Gas Bill!!!!!

ilovebanks

no loft insulation whatsoever as far as I am aware.I went up there the other week, and it felt pretty cold to me.

Perhaps the landlord has a duty to get it insulated?

Cardew

ilovebanks wrote: »

no loft insulation whatsoever as far as I am aware.I went up there the other week, and it felt pretty cold to me.

Perhaps the landlord has a duty to get it insulated?

If the loft is cold it indicates it is well insulated.

You worry when the loft is warm because your expensive heat is warming it!!!

You need to look at the thickness of the insulation in the loft, it used to be 50mm or 100mm but now 270mm is the standard.

Whilst you lose heat through the ceiling, you gain heat from the flat underneath.

The bottom line is that a £200 bill for that period is certainly not excessive.

withabix

Cardew wrote: »

If the loft is cold it indicates it is well insulated.

Not necessarily! Also the OP said it felt cold. Not the same thing as it was cold. When you enter a loft in the winter, you are passing from the warmest part of your house (just below the ceiling) to the coldest part (your loft), hence the sensation of moving from warm to cold is greatest.

Loft spaces are usually well ventilated (to prevent condensation), so will always feel fairly cold if 'house' temperature > outdoor temperature, as the loft will be somewhere in between. Otherwise you would get condensation on the underside of the roof tiles, due to the steep temperature gradient at that point.

Roofing materials such as slate, clay and concrete tile have very poor insulating properties. In Scotland, properties normally have sarking under the slates, which helps somewhat, but the standard in England/Wales is for a thin layer of underfelt, or nothing at all in older properties.

withabix

Cardew wrote: »

Whilst you lose heat through the ceiling, you gain heat from the flat underneath.

Gain from the flat underneath depends on the temperature gradient between the lower and upper flat and only happens if the lower flat is warmer than the upper flat. If it's the other way round, you will still lose some heat down to the flat below as well.

Ceiling voids are quite good from an insulation point of view, as you will normally have plaster (maybe laths as well), fairly static air in the 'joist' void, floorboards, foam underlay and a carpet to slow down the transfer of heat upwards. Wood, foam, static air and carpet are all good insulators.

epz_2

m.colak wrote: »

Hi not 100% sure of this but don't all boilers have a maximum shelf life of 15-20 years. So first i would check how old it is as you might have recourse for making the LL change the boiler anyway.

my folks lasted 35 years before needing replaced this week, of course i seriously doubt any new ones will last close to that.

Cardew

withabix wrote: »

Not necessarily! Also the OP said it felt cold. Not the same thing as it was cold. When you enter a loft in the winter, you are passing from the warmest part of your house (just below the ceiling) to the coldest part (your loft), hence the sensation of moving from warm to cold is greatest.

If we are down to semantics. You will note that I said "if your loft is cold"

I cannot be responsible for the OP's perception of 'cold'.

In the context of the OP's post it is quite clear that he/she feels a 'pretty cold' loft indicates that it has poor insulation.

withabix

epz wrote: »

my folks lasted 35 years before needing replaced this week, of course i seriously doubt any new ones will last close to that.

You replaced your old folks!! :eek: That's a bit cruel!

35 years isn't very old...mine are in their 70s and still going strong

moonrakerz

I have read this thread (and others in a similar vein) and have come to the conclusion that the vast majority of people have absolutely no idea of the cost of energy - be that a high cost or a low cost.
I daresay if you ask people about energy prices they will, to a man (or woman) say they are too expensive - but press them and they will not have a clue about the price of a kWh of electricity or gas.

The OP complains about a gas bill for a winter quarter of £202.08, this equates to £2.24 per day. There are 6 rads, a shower, gas cooker and presumably some sort of water heater; £2.24 divided by 9 "appliances" = just under 25p per item per day !
Perhaps they would like to swap their bill for mine !

Paulos77

Is this definetly just for Gas or for both gas and elect? it does seem pretty high just for gas.

I would suggest you look for another provider, and also pay by direct debit and get online bills if you have an internet. I currently pay just £34 a month for a 2 bedroom flat, thats for both gas and electricity, no bills through the post just online ones.

Also if you do it all online you somtimes get to find out different deals which you never hear of that would cut your bills too. Im with e-on and just moved over to a saver deal number 5 which I never knew about but found out when i logged on. I'm also around £200 in credit.

mute_posting

Paulos77 wrote: »

I currently pay just £34 a month for a 2 bedroom flat, thats for both gas and electricity, no bills through the post just online ones.....I'm also around £200 in credit.

May be a dumb question, but have you given them any readings lately??

Just mention it because that would imply (assuming they refund any credit say annually) that you are using only £210 worth of energy/standing charges per year...

The standing charge (or equivilant in tier 1 units) would come to between £100 and £150

MP