Gas usage is c38k kw/h per year

MrCurlyWurly

Hello all

With the joyous news of a 54% increase in gas prices, I've become more energy concious. We live in an Edwardian 6 bed which has had loft insulation, thermal boarding on some walls etc. EPC certificate (when we were thinking of selling) gave it a high 'C'. We have a gas cooker, gas oven, gas fires and central heating - so lots of gas usage and my dad lives with us and being 84, tends to have his gas fire on most of the day and doesn't go out much. Anyway, checked my EDF bill (on a tarif until August) and we used over 38,000 kw/h of gas from Jan 21 to Jan 22.  Turns out a HIGH usage is anything over 17,000 kw/h so I'm a little taken aback! What are others typical usages?

Robin9

Yes thats high - but having a gas fire on will explain a lot - and you do have a big, old house. 17,000 is typically 3 bed.


Is the bill based on Actual or Estimated reading ?

euronorris

Wow, that does seem a lot! Just been checking ours, and it was around 10,300 between September 2020 and August 2021. But we're in a well insulated, new build, 2 bedroom coach house. Which is very different to your setup. My sister lives in an older 4 bedroom house, and their usage is around 13,000. They did have to get their supplier to sort it out though, as despite them having a smart meter installed, they were using estimates to produce her bills for a while and estimated her usage at 26,000!!! So my first question to you would be, are you providing meter readings, or are they going off of estimates?

MrCurlyWurly

We're on a smart meter from October 21 so it'll be accurate. I guess it's one of those things. Tough for a a lot of people I'm sure. Thanks for the reply!

MWT

Well, 'typical' use is 12,000kWh, my elderly father-in-law gets through around 45,000kWh in his 3-bed bungalow for similar reasons to your dad.

You use is very high but believable.

For savings I would focus on what you can do to make your dad feel warmer while having the fire on less.

Since you describe it as a 'gas fire' can we assume it is an older unit using a chimney for vent perhaps?

If so, eliminating that fire and extending the central heating into that area would likely deliver great results.

Leebobs

MrCurlyWurly said:

Hello all

With the joyous news of a 54% increase in gas prices

A few other posts are suggesting that whilst the average duel fuel increase will be 54%, it will actually be about a 90% increase in gas and a 34% increase in electricity.

As such your bill may rise by an awful lot more, as the average is calculated based on 12,000KWh of Gas.

Robin9

MrCurlyWurly said:

We're on a smart meter from October 21 so it'll be accurate.........

Don't assume that the supplier is using the Smart readings !    Read it your self and see how the figures compare.  As there has been  a  meter change make sure it has been recorded correctly - check serial numbers, numbers on the stick left by the installer. As it would (probably) have read 0000.0 in October it should easy to check your consumption since then.

FreeBear

MrCurlyWurly said: Turns out a HIGH usage is anything over 17,000 kw/h so I'm a little taken aback! What are others typical usages?

3 bed, pre-war semi. Current supplier estimates my annual gas consumption at ~6700KWh. Actual readings are a bit lower, but we have had a very mild winter so far.

euronorris

MrCurlyWurly said:

We're on a smart meter from October 21 so it'll be accurate. I guess it's one of those things. Tough for a a lot of people I'm sure. Thanks for the reply!

Not necessarily. Like I said, my sister has a smart meter and yet they were still using estimates to prepare her bills, rather than the meter readings that were readily available to them. She had to get them to sort it out. She's also with EDF, for info, so def check on your bill that they have used meter readings and not estimates!

MrCurlyWurly

I've checked the bill and it states 'Our read' so I'm assuming it's accurate. Thanks for your help - looks like we don't have a big gas leak venting into space like Apollo 13. MWT said:

For savings I would focus on what you can do to make your dad feel warmer while having the fire on less.

Since you describe it as a 'gas fire' can we assume it is an older unit using a chimney for vent perhaps?

If so, eliminating that fire and extending the central heating into that area would likely deliver great results.

That's correct - an older unit going up a chimney. We're considering replacing with a small multi-fuel burner

theoretica

A 6 bed house is considerably above average - so not surprising your heating bill is too -  if all the rooms are in use then the use per person may be more average. 

How smart is your heating control system?  How efficient are the gas fires?