How much gas and electricity are peoplenow using compared with last year? And the cost?

RobM99

Why not propane indoors?

[Deleted User]

RobM99 said:

Why not propane indoors?

Most appliances designed for propane are outdoor appliances and tend to have marginally incomplete combustion - so increased CO production is quite a risk.

There's nothing wrong really with using a specific indoor propane burner, or properly converted appliance, as these will be tuned correctly and also usually have specific safety devices to protect against this effect.

Hence the general advisement against propane indoors, as many won't know to check their burner is suitable.

macman

My only experience of these was one owned by my great-aunt and uncle in the 1970's, when they became too frail to set and light coal fires every day. We were not aware of the risks from C0 in that era, though the house was probably draughty enough to avoid any issues, but I do remember that they produced very large amounts of water vapour, which left the windows streaming with moisture. 

[Deleted User]

A useful explanation about gas bottles here - https://www.londongases.co.uk/blog/how-do-i-know-how-long-my-gas-cylinder-will-last.
Now if only I could control how much gas my central heating uses as easily! I won't have it on its full 3kWh all the time. 
According to sparkygrad if I have it on full for 8 hours = 24 kwh so that would be £7.50 a day. But I won't so maybe £3-£4 a day. 
No escape from overpriced cost of heating! 
I think I will use 44kWh Central Heating, hot water gas this month economising but same freezing rest of the house. So about £5.

I'll know after a month if it's worth the control and comfort and if I use much less Octopus gas...If I use the central heating to heat the room to the same level of comfort as the Calor gas I would be using a lot more than 44KWh per day.

It's ridiculous I have to micromanage like this - didn't have to last year and that was expensive enough!  Anybody on a good income won't bother. Britain has always been "two halves". It's not right.
Days-units-kWh

Calculated using true price

Discounted

[Deleted User]

You are right.

ian1246

We re currently averaging 80 Kwh a day in gas since December the 05th. Before that we averaged about 35 Kwh November 05th to December 04th. That's compared to an average of 75 Kwh a day in November last year and 101 Kwh of gas this time last year - so it is a reasonable reduction in use.

August 2021-August 2022 was 18,000 Kwh of gas use. So far August to December 2022 we've used around 2000Kwh of gas less vs. The same period last year - so I m expecting/hoping we ll use maybe 14,000 of gas August 2022-August 2023.

We have a 140 square metre detached house with room in roof bedrooms/dormer windows. From what I can tell the flat parts of the dormer windows aren't insulated, nor are the angled parts of the ceiling. The house itself predates 1880 (the oldest map I can find in enough detail to show the houses of my neighbourhood).

So, overall we re not doing too bad. In spring I m planning on gutting one of the attic rooms - ripping the plaster out and insulating the walls & roof myself with Kingspan & insulated plasterboard, then instead of skimming it, lining it with a thermal liner wallpaper and then painting it - hoping it will save on getting a plasterer in whilst further boosting insulation.

If it works, then roll it out to the rest of the house....

Spoonie_Turtle

Just found out that our neighbours kept their thermostat to 14℃ until about a week ago (ASHP like us), reluctantly put it up because they couldn't stand it any longer, have used their whole electricity budget for the month and still aren't warm   we're not close so I don't know whether they'd be open to discussing settings or other potential areas of savings, but it certainly hit home the reality for people this year.
(I'll be taking a heated throw round tomorrow, won't solve the problem but some actual heat surely won't go amiss.)

Mstty

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Just found out that our neighbours kept their thermostat to 14℃ until about a week ago (ASHP like us), reluctantly put it up because they couldn't stand it any longer, have used their whole electricity budget for the month and still aren't warm   we're not close so I don't know whether they'd be open to discussing settings or other potential areas of savings, but it certainly hit home the reality for people this year.
(I'll be taking a heated throw round tomorrow, won't solve the problem but some actual heat surely won't go amiss.)

Probably like yourself we took the plunge in the mild winter weather to get the ASHP up to speed and the fabric of the house up to temperature (someone said on another post all 12 tonnes of house) 

Anyone with an ASHP trying to get heat into their house now at -5oC and below temps will have to have it going for a few days and then it will settle down usage wise.

Nice gesture with the throw👍

Novice_investor101

On my spreadsheet built to track my energy usage & costs over winter to March, I’ve used 778kWh of gas so far at a cost of approx £80. Last December that would have cost £22.57. 

I used to pay £50pm all year round & that covered my bills exactly. I’ve accepted December will be expensive & used the GCH & an electric heater these last couple of days. Fan heater yesterday because I have flu & just do not want to be uncomfortable. I upped my DD in the summer to build a credit & the £66/£67 is what’s keeping me in budget so far. If The weather warms up & I use less heating in Jan/Feb then I’ll get through winter having used up the credit. I’m not worried about having to pay £100 or so in if I go over. 

Come my next bill in Feb, I’ll be putting money aside each month to build as much credit for next winter as possible, in a 5% savings account. 

Alnat1

Invest in a heated throw!

I was full of cold on Monday and very shivery despite GCH at 17.5C so huddled under mine from 11am to around 10pm. It was on high first couple of hours then gradually turned down to minimum setting during the evening. Tapo monitoring plug states it used 0.215kWh.