Very high gas usage - help

TrevS_4

Hi all

I like many are assessing their energy usage at the moment. After reviewing my energy statements over the past 12 months we are worried about our gas usage. We have a 4-bed detached house and our estimated energy usage is 4980 kWh for electricity and 31700 kWh for gas per year.

We have a 40kw combi boiler for heating and hot water but all cooking etc is done on electric. We do leave the heating on throughout the day due to home working but I am currently being much more cautious by reducing the thermostat temp down etc.

Can someone tell me if 31,700 kWh a high number for a detached property? According to British Gas the average consumption for a large 5 bed house is around 17,000 kWh per year. So, our usage seems very high.

Also is there any way I can test usage e.g. take a meter reading each day for a week or purchase some kind of smart meter to help monitor the usage?

Thanks

Trevor

jimjames

Yes it is quite high. We use around 21000 kWh for similar but by careful use of thermostat have significantly reduced it over the last few years from much the same as you.

Worth recording meter readings over a few days/weeks but we are getting to the time of year when gas use will drop. have you checked they used actual readings not estimates?

Robin9

Not only is your gas very high but so is your electric  - should be under 4000 KWh

Slinky

We have a 4 bed link detached, and use about 15,500kwh with a 30 year old boiler which will be replaced this year. We're at home most of the day, but the heating is on from 6am (7am at weekends) til 9am, and 5pm-7pm. Yes it can get a little chilly before the heating is due to come on, but thermals and jumpers, plus fingerless gloves get well used in this house. We've recently had new double glazing and get good heating with solar gain on sunny days.

So yes, I'd say your costs are very high.

We're working on our electric, got that down from 3600 to under 3000 and hopefully even less.

JGB1955

Are you sure that your meter is reading cubic metres (m3) rather than cubic feet (f3)?  

lisyloo

Yes it seems high to me.
we have a large 5 bed and use less than you (before we were economising).

Do you have double glazing?
cavity wall insulation? Loft insulation?
what temp do you have heating on?

ours is set to 18.5 daytime (I think that makes it about 19.3) and 15 overnight

TrevS_4

I am trying to work out if the issue is us, meter, boiler etc that's causing the high usage so any recommendations on how to test would be useful. I am just about to order a smart thermostat to help better schedule and monitor the heating but not sure how much we could reduce our overall consumption, 10-20% possibly at best but we are about 85% over what British Gas quote as an average use for 5 bed house which seems like a lot.

TrevS_4

We are probably guilty of having the heating on too high. I am now running the heating at 19. The house was renovated about a year and half ago and had the roof replaced with new insulation etc and we had brand new windows and doors fitted throughout. We did have a new gas meter and pipes installed as part of the work so I checked that our meter number matches what's on the statement from Octopus energy. 

thebullsback

25773 Gas
3164 Elec 
This is for a retired couple living in a 1900 built mid terrace 2 bedroom house .Heating and washing curtesy of Baxi Platinum   28kw Combi  cooking also  done via gas .
Always been careful  with heating Electric runs washing machine most days American style fridge freezer also built in Fridge ,wine cooler ,DE Humidifier approx  2.5 mths a year All lighting LED   

theoretica

How much of the house are you using for most of the day, and how much of the house are you heating? 

Slinky

It's the having the heating on all day that's causing a large part of it. I'd like to have mine on all day, but I don't want to pay for it.