Energy & Gas Consumpion on a Semi Detached house

born_again

Haydenlm1 said:

Hi guys,
I live in a semi detached house with my parents and 2 siblings.
My 2 siblings are  playing games etc on their computer for majority of the day. Myself, mum and dad are always at work so are never home.
We are consuming around 10,843KwH a year in electricity and 15,830Kwh a year for Gas!

I believe we've had a tank with an immersion heater with a tank which I believe I have turned off, but the system is so old, i do not understand it..The energy bill has stayed the same..

We hardly have the gas on as our radiators are quite old and need replacing so its not very efficient ,and there are hardly people in the house during the day etc so are completely buffled by the consumption on this..

Anyone in a family of 5 getting those kind of numbers on a Semi detached house??

So how are you heating the house?
If you turned immersion heater off, how are you heating water?

No one in during day, will mean house cools down. It then requires more energy to heat it up when you come home. Same again over night, when you want it warm in the morning.

Haydenlm1

Just to answer some questions..
We hardly use any gas because we know how expensive it is , we literally simply freeze until it really becomes unbearable so we then turn it on for a little while. We turn the heating on maybe twice or three times a week for a few hours but thats it.

We have a combi boiler downstairs but also a tank upstairs with some sort of old immersion heater that we believe turned the timer off..We have had plumbers look at the set up before and it seems like no one understands it and how it connects to our boiler downstairs, its just really frustrating.

We did used to pay less gas, but the past year its really shot up. Everyone I know including friends and family are not paying anywhere near what we are paying , in fact, they are paying less than half what we pay here..

We do a meter reading and submit it every month.

I think the main problem is the heating as this is something we genuinely dont understand where its coming from and why its so expensive..I genuinely do mean we hardly use the gas, but it really is true - its because we get bombed with an unrealistic gas bill at the end.

Haydenlm1

Also just want to say thank you for all the comments and help, didn't expect to get as much feedback thank you for trying to help us

MattMattMattUK

Haydenlm1 said:

Just to answer some questions..
We hardly use any gas because we know how expensive it is , we literally simply freeze until it really becomes unbearable so we then turn it on for a little while. We turn the heating on maybe twice or three times a week for a few hours but thats it.

Gas is not really expensive, especially not compared to heating with electricity. Your gas usage is in line with normal usage so it does not make sense that you say you are not using much, could it be that those at home during the day jack the heating up when those who work leave for the day?

Haydenlm1 said:

We have a combi boiler downstairs but also a tank upstairs with some sort of old immersion heater that we believe turned the timer off..We have had plumbers look at the set up before and it seems like no one understands it and how it connects to our boiler downstairs, its just really frustrating.

It is worth doing some investigating yourself, how big is the tank, is it insulated, a cold water tank, hot water tank, is it connected to the boiler, heated by immersion, the combi boiler etc? If you get stuck post pictures and there are many on here who can help identify things.

Haydenlm1 said:

We did used to pay less gas, but the past year its really shot up. Everyone I know including friends and family are not paying anywhere near what we are paying , in fact, they are paying less than half what we pay here..

Gas prices have shot up, but your usage in kWh looks at the high end of normal, so that does not tie in with not having the heating on much. Some of the people in the property much be running the heating a lot, getting through a lot of hot water heated by gas etc. The other issue is your electricity usage is horrifically high, five times the average for comparable homes.

Haydenlm1 said:

We do a meter reading and submit it every month.

That is good because it means you will not get into debt, but it does not solve the extremely high usage.

Haydenlm1 said:

I think the main problem is the heating as this is something we genuinely dont understand where its coming from and why its so expensive..I genuinely do mean we hardly use the gas, but it really is true - its because we get bombed with an unrealistic gas bill at the end.

Take a meter reading every day, see what happens, does it vary by day, particularly the day when the two non-workers are home alone? Turn the boiler off at the wall for a day, see if the gas meter moves, it should not, but if if it does you have another issue, you can then isolate the meter (red handle) and see if it still moves).

You also need to get your electricity bill down, that is huge and horrific. 

FreeBear

MattMattMattUK said: Gas prices have shot up, but your usage in kWh looks at the high end of normal, so that does not tie in with not having the heating on much. Some of the people in the property much be running the heating a lot, getting through a lot of hot water heated by gas etc. The other issue is your electricity usage is horrifically high, five times the average for comparable homes.

Just wondering if the supplier is charging for imperial when the meter is in fact metric.

OP - Check your bill to see if the meter readings are (100s) cubic feet. Where they calculate the conversion from meter units to KWh, the magic number to look for is 2.83.

Check to see what type of gas meter you have - Regardless of age/type, it will state quite clearly what the numbers represent (i.e. ft³ or m³).

Are you using a portable air conditioner during the summer months ?

That would account for a huge chunk of your electricity consumption.

