Very high gas usage - help

lisyloo

You don’t by any chance have a hot tub?

Ally_E.

It depends on what your house is built from. Modern cavity walls with insulation vs solid brick walls will have a big difference in heat retention. Our gas usage is around 26000 in a 3 bed detached house, but it still has original single glazing, is solid brick walls and hasn't been properly draft-proofed. It also had an open fireplace for a part of the winter. We moved in not so long ago and still have a lot of work to do to get it to a more energy efficient place and hope to reduce the usage. We keep it around 18-19 during the day and 15 at night. We also work from home. 

bagand96

TrevS_4 said:

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. 

I think it's been mentioned already but worth re-iterating.... Have you checked that Octopus are calculating your gas use in the correct units? Especially if you had a meter changed. 

Older gas meters record in hundreds of cubic ft (ft3) whereas newer ones record in cubic meters (m3). Your meter will show the units, your bill will show the calculation. It's not unheard of for it to be wrong. 

jimjames

TrevS_4 said:

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.

As per previous reply taking very regular readings would be a good place to start as well as checking meter is in same units as the bill. But the numbers are not so far out to be unbelievable especially if you have heating on all time. 

Section62

Benny2020 said:

If everybody did then we would not need new nuclear.
Today was overcast and dull with rain but i still managed 3kwh into my hot water tank and no power taken from the grid.

Has someone invented solar panels that work at night then?

Section62

Mstty said:

Let's not get into the "every new house should be forced to have solar panels" it's a no brainer and the profits the house builders make they should be made to put them on every house. Imagine a bulk install costs probably only 2.5k per house.

People tend to overestimate how much profit housebuilders make per unit. The more demands the government make, the more expensive new homes become.

Far from being a "no brainer", putting solar panels on every new house would be a waste of resources. There are more intelligent and efficient ways of increasing total solar generation, rather than randomly placing small installations in non-optimal locations.

Section62

TrevS_4 said:

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...

If you are running the heating all day because you are at home working then it isn't clear how a smart thermostat will help reduce consumption much. A better investment might be making the heating more zonal, or heating the work space by alternative means.

Benny2020

Like by using excess solar generation like i am doing right now, generating 1.02kw and using a 600w oil filled radiator under my desk, and still putting 200w into hot water.

Section62

Benny2020 said:

Like by using excess solar generation like i am doing right now, generating 1.02kw and using a 600w oil filled radiator under my desk, and still putting 200w into hot water.

How does that use of solar eliminate the need for new nuclear?

Benny2020

Micro generation vs macro generation, i guess you and i are in different camps.