Can this be right - hours cost of gas?!

confused.com2

Hello,
I'm not particularly savvy when it comes to gas/electricity but learning more due to the current situation!
I'm with Octopus and have a smart meter. Came home from work and my gas was showing as 0.29p used which will mainly be the standing charge. Popped the heating on (gas boiler, 4 years old, new house, 4 bedrooms) and just over an hour later it's saying I've used £1.44 in gas! Surely not? If that's the case it'll never be going on again! 

Is this possible to use £1.15 in an hour on central heating?!

Gerry1

If it's a 20kW boiler then it would be certainly possible at the capped SVT rate, probably a whisker over 7p/kWh.

However, it probably won't output at 20kW all the time, only while it's warming the house up to the desired temperature.

confused.com2

Gerry1 said:

If it's a 20kW boiler then it would be certainly possible at the capped SVT rate, probably a whisker over 7p/kWh.

However, it probably won't output at 20kW all the time, only while it's warming the house up to the desired temperature.

Thanks, how do you know what kW the boiler is please?
I need a sit down with these costs, going back off now!

Gerry1

Search online for the make and model number, or refer to the instruction booklet.  A 4-bed house is likely to have a bigger boiler so 20kW or more is to be expected.

Don't panic, leave it on and watch the hourly consumption fall as the temperature levels out.

You'll find your car does the same thing, the economy figure may drop to 10MPG or whatever if you put your foot down and roar away from the lights, but that doesn't mean your overall figure will be 10MPG.

markin

Is it a combi and you ran a tap? Or was it completely off and it includes heating a tank back to temp?

You can run the flow temp at 55c to save gas, but as said the second hr should be far less.

Astria

I've seen £1 used up in an hour, but then only £2 used up for the entire day.

So how much did it use in total for the day?

Typically the longer you leave it off far, the more it'll use in the first hour, as the house will be cooler.

macman

It won't be outputting anywhere near 20kW just to run the CH. So it's likely that you either ran a bath or shower, if a combi, or that the DHW was also switched on and heated up a full hot tank, if a system boiler.
You are not going to find a  cheaper way of heating than mains gas, so it's not practical to talk about it 'never going on again'.

northernsoul

My Vaillant 837 28kw boiler for the first hour uses between 9.13kwh at 60C to 14.32kwh at 70C. So, respectively , at 7.28p/kWh costs 66p to £1.04 for 1st hour.
It gradually ramps down , until when the house is at required temperature and the fabric of the building is warm , uses between 2.48kwh and 2.93kwh costing between 18p (boiler set at 60C) and 21p per hour (boiler set at 66C).
The higher the boiler temperature the more it uses for the first hour but the quicker the house heats up.

Spies

Mine used 43p for the first hour of trying to increase the temperature up to 19c, second and third hours were 33 and 34p.

My flow temp is around 60c and its 28kw max on the CH side. 

Gerry1

northernsoul said:

It gradually ramps down , until when the house is at required temperature and the fabric of the building is warm, uses between 0.22kwh and 0.26kwh costing between 16p (boiler set at 60C) and 21p per hour (boiler set at 66C).

Did you mean 'uses between 2.2kW and 2.6kW costing between 16p (boiler set at 60C) and 21p per hour (boiler set at 66C)'?

northernsoul

Sorry, my mistake , quoted m3 instead of kWh and somehow used them as kwh.
Should be - used between 2.48kwh and 2.93kwh costing between 18p (boiler at 60C) and 21p per hour (boiler set at 66C)
My many spreadsheets are calculated using the old tarrif of 3.94p so had to re calculate