High gas usage

Roly98

I have gas heating and hot water only. Don't use the hot water as have electric shower, no bath. Use kettle for washing up. Huge 3 month bill which I'm not disputing, accurate meter readings. I'm in a small ground floor one bed housing assocation flat, 5 small radiators, all set on 5, boiler flow rate 65...it's my first winter here.  Room thermostat useless as in a cold hallway with no radiator....have asked for it to be moved. Over 90 days I used 103 hours of heating, usually 1 hour per day, sometimes none, sometimes a few hours...all usage noted down. British Gas said usage is high...asked me to do 7 day reading. I checked the meter and took photos over the 7 days, before turning on and after turning off the heating...only put on for 1 hour at a time. Meter consistently clocked 6 gas units per hour, so 66kwh = 396. Scared to use heating now. Experimented yesterday, turned boiler flow rate down to 60, and one of the radiators off, heating on for 1.5 hours.  Meter still clocked up 6 units in the hour then 1 unit for the half hour. I understand that cold house means high usage when first put on, but 6 gas units high? My bill was nearly £800. Vaillant 24 boiler. 

Krakkkers

6 Metric units per hour is impossible unless the meter is faulty, check that the meter is metric.

[Deleted User]

Roly98 said:

I have gas heating and hot water only. Don't use the hot water as have electric shower, no bath. Use kettle for washing up. Huge 3 month bill which I'm not disputing, accurate meter readings. I'm in a small ground floor one bed housing assocation flat, 5 small radiators, all set on 5, boiler flow rate 65...it's my first winter here.  Room thermostat useless as in a cold hallway with no radiator....have asked for it to be moved. Over 90 days I used 103 hours of heating, usually 1 hour per day, sometimes none, sometimes a few hours...all usage noted down. British Gas said usage is high...asked me to do 7 day reading. I checked the meter and took photos over the 7 days, before turning on and after turning off the heating...only put on for 1 hour at a time. Meter consistently clocked 6 gas units per hour, so 66kwh = 396. Scared to use heating now. Experimented yesterday, turned boiler flow rate down to 60, and one of the radiators off, heating on for 1.5 hours.  Meter still clocked up 6 units in the hour then 1 unit for the half hour. I understand that cold house means high usage when first put on, but 6 gas units high? My bill was nearly £800. Vaillant 24 boiler. 

A 24kW boiler can start off outputting close to 24kW. I have a 24kW boiler in a high EPC B property and this was my 30 minute usage yesterday:

As you can see my usage in the first hour was c.8kWh dropping as the house started reaching its set temperature. Yes, 8 units in the first hour is high and technically double what your boiler can output.

Are you sure that you are reading your meter correctly? Is it M3 or FT3? Is the supplier billing you for the correct type of meter?

Robin9

If it is a modern meter look very carefully for a decimal point. On all meters ignore figures after the decimal , sometimes these will be in red.

Roly98

It's metric and it's clocking up 6 per hour. I can assure you it is 

[Deleted User]

Roly98 said:

It's metric and it's clocking up 6 per hour. I can assure you it is 

Look at the volume to kWh calculation used on your last bill. Is this showing a metric calculation? 

Roly98

I'm not disputing the actual bill... it's the usage. Trying to upload photos of meter  showing before and after 

Roly98

And here's after 

Roly98

Krakkkers said:

6 Metric units per hour is impossible unless the meter is faulty, check that the meter is metric.

Are you able to see the photos? 

[Deleted User]

Look bottom right. The reading showing is in kWh not volume. You need to access the volume meter index in cubic meters and give this reading to your supplier.

EssexHebridean

That screen appears to be showing the use in kWh?  If that is the case then 6 kWh = around 66p, and a distinctly reasonable amount for the boiler to be using in an hour I would have thought? 

Can you scroll the meter to the M3 screen as that should show a far slower increase in numbers.