Ridiculously high gas usage

benson1980

How many m2 is your house and is your conservatory opened up with the house i.e. is this your main source of heat loss?

Aylesbury_Duck

benson1980 said:

How many m2 is your house and is your conservatory opened up with the house i.e. is this your main source of heat loss?

That's a good shout.  We have a few friends on our estate with kitchens that have open-plan conservatories attached, built before the days when they had to be self-contained.  The heat loss at this time of the year is frightening.

We know from OP's detail that there's no gas leak, because the meter only records consumption when the boiler is on.  The hob usage will be so low as to be considered a rounding error, so that leaves the boiler itself.  The obvious potential culprits to me seem to be:

• 10-15 minute showers.  
• Possibly an open-plan conservatory.
• Poorly balanced system which means the boiler is working less efficiently than it might.
• The 8 closed-off radiators mucking around with the flow temperatures.
• The cold rooms, the limited-hours of the heating and the low radiator temps mean the house is never getting properly warm, so when the boiler is running, it's running furiously in a vain attempt to reach the set temperature.
• Insulation.  A large, detached property (how exposed is it?) with an extension (single-storey perhaps, so another cold spot?) will take a lot of energy to heat and has a large surface area over which to lose heat.  How well insulated is it?  Double-glazed?  Cavity wall?  Decent depth in the loft, or has it all been compressed under loft-boarding?

markin

Is the rad where the Thermostat is located fully open? Fixed location or wireless? 

If you shut off to many rads the boiler can just end up coming on more as the heat loss to other rooms is higher.

Is 3 on the TRV's lower than the stat temp? you didn't state the target and different brands of TRVs can be a little different


Is the conservatory built to regs as an insulated room or should it have a external door closing it off?

What age and EPC is the house, it will also lots of useful info on it.

https://find-energy-certificate.service.gov.uk/find-a-certificate/search-by-postcode?lang=en&property_type=domestic