Halved my bills

pseudodox

Rather than rip out the gas heating system - which may adversely affect the saleability of the flat in the future (as it will attract a reduced number of potential buyers) - it would have been more effective to fit TRVs to all radiators & replace the shower fed from a combi with an electric unit.

My combi is as far as it could be from the shower so an electric shower is actually more economic for me.  I am in, out & done in the time I would be waiting for the hot water to arrive from the boiler (as evidenced if I run a very occasional bath).  And using the washbasin it is quicker to boil a kettle than wait for the combi as that takes a basin full of cold (wasted) water before the hot arrives.  However the combi is close to the kitchen & utility sinks so for those gas heated water is a no brainer.

born_again

All I would say to OP.
Is we have gas central heating & water heating (combi) & electric for everything else.
Electric costs are constant month on month.
Gas winter £65.26 Summer £18.12. (Jan & July 2022 prices) not the increased prices we have now.

You have taken out you gas, as such come colder months you are going to be using electric to heat the flat. So your electric costs are going to be a lot higher.
Will they be more than gas? Given the cost of gas is a lot cheaper will be interesting to see how effective the heaters are.

So will be very interesting to see you come back in April next year with comparisons of costs from November to march.
Will bookmark this thread to see 👍

Exodi

This thread inspired me to look at my own usage a bit more in depth and while I know the winter is expensive, I was amazed at the disparity in energy usage between the summer and the winter. My wife and I live in a 3 bed medium sized detached house (built in 2008, EPC B ), I'm not an energy guru but we are mindful of our energy usage and try to be smart with the thermostats.

I've included my monthly usage for the past 12 months below on a graph. Fortunately I did not see the full effect of this on my wallet, as the government subsidized the peak with the EPG.

My average electricity usage remained fairly consistent throughout the year, at around 176 kWh.

We have gas central heating so unsurprisingly my gas usage was higher in the winter than the summer. My average gas usage between 1st May - 31st October (the lowest 6 month usage period) was 222 kWh. My average gas usage between 1st November - 30th April was a staggering 1043 kWh!!!!! 4.7x higher.

I am genuinely taken back by this, I didn't realise just how big the difference was. More incredibly, if I apply my current unit and standing charges, my annual electricity usage costs more than my annual gas usage (about 55/45).

I've recently upgraded my boiler (my previous was probably installed when the house was built, so maybe 15 years old) and had a couple of leaks fixed around the house. I'm optimistic this winter we may be much more energy efficient.

matelodave said:

As others have said, most people don't use all that much gas or leccy between April and October, probably only about 35% of their annual consumption, but use 65-70% of their energy, mainly gas in the five winter months.  

At least in my case, this was incredibly accurate. The five winter months you mention was 66.7% of our total annual usage.

Robin9

@Exodi     Do you cook by gas ?

matt_drummer

MultiFuelBurner said:

Will the OP ever return or will they just pass out at this winters bill?

I don't think they got the reaction they were expecting.

There will be some serious reflection going on about the consequences of their actions.

It appears to be a unanimous `no' from us!

Ayr_Rage

Irdoyle said:

I am now saving money and have freed up valuable space in my home, without breaking the bank! Being disabled and on benefits, this is the difference between living and destitution. Anyone else had similar luck with saving money?

Oh dear, I think your benefits are not going to cover anything BUT your energy bill in the colder months.

I fear you have made a very bad decision and the implications of it are yet to hit home.

All electric is not a good idea.

matt_drummer

I don't know the OP but I am bit concerned for their wellbeing if this was the difference between living and destitution.

It would seem that they have used up a chunk of savings on the `improvements' and committed a vast chunk of their income to heating in the winter.

I don't know what the disabilities are but if they are of the nature of needing to be warm this is going to be quite traumatic for them.

I wonder if they did the work themselves or employed `professionals'?

It is staggering to think that any professional person would have assisted in this plan.

Swipe

The OP needs to change the thread title to 'Tripled my bills'

matt_drummer

Swipe said:

The OP needs to change the thread title to 'Tripled my bills'

Unfortunately, that may be the truth, quite concerning to say the least.

Exodi

Robin9 said:

@Exodi     Do you cook by gas ?

Hi Robin, yes we have a gas range cooker (though we recently purchased a multi cooker to prevent situations like using the whole oven to heat a couple of pork chops).

If your question was understanding how we use ~220 kWh of gas in the summer, we also have a hot water tank that the boiler heats for about 1 hour a day.

There's still lots of improvements we can make (we recently installed a new boiler and we will set up proper timers for our thermostats) - I'm optimistic we can make good improvements on last winters usage.

Nonetheless, I'm suprised to read Ofgems typical values put typical gas usage for our circumstances at 12,000 kWh (where we used 7590!). Perhaps we are better at watching our energy usage than I thought.

Energy Use	Example – home type and number of residents	Typical annual gas use (kWh)	Typical annual electricity use (kWh)
Low	Flat or 1-bedroom house; 1 to 2 people	8,000	1,800
Medium	2-3 bedroom house; 2 to 3 people	12,000	2,900
High	4+ bedroom home; 4 to 5 people	17,000	4,300