Huge Gas Usage of 32,000 kWh per year - Help !

tiya1990

Hello  ( OP here !) 

I have added screenshots of the Smart Meter for Gas Usage . Electricity Usage on the next post.

 I have also added screenshots of 2 subsequent weeks to give an idea about what the consumption is like though higher than usual as teenagers at home. 
The arrows on 2nd July is the first day that the house was unoccupied and the arrow on the 24th July - 9pm - when we got back. 

Hot Water - our water was being heated twice a day between 5am - 8am and 5pm - 10pm even when we were away according to OH .

We have an immersion heater but have used this only twice in 9 years - switch is off - I have checked. 

tiya1990

Attached is our electricity consumption - The spikes on 2-3 days a week after our return are due to electric car charging - takes around 4 hours to charge enough for 120 - 130  miles . OH does 60 miles per day . 

2 subsequent weeks attached to show normal usage though higher at present due to school holidays with teenagers and a gaming PC !

bagand96

tiya1990 said:

Hot Water - our water was being heated twice a day between 5am - 8am and 5pm - 10pm even when we were away according to OH .

I would definitely try and reduce that.  You know your family's routines best, but it's unlikely you need to have the water on for 8 hours a day.  As another poster said before, your water is thermostatically controlled so the boiler won't be running the whole 8 hours, but it could easily be cycling on and off to warm the tank up, when in reality the water would be warm enough anyway.  Your cylinder looked fairly modern so should be fairly well insulated.  Perhaps try cutting an hour off the morning and 2 hours off the evening and see how you go.  If you run out of hot water then fine, adjust it back.  If you don't, consider reducing further.  

As an example, I took your Gas use from when you were away and compared it to the temperature recorded in Birmingham on those days.

Date	kWh	Temp
2nd July	23.28	16
3rd July	23.99	18
4th July	22.68	19
5th July	23.08	20
6th July	19.94	22
7th July	19.16	22
8th July	15.64	26
9th July	14.32	24
10th July	12.66	28
11th July	9.4	29
12th July	8.74	25
13th July	11.39	23
14th July	13.41	21
15th July	16.11	23
16th July	13.92	26
17th July	10.25	30
18th July	8.58	36
19th July	6.79	37
20th July	7.5	26
21st July	15.5	20
22nd July	17.25	22
23rd July	18.53	22
24th July	17.7	24

It's obvious that on the hottest days (and there were some scorchers!) less gas was used.  That's because the water cylinder would be losing less heat, because the house was warmer.  But a lot of Gas kWh were wasted heating a water cylinder that no-one was using!  Lowest day was 6.79 kWh, which may have just been the pilot light sat there quietly doing it's thing - although even on that day I bet some energy was used to heat water so the pilot light is probably under 4/5 kWh a day.

I agree with other posters, a new condensing boiler is probably the way to go here, but I still reckon reducing the time you have your water on will also help a bit and could be done today for free!

macman

DHW being left on (why?) for 22 days absence in July would at least explain why the gas consumption was so high: the pilot light accounts for some of that, but obviously not all.
theoretica, one-nil to you.

MuckChucker

I know everybody's household is different but heating the water that much seems insane to me. We've (2 adults, 2 kids - 1970s 4 bed semi) a new system boiler and cylinder since Jan and the water gets heated for 30 mins, 5 days a week - 16:30 in the day just in time for kids showers/bath. There's still enough for a face splash next morning or usual kitchen wipe downs the following day. Electric shower for the adults as the cylinder fed one is only about belly button height. We do 3.0 to 4.0kwh on those days of use in the last few months. Even the old 30+yr old boiler it replaced only went on for 1 hour twice a day and that's only because I never played with it too much.

Magnitio

tiya1990

Hi,

Do you notice whether the boiler runs continuously during the period that you have set the hot water to be on?

I noticed that the setting on your boiler is very low. Was it set like that by the person who serviced your boiler? This could result in the output temperature from your boiler being lower than the thermostat setting on the hot water tank, so the boiler would run continuously based on the timer. Another possibility is that the three-way valve is malfunctioning and not sending all of the hot water from the boiler through the coil in the hot water tank; again this would result in the boiler running for much longer.

welshblob

Fya I believe the FF280 will have a electronic ignition so no pilot light. I have the FF230 and it's a good boiler but not as efficient as more modern ones. I have had problems with the 3 way valve corroding and getting stuck and you can tell as the rads get hot when it's only supposed to be heating the water. I'd definitely reduce the hot water heating times as they are way too long and will waste energy. Also check the thermostat is working on the hot water tank and insulate it with a cylinder jacket if it hasn't got one already. If you haven't got it already then get hive or nest as you can turn the schedule off remotely if you forget to do it before going on vacation.

macman

welshblob said:

Fya I believe the FF280 will have a electronic ignition so no pilot light. I have the FF230 and it's a good boiler but not as efficient as more modern ones. I have had problems with the 3 way valve corroding and getting stuck and you can tell as the rads get hot when it's only supposed to be heating the water. I'd definitely reduce the hot water heating times as they are way too long and will waste energy. Also check the thermostat is working on the hot water tank and insulate it with a cylinder jacket if it hasn't got one already. If you haven't got it already then get hive or nest as you can turn the schedule off remotely if you forget to do it before going on vacation.

Not according to the manual, which makes reference to the 'pilot burner', vs main burner. See p27, link below.
https://www.freeboilermanuals.com/assets/pdf/ideal/156643_2.pdf
Confusingly, there was also an FF280, which was a combi version, and this did have electronic ignition.

michaels

Magnitio said:

tiya1990

Hi,

Do you notice whether the boiler runs continuously during the period that you have set the hot water to be on?

I noticed that the setting on your boiler is very low. Was it set like that by the person who serviced your boiler? This could result in the output temperature from your boiler being lower than the thermostat setting on the hot water tank, so the boiler would run continuously based on the timer. Another possibility is that the three-way valve is malfunctioning and not sending all of the hot water from the boiler through the coil in the hot water tank; again this would result in the boiler running for much longer.

The usage does look more like the heating was running, the tank is insulated modern style, should only be losing 1-2kwh per day.  Only thing is, surely the OP would notice the rads getting hot?!

Would the boiler just continue to run at a lower temp if the boiler temp was lower than the tank cut off temp?  Where would all the energy go?  Perhaps it would cycle on and off continuously but then I can't see the air temp would make such a huge difference.

welshblob

macman said:

welshblob said:

Fya I believe the FF280 will have a electronic ignition so no pilot light. I have the FF230 and it's a good boiler but not as efficient as more modern ones. I have had problems with the 3 way valve corroding and getting stuck and you can tell as the rads get hot when it's only supposed to be heating the water. I'd definitely reduce the hot water heating times as they are way too long and will waste energy. Also check the thermostat is working on the hot water tank and insulate it with a cylinder jacket if it hasn't got one already. If you haven't got it already then get hive or nest as you can turn the schedule off remotely if you forget to do it before going on vacation.

Not according to the manual, which makes reference to the 'pilot burner', vs main burner. See p27, link below.
https://www.freeboilermanuals.com/assets/pdf/ideal/156643_2.pdf
Confusingly, there was also an FF280, which was a combi version, and this did have electronic ignition.

Yeah that's the same manual as for mine and it definitely does not have a permanent pilot. I think the electronic ignition lights the pilot which then lights the main burner each and every time there is a demand made. The easiest way for the OP to tell is to have a look through the glass window when there is no demand and it should be dark. Also one of the tell tale signs on mine is the clicking of the ignition when the demand is made.