Mega high gas reading (bill)

Carrot007

JGB1955 said:

21C overnight is probably a huge part of your problem. We have 19C during the day and 15C overnight. Basically the boiler never comes on between 22:00 and 06:30. Our gas bill is never more than £60  even in the coldest months. It goes down to less than £20 in the summer. Averages out at less than £400 p.a.

But on the downside you are cold?

Still some odd people like to wear clothes in the house also ;-) (I'm just saying I like it around 24 in the house).

Still only use around 15000 gas though. Maybe OP has a mansion or a stone cottage.

(I do use 16 or something close in the night and it never comes on (unless I decide to get up and put it on!)

davie-85

I have TRVs on all radiators yes. So I’m being a bit silly and heating the whole house all day while I work from home in one room when I could shut these off in the other rooms of the house most of the time. God I feel like a total weapon now 🤦🏼‍♂️

Sorry Gerry don’t have those original numbers on me just now.

Tallerdave

Gas usage can be incredibly weather dependent if your insulation isn't top-notch.  In the second week of Feb we used 2100kWh whilst in the last week of Feb we used 1040kWh.  The heating programme never changed - the only variable was the weather.  In the height of summer, usage drops to 50kWh a week which is just the hot water.  We're getting through 42,000kWh a year - 33,000kWh Oct-Mar, 9,000kWh Apr - Sep.  That's for a five bed place with large kitchen extension.

A previous 4 bed detached property I lived in got through 26,000kWh a year and that was kept quite warm 24/7.

davie-85

And actually the energy provider installed new meters round about when I moved in. Probably when they installed smart meter. So numbers will have been reset I imagine.

cannugec5

I’m in Scotland too. We are both retired so at home all day. The heating is set at 21 degrees for an hour morning and evening. The rest of the day is at 18 and 11 overnight. 

Even with that we have our bedroom windows constantly open. 

The spare bedrooms have the TVR’s set at ‘frost’ - especially during this time of no visitors. 

We are not cold. We are perfectly comfortable but we do keep ourselves active. 

Flash32

We have a three-bed house with a fairly large single-storey extension.  Not particularly well insulated.  Last month we used 2090 kWh of gas.  As with a previous post, we have our stat set to 19C and during the cold spell, we left the heating on all the time, but reduced the setting to 15.5C overnight.  Due to lockdown we were in virtually the whole time and we are both retired.  Our gas bill was £58 last month and our annual gas usage is around 11,000 kWh per year.  We also cook with gas (a lot), but we do live in the South.  Even so, 30,000 kWh in six months is a LOT for a 3-bed house with good insulation.  We do have a modern condensing boiler though. 

Has your boiler been serviced recently?  If the burner or heat exchanger is clogged, this will cause a drop in efficiency.  Depending on how old the boiler is and how well maintained it is, this is likely to be the cause as older boilers are notoriously inefficient.  Unless it's been recently serviced, I suggest you get a reputable local Gas-Safe plumber to have a look at it (not one of the big national companies - all they will want to do is to sell you a new boiler).  Faulty meters are very rare - not completely unknown, but gas meters usually under-read in my experience, not over-read.  Also make sure you have a good digital thermostat, which will control the temperature accurately to your setting and reduce your hot water setting to around 50-55C, which will reduce losses from the hot water system.  Remember too that heat loss is directly proportional to the difference in temperature, so putting on a jumper and reducing the stat setting makes a big difference to the bill.

matelodave

You do well to start reading your meter a bit more often than just once in six months, every month would be good and would give you a much better idea of how much you are using and when.Send the readings in monthly as well and check your bills/on line statements. Dont just rely on hoping that the smart meter is doing it for you.

As others have said, don't flog the heating all day - get a programmable thermostat and have variable temperatures depending on what you are doing and when. You could have it set a bit lower during the day when you are active, higher in the evening when watching the telly and down low or even off overnight when you are tucked up in bed.
You could save a hell of a lot more money by sorting the controls out and setting them more efficiently than spending £2k or more in changing out the boiler.

Hot water is another user of energy that a lot of people dont seem to understand. Is you hot tank and the pipework in the tank cupboard insulated - if not or if its not ever so good then you can lose a lot of heat. makes sure that you are only heating the tank once or twice a day for an hour or so. Letting the boiler keep topping the tank  wastes lots of heat. 

Use hot water more efficiently, dont waste it by letting it run down the sink, rinse stuff in cold, don't do short run-offs of hot water. Take shorter showers and shallower baths and fewer of them.

Lastly, make sure that you are on a decent tariff and not spending more than you need

Petriix

21 degrees is tropical. I would be in shorts and a t-shirt in the day and sweating buckets all night. We have ours set to 17.5 degrees in the day and basically off overnight. We wear jumpers if we're cold and light the wood burner on cold evenings.

We aren't cold all the time. We just have a simple rule that you can't complain about the temperature if you're not wearing a jumper. If we feel cold then we'll crank the heating up by a degree or two, but the smart thermostat defaults to returning to its programmed setting after 1 hour so it remains a conscious choice to make it warm.

Our consumption is around 7000kWh for a 3 bed terrace with a fairly big flat-roof extension.

davie-85

Cheers for all the advice guys much appreciated. I’m a house money/ energy saving noob.

davie-85

Found out the usage for the past year on my Scottish Power account and I've used around 41,000kWh gas only (electricity is only 2200kWh) over the past 12months.  So that seems pretty high, but as I say have been silly the past year leaving heating on all night, having it too high etc anyway so will sort these issues.  Also had the boiler serviced last month so that should help.  Will be getting a modern condensing boiler when this one packs in (or when I have enough spare cash...).
Thanks again for the help guys.