Excessive Or Normal Gas Usage? ~92664Kwh For Year

GraemeMiller

ARH_2 said:

I did a similar back-of-envelope calculation based on the information in your first post, and agree that at the rated power of your boiler it can theoretically consume that much gas, but they just don't operate at their full power all day everyday. Not much at night, not in the summer and when you can hear it going, it's not doing the full 42kW the whole time. 

When I worked for an energy supplier back in 2012, we came across a domestic customer who'd been incorrectly classified as a business customer as they had a consumption of c.90,000 kWh/year.  After some investigation, it turned out they had multiple boilers in their castle. A castle is what it takes to get through this sort of consumption. Something is wrong and until resolved it's costing you.  

Lol a castle - ok - we don't have that! That makes me feel better. Just nice to get a relative comparison that I can understand. 
Complain to Peoples Energy about a week of no response,  Service boiler, get meter tested.

merchcon55

GraemeMiller said:

So in the last hour (I ignored the first 15 minutes as the boiler goes into some sort of start-up routine), it has used 75 red units (so I think that is 75 cubic feet)
From 09:30 on 24/11/20 - it read 4609
From 14:00 on 1/12/20 - it reads 4678.80
So give or take it used 69 white units (x 100 cubic feet)
So it in the 1 hour it used 75 cubic feet
In about a week it burned 6900 cubic feet. For the week I calculate that is using gas at a rate of 40 cubic feet an hour (6900/173). I make that only 13kwh average,
I guess I just had the heating off - so the 1 hour is it kicking back in at a higher rate than normal.
Is burning 40 cubic feet an hour something a Worcester Greenstar FS 42CDi will do? It says its heat output is 42kw. Does that mean it can effectively pull 1.28 units per hour to generate 42kw and therefore it is entirely possible?  
As far as I figure that is only having the boiler running at 1/3rd of peak 24/7. That seems entirely possible to me
However, I know very little about boilers and my maths could be totally wrong

So in 1 week + a few hours (24/11 9AM to 1/12 2PM) you have used 4679 (rounded up) - 4609 = 70 units. On your bill it shows the calculations that are used to convert units to KW. While this changes through the year (expansion of gas changes with temperature I believe), I use a simplified multiplier of 31.6 - at times the actual is a bit less and at times a tad more, but on average this works. 

70 units x 31.6 = 2212 KW /  7 days = 316KW per day. 

I am currently paying 2.0835p/kw + standing charge of 26p/day - your consumption would be £6.84. Of course you will need to calculate based on your rate - there are rates that are 50% higher than my rate - if you were on one of these, the cost would be over £10 a day

If you had an older boiler, leave it on all the time and have set the thermostat at a high level - this usage is VERY POSSIBLE

We have an older Glowworm Hideaway boiler which is certainly not the most efficient thing out there. With 3 of us working from home these days, we keep the boiler on some days for 12 hours - and while we don't hit nearly £7 usage, somewhere between £4-£5 during a work day is not unexpected for us.

welshmoneylover

What is the thermostat set at? 

Sorry if I have missed it in an earlier post! 

Gerry1

Bit of a longshot, but might be worth a try because it will presumably be free.

pete-20-11

GraemeMiller said:

Gerry1 said:

You just send in the four white digits.  The industry works in hundreds of cubic feet.

When sending a gas meter reading, you shouldn't convert any readings to plain cubic feet or to kWh, or send in any kWh figure displayed by a gas meter or IHD.

The energy company will do the conversion(s) automatically.

I know. I converted to a common base so more people could comment on usage as some measure in meter vs feet.

I submitted to Peoples Energy. They didn't show me the calculation just a change to my balance. So I needed to do calculations myself to see how I went from paying £273 a month to then owing them £3700 after entering new readings. 

White numbers
1599 on 15/11/19
4609 on 24/11/20 09:30
4640 on 27/11/20
4673 on 30/11/20 23:32

Is 1599 a typo or a misread? Should it be 4599? 

stewie_griffin

pete-20-11 said:

GraemeMiller said:

Gerry1 said:

You just send in the four white digits.  The industry works in hundreds of cubic feet.

When sending a gas meter reading, you shouldn't convert any readings to plain cubic feet or to kWh, or send in any kWh figure displayed by a gas meter or IHD.

The energy company will do the conversion(s) automatically.

I know. I converted to a common base so more people could comment on usage as some measure in meter vs feet.

I submitted to Peoples Energy. They didn't show me the calculation just a change to my balance. So I needed to do calculations myself to see how I went from paying £273 a month to then owing them £3700 after entering new readings. 

White numbers
1599 on 15/11/19
4609 on 24/11/20 09:30
4640 on 27/11/20
4673 on 30/11/20 23:32

Is 1599 a typo or a misread? Should it be 4599? 

I think you've misread the first date.

theoretica

Multiplying up this weeks usage to a year gives about 3328 - not wildly off what you apparently used last year.  But why should the boiler have been working that much all year round?  I think getting the boiler serviced and assessed and at the same time the control system looked at is a wise next step.  Did the boiler run much over the summer or didn't you notice?  I can imaging something going on with controls where the radiators switched off but the boiler kept generating hot water because of the timer or thermostat depending on how your heating controls work. 

My parent's boiler a dripping hot tap was enough to set it thinking it needed to be in heating water mode.  Which is possibly point 5 to rule out - does the boiler keep going into hot water mode when the taps are off, maybe thanks to a plumbing leak.

macman

42kW is the boiler peak rating for hot water output. It won't use anything like that just to heat the CH circuit. 

[Deleted User]

Most most of us do not live in a granite 250M2 building with high ceilings in the cold, wet and windy NE coast of Scotland. The WB 42 boiler is a big beast that within 10 minutes of ignition is consuming 48.3kWs of gas per hour (according to installation guide). The simple answer is to ask the supplier for the historical Annual Quantity for the property (historical usage data going back 70 years). My guess is that it will be high. Yes, the WB boiler will modulate down to c.10kWs but not immediately. The AQ will at least tell the OP whether his annual consumption is outwith what was used previously.