Is my gas CH really this cheap ?

[Deleted User] · 19 October 2021 at 10:28AM

I put my gas CH on yesterday for 1/2 hour and according to my on-line BRIGHT app - that half hour cost me just 14p

My boiler is a Worcester greenstar junior 28i and it is 15 years old - I am extremely surprised at its low consumption

This is the first time that I have had it running when on a smart meter

We are paying 3.010 p per unit

Gerry1 · 19 October 2021 at 10:35AM

Half an hour is far too short as an evaluation period, especially when the weather is unusually mild.

It's like noticing your car is giving you 99.9mpg for a few moments when coasting downhill.

QrizB · 19 October 2021 at 10:42AM

Deleted_User said:

I put my gas CH on yesterday for 1/2 hour and according to my on-line BRIGHT app - that half hour cost me just 14p
My boiler is a Worcester greenstar junior 28i and it is 15 years old - I am extremely surprised at its low consumption
This is the first time that I have had it running when on a smart meter
We are paying 3.010 p per unit

Your boiler is rated at 28kW. If it ran flat out for an hour it would cost 28 x 3 = 84p. But it won't run flat out so you'll use less gas and spend less than that. The average output for your 30 minute run was closer to 10kW.

Gas at 3p/kWh is cheap heat.

[Deleted User] · 19 October 2021 at 3:05PM

wittynamegoeshere said:

14p per half hour
28p per hour
£2.80 over 10 hours heat per day
£1,022 per year
Yes it sounds reasonable, the weather at the moment is probably something like average - it will be working much harder in the depths of winter but will be off in summer.
It's a lot like how estate agents switched from quoting rents monthly to weekly when the price got embarassingly high. If you split any massive amount down into small enough time periods you can make it sound cheap!

Try about £400 pa -that's our dual fuel bill!!
We don't leave the heating running for 10 hrs per day - more like 10 hours per week

whirlyhead · 19 October 2021 at 3:08PM

I have a similar boiler - worcester greenstar highflow 440, also 15 years old. It's more expensive than that to run - last winter with it on for 4-5 hours a day, it cost me about £128 a month. And my house is well insulated too. I hate to imagine what it's going to cost this winter...