Haydenlm1

Alnat1 said:

Get an energy monitoring plug, usually the Tapo P110 is recommended on this forum, cost around £10. You can stick it in the socket and plug appliances into it and find out how much energy they are using. 

Hi ,
Could you please link me to one to buy? There are many out there , unsure which one is the recommended if you dont mind please?
Thank you

Haydenlm1

FreeBear said:

MattMattMattUK said: Gas prices have shot up, but your usage in kWh looks at the high end of normal, so that does not tie in with not having the heating on much. Some of the people in the property much be running the heating a lot, getting through a lot of hot water heated by gas etc. The other issue is your electricity usage is horrifically high, five times the average for comparable homes.

Just wondering if the supplier is charging for imperial when the meter is in fact metric.

OP - Check your bill to see if the meter readings are (100s) cubic feet. Where they calculate the conversion from meter units to KWh, the magic number to look for is 2.83.

Check to see what type of gas meter you have - Regardless of age/type, it will state quite clearly what the numbers represent (i.e. ft³ or m³).

Are you using a portable air conditioner during the summer months ?

That would account for a huge chunk of your electricity consumption.

Okay I will check this when im back from work!
No, no air conditioner .

MattMattMattUK said:

Haydenlm1 said:

Just to answer some questions..
We hardly use any gas because we know how expensive it is , we literally simply freeze until it really becomes unbearable so we then turn it on for a little while. We turn the heating on maybe twice or three times a week for a few hours but thats it.

Gas is not really expensive, especially not compared to heating with electricity. Your gas usage is in line with normal usage so it does not make sense that you say you are not using much, could it be that those at home during the day jack the heating up when those who work leave for the day?

Haydenlm1 said:

We have a combi boiler downstairs but also a tank upstairs with some sort of old immersion heater that we believe turned the timer off..We have had plumbers look at the set up before and it seems like no one understands it and how it connects to our boiler downstairs, its just really frustrating.

It is worth doing some investigating yourself, how big is the tank, is it insulated, a cold water tank, hot water tank, is it connected to the boiler, heated by immersion, the combi boiler etc? If you get stuck post pictures and there are many on here who can help identify things.

Haydenlm1 said:

We did used to pay less gas, but the past year its really shot up. Everyone I know including friends and family are not paying anywhere near what we are paying , in fact, they are paying less than half what we pay here..

Gas prices have shot up, but your usage in kWh looks at the high end of normal, so that does not tie in with not having the heating on much. Some of the people in the property much be running the heating a lot, getting through a lot of hot water heated by gas etc. The other issue is your electricity usage is horrifically high, five times the average for comparable homes.

Haydenlm1 said:

We do a meter reading and submit it every month.

That is good because it means you will not get into debt, but it does not solve the extremely high usage.

Haydenlm1 said:

I think the main problem is the heating as this is something we genuinely dont understand where its coming from and why its so expensive..I genuinely do mean we hardly use the gas, but it really is true - its because we get bombed with an unrealistic gas bill at the end.

Take a meter reading every day, see what happens, does it vary by day, particularly the day when the two non-workers are home alone? Turn the boiler off at the wall for a day, see if the gas meter moves, it should not, but if if it does you have another issue, you can then isolate the meter (red handle) and see if it still moves).

You also need to get your electricity bill down, that is huge and horrific. 

It is not being jacked by them, i also work from home 3 times a week and ensure everything is off as well. (When i do work from home , i mainly just use a laptop so electric price per month should be that much of a huge jump due to a low powered laptop)

I do have a gut feeling it is related to the boiler / tank / immersion heater etc.. I am really clueless, I will post a picture and will get a smart plug for the electrics to measure them out.

Thanks again guys!

MattMattMattUK

Haydenlm1 said:

Alnat1 said:

Get an energy monitoring plug, usually the Tapo P110 is recommended on this forum, cost around £10. You can stick it in the socket and plug appliances into it and find out how much energy they are using. 

Hi ,
Could you please link me to one to buy? There are many out there , unsure which one is the recommended if you dont mind please?
Thank you

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Tapo-Monitoring-Required-Tapo-P110/dp/B0B82ZQZS8/?th=1

These are the ones, just make sure it is the P110, you often see the P100 a lot cheaper, but that one does not have energy monitoring. Lots of us on here use or have used them, they are well worth the money. 

Robin9

Some pictures will help -  you say you are using hardly any gas but the reality is you are.  Pictures of the front panel of you boiler - there will be some dials and displays ; of your programmer ;   of your thermostat

Like the electric meter - read your meter every day.

badmemory

I am very much the amateur here but my thoughts....   Is your boiler also old like your radiators, my new one uses a lot less than my old one & that one used a lot less than my much older one did (that one had a pilot light!).  Are your radiators full of gunk & you need a power flush. 

Old electrical appliances also use a lot more than the newer ones do.  Each time I've replaced mine my usage goes down.  I've only got the fridge & the freezer to go & the ones I have now are using almost 3 times what they say new ones should, realistically I'm hoping to halve.