Views please on gas usage

markin

spudwood said:

@vic_sf49 'pootling along in experimental land' made me smile. I have to say, my experimenting at the moment is driving me a bit mad. I am convinced my meter is fault haha.

I appreciate that there are many factors that impact on overall gas usage such as insulation, outside temp, etc etc but just measuring the output of 2 of the same boilers over an hour period surely should result in similar usage levels?

At this point in time, if hair shirts were still in fashion, I'd probably wearing one as I am restricting my usage to the point of discomfort at times. I may try your timings and setting for a 24 hour period at some point and see what my usage is over that period. 

Today I turned my boiler down from 5 to 2 just to see. It was off overnight and the temp was 13 degrees this morning. I turned the boiler on for 2 hours by which time it had used 18kwh and got to 16 degrees. I turned it off at that point as was going out for a few hours. Any views on this?  It still appears to be burning through the gas at almost as high a rate from cold as it did on number 5. I think 2 was too low today as it was pretty nippy today here in Yorkshire but on a milder day think it would be ok I think. (I did have the boiler on later as well but by that point cba to check what was going on with it!)

Is that 18kwh for 2 hrs vs the 1hr you normally measure, Thats a large saving is it not?

Did you ever measure hr 2 at setting 5?

FreeBear

vic_sf49 said:

One main thing from your last post, is the temp your bungalow dropped to overnight was 13 degrees, whereas mine only dropped to 16.1. (Heating went off last night at 1915 @ 20. 2 degrees.)

I'll now sit back and wait for some "oh yesses", "definitely no chance" or "what on earth are you prattling on about" comments from the experts.

17.1°C in my hallway at 09:00 this morning, and the heating didn't kick in at all overnight. But it only got down to around 4°C outside.
If you want to see how others were doing back in December, have a look here - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6409596/how-fast-does-your-house-cool-down

Mstty

I will add another 50p to the meter if I may.

The testing and changes that anyone is doing should be done when there is weather is consistent, as in overnight and day temps as much as possible(more factors if you want to get technical) and any changes must be allowed to run for a few days in that state.

I only say that from a point of view of the testing we had to do on our ASHP with a much lower flow temperature than gas systems but obviously we had to leave changes for at least a week to really monitor the affects and whether they were livable for us. 

Not sure of the areas you are in but there has been a 8oC shift in overnight temperatures  in the past week, going down to 0oC overnight Wednesday which represent another 7oC swing so any changes being made probably don't stand a chance.

My personal barometer for how we are doing is the vaulted kitchen diner out on a limb from the rest of the house. 2 velux one side, big window on the opposite side, 4 panel bi-folds and a large picture window measuring 3x2m above them and a height of 4m to heat.....it is 3oC outside right now and it's 19oC in that room. That's a win for the flow temp we are running.

Last remaining bit of my 50p is it is nice to see more people trying things to reduce cost, some out of necessity, but this will mean lower use of harmful fuels. Energy use across the board must be on a downward trend so it will be interesting to look back at the figures.

vic_sf49

markin said:

spudwood said:

@vic_sf49 'pootling along in experimental land' made me smile. I have to say, my experimenting at the moment is driving me a bit mad. I am convinced my meter is fault haha.

I appreciate that there are many factors that impact on overall gas usage such as insulation, outside temp, etc etc but just measuring the output of 2 of the same boilers over an hour period surely should result in similar usage levels?

At this point in time, if hair shirts were still in fashion, I'd probably wearing one as I am restricting my usage to the point of discomfort at times. I may try your timings and setting for a 24 hour period at some point and see what my usage is over that period. 

Today I turned my boiler down from 5 to 2 just to see. It was off overnight and the temp was 13 degrees this morning. I turned the boiler on for 2 hours by which time it had used 18kwh and got to 16 degrees. I turned it off at that point as was going out for a few hours. Any views on this?  It still appears to be burning through the gas at almost as high a rate from cold as it did on number 5. I think 2 was too low today as it was pretty nippy today here in Yorkshire but on a milder day think it would be ok I think. (I did have the boiler on later as well but by that point cba to check what was going on with it!)

Is that 18kwh for 2 hrs vs the 1hr you normally measure, Thats a large saving is it not?

Did you ever measure hr 2 at setting 5?

As I'm experimenting alongside @spudwood, I've just gone through Hive* and Bright app data, for before I turned my flow temp down.

But, hive has just gone on the fritz, and I'm not sure I have a full 2hr period of heating post flow temp change.... yet.

Numbers will be forthcoming when I have some data.

* I only have the free hive historic data, rather than the extra paid for version, so seeing when I've had my boiler firing continuously for 2hrs, is not the easiest.

Astria

vic_sf49 said:

As I'm experimenting alongside @spudwood, I've just gone through Hive* and Bright app data, for before I turned my flow temp down.

But, hive has just gone on the fritz, and I'm not sure I have a full 2hr period of heating post flow temp change.... yet.

Numbers will be forthcoming when I have some data.

* I only have the free hive historic data, rather than the extra paid for version, so seeing when I've had my boiler firing continuously for 2hrs, is not the easiest.

Hive can typically only tell you when it's requested heat, it can't tell you when the boiler has been firing and for how long.

My boiler fires for about 15 minutes, then idles for 10 minutes before firing up again, The property is normally upto temperature before the boiler has fired up a second time but hive regards it as the boiler has been running for 25 minutes. I tried the paid for version on a free trial but it seemed to estimate cost based on this limited data.

The only way of accurately measuring gas usage is therefore from the gas meter.

vic_sf49

I'm only using hive to see how long my boiler was heating for. Although I don't know if hive records when "gas is in use and actively heating", or when it's reached the desired temp, but the pump is still running.

My actual usage is taken from the Bright App @Astria, so I'm assuming that's as accurate as reading my meters.

Let's face it, I'm not going outside to read my gas meter on a dark cold morning, so it's as good as it's going to get. My in home display doesn't display data from my gas meter, so Bright app it is.

From now on, I can pay attention to my heating schedule for a few days, so I'm more sure of when I'm heating for a full 2 hrs.

Astria

vic_sf49 said:

I'm only using hive to see how long my boiler was heating for. Although I don't know if hive records when "gas is in use and actively heating", or when it's reached the desired temp, but the pump is still running.

My actual usage is taken from the Bright App @Astria, so I'm assuming that's as accurate as reading my meters.

Let's face it, I'm not going outside to read my gas meter on a dark cold morning, so it's as good as it's going to get. My in home display doesn't display data from my gas meter, so Bright app it is.

From now on, I can pay attention to my heating schedule for a few days, so I'm more sure of when I'm heating for a full 2 hrs.

The bright app will be fine, Hive will just report "I've asked the boiler to come on" and "I've told the boiler to turn off" but doesn't actually know if it's actually come on or not. It will send an alert if the temperature doesn't increase in a certain period of time though. Surprisingly though, hive can still be within 15% of actual usage in most situations.

vic_sf49

Hive has just sorted itself out...so I just did a sanity check, and I can't see usage in hive anyway, as I don't pay the extra fee.

I'm basing my previous 2hr heating periods on the apex of the curves / the blue segment on the time bar. Not the most accurate, but it's all I have.

Definitely don't have 2hrs of continuous heating today, so figures shall have to wait.

 

Astria

If you have really tiny fingers then you can tap the blue bar bits and it'll told you how long the bit took

vic_sf49

Astria said:

If you have really tiny fingers then you can tap the blue bar bits and it'll told you how long the bit took

Omg, thanks @astria, now that is some very handy information.

I can sit down this week, and check I had heating on for at least a full two hour period, and double check the timings against Bright.

This forum is so handy for learning new things.