Does my gas bill seem crazy high?

tim_p

Pythagorous said:

So I had the heating for our ground floor on this morning along with the hot water and for one hour only 2KwH was used. So about 25p for an hour of heating. Seems about right, so the culprit is likely going to be the gas tumble dryer which is my next investigative step.

Where has this figure of 2kWh come from?  2kWh isn’t going to heat much. 

Krakkkers

Does he mean 2 units?, my boiler would use 2 kwh in the first 8 minutes and do almost no good.

tim_p

Krakkkers said:

Does he mean 2 units?, my boiler would use 2 kwh in the first 8 minutes and do almost no good.

That’d me my thought, so nearer to 22kWh (metric meter) which sounds much more likely / reasonable. 

FreeBear

Pythagorous said:

born_again said:

Heating on for maybe average 2 hours per day

That's very vague?

How is heating controlled? Timer or stat?

Given weather of late, if its only a couple of hours, it's going to flat out to get up to temp every time it's turned on.

We don't use the thermastat or a timer. We just tend to put heating on as and when we feel the need as the timer broke ages ago (hence only able to provide a guesstimate of 2-3hrs/day). Maybe that's a very inefficient way to heat the home? Should probably sort the timer at the very least!

Get yourself a programmable thermostat. That way, you can set different temperatures throughout the day/week. Research suggests that you could save up to 15% on gas consumption, although in reality, it is more likely to be around 5%. A saving that is still worth having.

tim_p said:

Pythagorous said:

So I had the heating for our ground floor on this morning along with the hot water and for one hour only 2KwH was used. So about 25p for an hour of heating. Seems about right, so the culprit is likely going to be the gas tumble dryer which is my next investigative step.

Where has this figure of 2kWh come from?  2kWh isn’t going to heat much. 

Oh I don't know... When my boiler kicks in to raise the temperature a fraction, it will run for about 25 minutes and burn ~3kWh of gas (according to the Bright app). In a smaller property, 2kWh may be enough to lift the temperature above the hysteresis point.

Veteransaver

Doubt it's the gas tumble dryer, unless it's leaking!

QrizB

Meter readings?

Bueller?

Pythagorous

Krakkkers said:

Does he mean 2 units?, my boiler would use 2 kwh in the first 8 minutes and do almost no good.

Sorry, yes (doh!). That was units. Forgot to convert using the conversion factor lol. So ~23KwH was used. So about £2.80 for an hour of downstairs heating. Does that seem a lot? There are 8 radiators downstairs. Although this was for the hot water as well.

Pythagorous

PS, looking through my bills I can see my usage over the last 12 months was just over 25 thousand kWh

Veteransaver

Pythagorous said:

PS, looking through my bills I can see my usage over the last 12 months was just over 25 thousand kWh

If it's a big house (8 downstairs radiators would suggest it is), and insulation isn't great then 25000kWh of heating isn't particularly unusual. Especially if you like the house nice and warm most of the time.

Pythagorous

Veteransaver said:

Pythagorous said:

PS, looking through my bills I can see my usage over the last 12 months was just over 25 thousand kWh

If it's a big house (8 downstairs radiators would suggest it is), and insulation isn't great then 25000kWh of heating isn't particularly unusual. Especially if you like the house nice and warm most of the time.

Thanks. It's about 2300 sq ft I believe so not huge by any means (3 rads in kitchen/snug area, 1 in utility, 2 in main living, 1 in 2nd living room, 1 in hall). About average insulation and we are quite conservative with putting on the heat (don't have a timer or thermostat or timer, just put it on when we feel the need which I think averages 2-3 hours per day at the moment).