My gas is £10 per day! What can I do?

DavidA
DavidA Posts: 44
First Anniversary Combo Breaker
Forumite
I just moved to a new house and my gas bill is £300 per month. I'm using about 220kwh per day, so the problem is that I'm using a lot of gas rather than being overcharged.

It's a fairly large semi, 4 bed house which has three thermostats. One for upstairs, one for downstairs, one for the under-floor heating in the kitchen. The thermostats are all set to manual permanent at 19 degrees. I haven't put them on a timer yet. Even so, the house isn't particularly hot in my opinion.

What's causing me to burn through gas in this way? Help!
«134

Comments

  • Quentin
    Quentin Posts: 40,405 Forumite
    Heating all those areas 24/7 to 19° is bound to be expensive
  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,036
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post Rampant Recycler
    Forumite
    Firstly you should get a cheaper gas tariff. You should be able to get gas for a little over 3p/kWh - say £7 for 220kWh.


    How much of the 220kWh is for hot water?


    The key to lower heating costs is better insulation. Also how old is the boiler?
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 116,027
    Name Dropper First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    I just moved to a new house and my gas bill is £300 per month.

    Remember that this time of year is when you use the bulk of your energy. So, you would expect to see figures like yours during October to March.
    The thermostats are all set to manual permanent at 19 degrees. I haven't put them on a timer yet.
    24 hour heating is expensive.
    What's causing me to burn through gas in this way?

    Having the heating on 24/7.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • DavidA
    DavidA Posts: 44
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    edited 24 February 2019 at 9:30AM
    Thanks for your replies.

    I'm going to put the thermostats on timers, which are a CM927. I don't fully trust them because the room temperature often seems to be different to the target temperature. Also, since there's three thermostats and one boiler then which of the thermostats will control the hot water? I don't suppose there's any way of telling what my split is of heating and water is there, since they're both gas? I'm of a mind to switch those thermostats to Nests as they're a pain to use.

    cm927-500x500.jpg

    The boiler seems quite modern. In general it's quite a fancy system.

    Yes, I plan to move to a cheaper tariff. I wanted to get my head around why I'm burning through so much energy first.

    My new house seems kinda drafty. It's an old victorian house with single glazing, no curtains, sash windows, no carpets and gaps in the doors. A roofer told me the roof insulation is basically fine. I know I could improve the leakiness but I'm not sure where to start. Again, suggestions welcome!
  • Andy_WSM
    Andy_WSM Posts: 2,217
    First Anniversary First Post Uniform Washer Rampant Recycler
    Forumite
    DavidA wrote: »
    I wanted to get my head around why I'm burning through so much energy first.

    My new house seems kinda drafty. It's an old victorian house with single glazing, no curtains, sash windows, no carpets and gaps in the doors.


    There's the question & the answer in 2 of your own sentences.


    Fix those issues and i'm sure your gas consumption will drastically reduce.
  • matelodave
    matelodave Posts: 8,586
    First Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic First Post
    Forumite
    Check your own roof insulation - it should ideally be 300mm (10 inches thick) all over rather than "basically fine"

    An old house with draughy windows and doors is always going to cost a lot to heat. Try blocking the gaps between the skirting boards and floorboards. Likewise fill gaps between floorboards or cover them with carpets. Have you got insulation under your underfloor heating, if not then it;s also heating the void under your floors.

    Windows are more difficult although thick curtains would help or even secondary glazing to cut down on draughts.

    As as other have said, sort your heating timers out - it looks like you've got programmable room stats, so adjust them to give the temperatures that you want at the times that you need them rather than having the system flogging away for 24 hours a day. Sitting down for half an hour and programming them properly will save you a lot of money.

    I've got eight and once sorted they need a quick run round the house twice a year to adjust for summer/winter times. Mine are optimised for their locations (bderooms, lounge, study, bathroom etc) and only heat to the temperatures and times when those rooms are in use. They can be over ridden with a single button push and will revert back to their original programming so there's not a problem with leaving a stat on for longer than neccesary

    Make sure that your hot water tank is properly lagged and get a thermostat fitted to it if it hasn't got one so you can control your hot water temperature and timings.

    Read your meter regularly and frequently so you can see what sort of difference your energy saving measures are having. Geting the insulation and existing sytsems controls working properly will probably save you a lot more than lashing out on a Hive system.

    Hive thermostats will probably cost you a lot more than they'll save - Hive isn't a magic bullet, it's just a clever toy.
    Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large numbers
  • DavidA
    DavidA Posts: 44
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Thank you. With a young family and a busy work schedule, I'm quite time poor. It would help me to understand which of these is likely to give me the best result so that I can figure out what order to tackle them. I suppose most will need the services of a professional. So...

    - Set thermostat, including hot water, to timer.
    - Find a cheaper tariff.
    - Roof insulation.
    - Draft proof doors and windows. Needs a carpenter.
    - Floorboard gaps.
    - Water tank insulation.

    How does that look?
  • Robin9
    Robin9 Posts: 12,051
    First Post First Anniversary Name Dropper
    Forumite
    Do the first two this afternoon

    All are DIY jobs

    Use sausages for your doors
    Never pay on an estimated bill
  • mmmmikey
    mmmmikey Posts: 1,600
    First Post Name Dropper First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    DavidA wrote: »
    I'm going to put the thermostats on timers, which are a CM927. I don't fully trust them because the room temperature often seems to be different to the target temperature.


    Hi - modern programmable thermostats (or the one I had at least) have a bit of intelligence built in. For example, they will learn how quickly the house cools down and if you want the heating to be, say, 16 degrees overnight they will turn the heating off some time before that. So with mine the thermostats didn't turn the boiler on and off exactly when the room hit the temperature although they worked well enough overall.
  • mmmmikey
    mmmmikey Posts: 1,600
    First Post Name Dropper First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Loft insualtion is best done before you start dumping stuff in the loft. It's fairly easy to do yourself but not much fun and takes a bit of time. Having said that, even if you pay someone to do it (maybe £500 or so ????) if the loft isn't well insulated at the moment can pay for itself very quickly (a year or two ????). If you're not inclined to do this yourself and time is tight, I'd suggest getting it done over the summer ready for next season.


    Water cylinder insulation is likely to be 30 minutes top - you can get a jacket from Screwfix, B&Q, etc. for very little cost and worth doing ASAP if the cylinder isn't already well insulated. Worth getting some foam pipe lagging and insulating the hot pipes above cylinder at the same time.
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 342.4K Banking & Borrowing
  • 249.9K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 449.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 234.6K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 607K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 172.8K Life & Family
  • 247.4K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 15.8K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards