Help working out my gas usage....

weehamish

Hi, im not sure im being charged properly for my gas usage... it seems very high for what i use.

I only have data from the past few days as octopus site has not been tracking gas usage for a while... it seems the new stats also show usage in m3 instead of khw... which is where im struggling to get my correct usage!

So for 4hrs heating, 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon im using 1.511m3 of gas at 6.22p per khw... googling m3 , 1 unit of m3 = 10.55khw so roughly i should be using 16khw? If thats how its actually worked out, so to me thats £1 roughly per day? 

So my heating should only be £30 a month and then my cooking and showers on top and then my standing charges.

Im not sure im doing the maths correct here but thats how i look at it? 

But my bills are not adding up to that, they are way way more... it seems if i have my heating on for a full 7 hours straight my gas bill is the same too, so trying to save money by not using my heating is not even working, some days i wasnt even having my gas on or only using 2hrs of heating and nothing seems to be adding up properly.

MWT

I would use 11.2 as the multiplier as that will be closer after adjusting for calorific value.

The bills are going to be based on your meter readings so your usage as per the meter must match the bills as long as they are using actual meter readings not estimates.

Take daily meter readings for a few days and look at the actual metered usage.

QrizB

weehamish said:

So for 4hrs heating, 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon im using 1.511m3 of gas at 6.22p per khw... googling m3 , 1 unit of m3 = 10.55khw so roughly i should be using 16khw? If thats how its actually worked out, so to me thats £1 roughly per day?

Do you have a smart meter with an in-home display (IHD)?

Could you give some details of what your bills actually say?

Gerry1

Your sums are about right.  But make sure you are using the correct units - from where did you obtain the 1.511m3 figure?  The only reliable source is taking the difference in the m3 figures displayed by the meter on the wall.

If the meters are outside your property, do the Meter Sanity Test.

[Deleted User]

Just to give the OP an idea of where my gas usage is.  As a ballpark figure I am currently using ATM circa 120 units of gas per month/4 units per day (cubic metres) approx 1300-1400 kWh equivalent and this is costing me circa £55 pcm currently on my present tarriff.  For these 4 units of gas I've got heating on for about 3-4 hours per day, use a gas combi boiler for showers and hot water.  Cooking via electric.  I'd be surprised if your gas usage is only 1.511m3 per day so as others have posted you need to check the meter directly over a number of days. 

otb666

Use gas m3 reads then convert them to kwh The calculation is on you bill to do this -gas units used x 39.2 x 1.02264 divided 3.6
Once you have kwh x by prise So if 6.33p per 1kwh   eg 1 x0.0633 =£0.0633

Its best to do it the long way and a bit of a pain I agree Hope this helps

[Deleted User]

weehamish said:

So for 4hrs heating, 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon im using 1.511m3 of gas at 6.22p per khw... googling m3 , 1 unit of m3 = 10.55khw so roughly i should be using 16khw? If thats how its actually worked out, so to me thats £1 roughly per day? 

Hi,

remember to add your daily standing charge then 5% vat.

weehamish

Okay just an update for this so i dont keep people hanging if any of you were haha... Octopus worked out its 17khw so i was 1khw off! which seems pretty accurate for a bodge attempt.

SO my next question is does 17khw seem like normal usage for 4hrs heating? i know its based on my house which is unique to me but on average does 17khw seem about right for 4hrs heating? My boiler is brand new only fitted in october and its set to economy mode! 

MWT

weehamish said:

SO my next question is does 17khw seem like normal usage for 4hrs heating?

17kWh over 4 hours is not obviously an excessive amount. although it does depend upon what you are heating of course.

We used 19.7kWh over the heaviest 4 hours of our usage yesterday evening. (large 5 bed  detached house).

You could use a lot more in a bungalow with the thermostat turned up, or less in a one bed flat with good insulation. 

theoretica

17kwh for 4 hours is 4250W  - how many radiators were you running?  Hundreds to low thousands of Watts for a radiator is the right ballpark. http://simplifydiy.com/plumbing-and-heating/radiators/power 

[Deleted User]

weehamish said:

SO my next question is does 17khw seem like normal usage for 4hrs heating? i know its based on my house which is unique to me but on average does 17khw seem about right for 4hrs heating? My boiler is brand new only fitted in october and its set to economy mode! 

Personally I would be over the moon if my boiler was on for 4 hours and I only used 17kWh of Gas!  But it all depends on what the starting temperature is, whether you are tallking about 4 hours boiler on or just 4 hours where you have your thermosat programmed and whether or not you are using supplementary forms of electrical heating.  Also lots of other factors come in such as your dwelling (big/small).  How many rooms have the TRV's turned off.  Thermostat settings etc etc

To give you an idea of my situation, the boiler came on today at its normal time 0740 and brought the temperature up in my lounge to 18.0C within an hour or so.  This afternoon, the temperature dropped in the same room to about 17C so the boiler fired up again for about 30 mins to bring it back up to 18C.  I guess that after my dinner, the boiler will fire up again to get us up to 18.5C for a max of about 1 hour.  So today has been a good day consumption-wise for me (circa 2.5-3.0 hours central heating + hot water).  I should break 40 kWH for the day quite easily.  The average January consumption for me so far has been 43.82 kWh/day of gas.  In December-January I have only broken 30kWh on 4 days.

What brand boiler have you had fitted?  My present is a Baxi whereas last year (in a different house) I was using a Worcester Bosch model - no discernible difference in usage except that I am more frugal with the thermostat this year so am hoping that this year will see overall gas consumption decrease by 10-20%.  Hope this helps.