Gas Usage when not in use

Jazz11

Rented house has a smart meter but not had an inhouse display, it arrived recently and noted in 24 hour period used nearly 8kwh of gas. The only appliances run by gas is the heating and hot water and the heating hasn't been switched on and only the cold tap was used. Supplier is EDF. There is no meter reading on the gas meter outside (just a blank screen) so I cannot check if it is a problem with the smart meter.
Anyone have any ideas if this is normal for a boiler or best actions?

Farway

 Does the boiler have a pilot light?

QrizB

Jazz11 said:

 There is no meter reading on the gas meter outside (just a blank screen) so I cannot check if it is a problem with the smart meter.

Smart gas meters need you to press a button to wake up the display before you can read it.

Give it a try.

Nebulous2

Some modern combi boilers have a small tank combined and pre-heat water on a regular basis to make sure it comes quickly when you turn on the tap. You might hear it kicking in for a couple of minutes once an hour or so. Ours has an eco setting which switches the pre-heating off. 

Our plumber warned us not to turn eco off. He said if you've never had it you won't miss it. Once you try it you won't want to live without it.  

Ultrasonic

For context I have a combi-boiler and over the summer my usage has averaged at about 1.2 kWh per day, and this is using it for hot water. I am pretty frugal with my energy use but in your situation you shouldn't be using anything even remotely close to 8 kWh per day!

Follow at QrizB's advice and start by seeing how much gas is actually being used. @Nebulous2 also makes a good point to check.

k_man

Is there a hot water tank, possibly poorly insulated?

Even if no hot water is being used, the boiler still may be heating the water.

Ultrasonic

k_man said:

Is there a hot water tank, possibly poorly insulated?

Even if no hot water is being used, the boiler still may be heating the water.

Good point. For some reason I'd thought the OP had said they had a combi-boiler but checking back I see they didn't specify.

sandy700

Ultrasonic said:

For context I have a combi-boiler and over the summer my usage has averaged at about 1.2 kWh per day, and this is using it for hot water. I am pretty frugal with my energy use but in your situation you shouldn't be using anything even remotely close to 8 kWh per day!

My wife and I have a shower (fed from the combi boiler) every day and have a gas cooker and we use between 9 and 12 kWh a day of gas without the heating being on. 

Ultrasonic

sandy700 said:

Ultrasonic said:

For context I have a combi-boiler and over the summer my usage has averaged at about 1.2 kWh per day, and this is using it for hot water. I am pretty frugal with my energy use but in your situation you shouldn't be using anything even remotely close to 8 kWh per day!

My wife and I have a shower (fed from the combi boiler) every day and have a gas cooker and we use between 9 and 12 kWh a day of gas without the heating being on. 

Yes but the OP said they weren't using hot water and don't have a gas cooker. 

(I do use my boiler for showers but I do so in a way to limit gas and water usage: water on to get wet at the start and rinse off at the end but not on while applying soap.)

jbuchanangb

How did you measure the 8kWh of gas? The meter reads in 100s of cubic feet, or in cubic metres, then you have to perform a calculation (approx x11.2 in case of cubic metres) to get kWh. For 8kWh gas the meter would hardly have changed, certainly less than 1 unit.

Ultrasonic

jbuchanangb said:

How did you measure the 8kWh of gas? The meter reads in 100s of cubic feet, or in cubic metres, then you have to perform a calculation (approx x11.2 in case of cubic metres) to get kWh. For 8kWh gas the meter would hardly have changed, certainly less than 1 unit.

The first post says the 8 kWh figure came from an In Home Display. Mine displays a kWh figure as the most accessible number, with the cubic metre data is buried in a sub-menu. I suspect this is fairly standard? I believe all smart meters work in cubic metres rather than feet by the way.