerry1

You don't turn the boiler down to reduce the HW temperature.  There's likely to be thermostat strapped around the tank.  Hopefully your tank is insulated !

victor2

trina2782 said:

It's a fairly small 2 bed end terraced with a little kitchen extension it has 6 radiators but the one in the upstairs hallway is off, yes the boiler does run the hot water and I have that turned right down too as the water was coming out steaming hot but even though I've turned it down the water is just as hot! I'm not sure what type of boiler I have my agent is trying to get me a manual but I haven't heard back on that yet. 
The supplier reset my meters when I moved in so I don't think it's from the previous tenant and I'm trying to move/change meter but my supplier won't let me change to credit meters until I've been with them 3 months and struggling to find anyone cheaper who can support my smart prepay meter! 
The more I look into it the more I feel this kind of usage for such a short period of heating means there is something not right somewhere.

If you look at the boiler, it should have the manufacturer's name on it and a model number somewhere. GIven that, you might be able to find a user manual for it on t'internet, or someone here may provide one. If it's a combi boiler there will not necessarily be a hot water tank, so the water temperature will be controlled by the boiler.

Heating a cold house does use a lot of gas, especially in the first couple of hours, while the boiler is effectively running flat out.

Do you have a central thermostat for the central heating temperature, or does the system rely on thermostatic valves on the radiators - you could have both? Either way, check your settings and turn down radiators in rooms you don't need to heat much if you can.

st999

When my heating comes on in the morning it takes about an hour to an hour and a half to raise the temperature from 15 deg C to 21 deg C so of course the boiler is running at maximum gas usage for that time.

dogshome

I'm not familiar with Paygo meters, but is it possible that is set to charge at the Imperial rate of 31.5 Kw per unit, when it is in fact Metric that delivers only 11.2 Kw?

Gerry1

Surely an Imperial smart meter is a contradiction in terms?