High gas usage

QrizB

Alnat1 said:

The meter readings look like those of someone who had quite a lot of heating on over winter.
See if you can work out a plan to turn the boiler off for 24 hours and check meter readings at start and finish.

I was going to suggest turning the gas off at the meter for a day.

theoretica

You usage pattern is higher in winter than summer, so it doesn't like like a leak. If you think the meter might be over-reading then it might be worth changing to a smart one as the easy way to get a new meter.

gazapc

mjdrae said:

I will try some of the suggestions and maybe see how next 12 months go.
My next issue is finding a new supplier... 

FYI, over the next 12 months, if your usage stays at ~29,000 kWh of gas then your annual gas bill be pushing £4,000 once October prices are taken into account.

If you've got money to burn (literally) OK, but I would certaintly not be waiting 12 months....

Fiddling around with flow temperatures wont have that big a drop. Something big is using heat. Even your July usage, when there is no heating, is the same as letting a shower run for about an hour every single day.

Mstty

mjdrae said:

Mstty said:

mjdrae said:

Mstty said:

mjdrae said:

victor2 said:

So it is an imperial meter. Quite old and I would have thought about due for replacement, but that's another issue, unless it's faulty of course.

The bill above looks a bit odd. It says 31 days standing charge, but there's only 26 days between the readings. Other than that, the calculation of the kWh looks OK. You have used 32kWh of gas per day in that period. Seems a bit high, but I assume that is mainly hot water for showers or baths.

You could check how much gas a shower or bath uses by taking meter readings before and after. Multiply the difference in the readings by 32 and you'll get a very close conversion to kWh.

It is impossible to comment on the supplier's estimate of your annual usage unless you have actual readings close to a year apart.

Edit: If you do take meter readings for something like a shower, you'll need to record the fractions (red digits and possibly even the dial) to get a more accurate result.

Does this help. Also worth noting I'm currently £410 in credit and expect that to be well over £500 by end of contract this month.

Wow is that 26000 kWh of gas a year.

So what have you look d at the reduce gas usage?

We had a log burner fitted 18mths ago. The heating is very rarely on these days and then it's just hot water. We have an electric range oven.
I'm hopeful that making changes will reduce it considerably but it just feels too high for what we use.

Have you taken any of the actions suggested in this post like reducing hot water temp?

Does the household take a lot of baths?

I presume the showers are not electric showers and are fed from the hot water cylinder?

Yes... turned the temp down tonight. I'd say only 1 bath a week. Mostly showers and direct from boiler.

Daily readings are key now you have turned the hot water temp down.

It's up to you whether you heat the tank all day or once. It does cost more to heat all day so it might be worth having a play there and monitoring usage.

victor2

Mstty said:

mjdrae said:

Mstty said:

mjdrae said:

Mstty said:

mjdrae said:

victor2 said:

So it is an imperial meter. Quite old and I would have thought about due for replacement, but that's another issue, unless it's faulty of course.

The bill above looks a bit odd. It says 31 days standing charge, but there's only 26 days between the readings. Other than that, the calculation of the kWh looks OK. You have used 32kWh of gas per day in that period. Seems a bit high, but I assume that is mainly hot water for showers or baths.

You could check how much gas a shower or bath uses by taking meter readings before and after. Multiply the difference in the readings by 32 and you'll get a very close conversion to kWh.

It is impossible to comment on the supplier's estimate of your annual usage unless you have actual readings close to a year apart.

Edit: If you do take meter readings for something like a shower, you'll need to record the fractions (red digits and possibly even the dial) to get a more accurate result.

Does this help. Also worth noting I'm currently £410 in credit and expect that to be well over £500 by end of contract this month.

Wow is that 26000 kWh of gas a year.

So what have you look d at the reduce gas usage?

We had a log burner fitted 18mths ago. The heating is very rarely on these days and then it's just hot water. We have an electric range oven.
I'm hopeful that making changes will reduce it considerably but it just feels too high for what we use.

Have you taken any of the actions suggested in this post like reducing hot water temp?

Does the household take a lot of baths?

I presume the showers are not electric showers and are fed from the hot water cylinder?

Yes... turned the temp down tonight. I'd say only 1 bath a week. Mostly showers and direct from boiler.

Daily readings are key now you have turned the hot water temp down.

It's up to you whether you heat the tank all day or once. It does cost more to heat all day so it might be worth having a play there and monitoring usage.

OP said it's a combi boiler, so the most it will be doing is preheating it's own little reserve, if it has such a facility.

Alnat1

We had one of those pre-heat tanks in a previous property, turned it off.

Also, washing hands in cold water so the combi boiler doesn't fire up saves quite a bit but you have to get into the habit,  everyone on board.

Mstty

Sorry missed the combi boiler bit. Yep temp reduction is a good start and measure your meter usage daily to see the effect.

Optimistic_Gardener

Alnat1 said:

We had one of those pre-heat tanks in a previous property, turned it off.

Also, washing hands in cold water so the combi boiler doesn't fire up saves quite a bit but you have to get into the habit,  everyone on board.

Hello, sorry to jump in on this. 
We have a similar issue as the OP, old house, sash windows, which though lovely are losing their appeal with v.high fuel bills. 

We also have an unvented tank, which we had installed to improve the water pressure when we moved in. Is this the same as a pre-heat tank and Would it make a difference to turn this off - presuming that's possible?

Also, our boiler is an old Baxi combi, but reading other forums it seems the cost of replacing it wouldn't make that much difference to our bills? Our gas meter is M3 but British Gas always question the meter reading when I submit every month "saying it doesn't look right". We were moved to BG after Zebra went bust... Thanks and apologies to OP

Alnat1

The small pre-heat tanks sit inside the boiler and usually hold a couple of litres of water. The boiler will fire up every hour or so to keep this water hot, a bit like boiling a kettle every hour for no good reason.

It means if you wanted to wash up, the water is hot instantly instead of having to run it for a minute until the hot comes through. Simpler to turn it off and actually boil a kettle for water when you do need it.

BUFF

Optimistic_Gardener said:

We also have an unvented tank, which we had installed to improve the water pressure when we moved in. Is this the same as a pre-heat tank and Would it make a difference to turn this off - presuming that's possible?

Also, our boiler is an old Baxi combi, but reading other forums it seems the cost of replacing it wouldn't make that much difference to our bills? 

How is your unvented tank heated? (it would be unusual for a combi to do this)
How old is your Baxi (& model no. ideally) & what controls do you have throughout the house (programmer, room 'stat, TRVs)