Crazy lpg usage! Please help me!!!
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Forestdan
Posts: 8 Forumite
Hi All,
I’m hoping that someone here can shead some light on my current gas usage and hopefully help me out beacuse im about to lose my mind.
Flogas are currently supplying my 47KG bottles at £68.11 (inc VAT). I live in a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom end of terrace house. I have 8 radiators in the house (various sizes).
As both me and wife work full time the heating isn’t on during the day as no one is home. It’s on for around 7 hours a day few in the morning and a few hours at night.
We are using a full bottle every 9-10 days and we can’t seem to figure this out. Not only that the house is always cold.
During the colder months we can use 3/4 bottles a month, not only that but as the house is forever cold we are having to put electric blow heaters on as well which is eating the electric but its seem to be the only way to get the warm.
All radiator are hot, we have solid wall insulation front and back of the property and cavity wall insulation on the side. But the house just wont stay warm and were sick of living under blankets.
A couple of plumbers have come out and said that we needs a brand new boiler, but the one is in when we moved in around 2 years ago isn’t that old.
We seem to be stuck in a vicious circle as we can’t save for a new boiler as we need to keep buying bottles to heat the house (well try) and for showers/baths etc.
If anyone can help at all that would be very helpful
Thanks, Dan
I’m hoping that someone here can shead some light on my current gas usage and hopefully help me out beacuse im about to lose my mind.
Flogas are currently supplying my 47KG bottles at £68.11 (inc VAT). I live in a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom end of terrace house. I have 8 radiators in the house (various sizes).
As both me and wife work full time the heating isn’t on during the day as no one is home. It’s on for around 7 hours a day few in the morning and a few hours at night.
We are using a full bottle every 9-10 days and we can’t seem to figure this out. Not only that the house is always cold.
During the colder months we can use 3/4 bottles a month, not only that but as the house is forever cold we are having to put electric blow heaters on as well which is eating the electric but its seem to be the only way to get the warm.
All radiator are hot, we have solid wall insulation front and back of the property and cavity wall insulation on the side. But the house just wont stay warm and were sick of living under blankets.
A couple of plumbers have come out and said that we needs a brand new boiler, but the one is in when we moved in around 2 years ago isn’t that old.
We seem to be stuck in a vicious circle as we can’t save for a new boiler as we need to keep buying bottles to heat the house (well try) and for showers/baths etc.
If anyone can help at all that would be very helpful
Thanks, Dan
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Comments
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Loft insulation?
Double glazing?
Draught-proofing?
Front door opening directly into living room (or other similar opening losing tons of heat when opened)?
Make/model of boiler?
Date last serviced?
But the underlaying issue is..... 47KG LPG bottles!
Either get an LPG tank installed, or switch your heating source completely.0 -
Hi G_M
No loft insulation as the estate we live on all houses have flat roofs.
Double glazed the property top to bottom when we move in 2 years ago costing a small fortune as windows and door were mouldy and causing damp.
The door we use opens into kitchen so not really a problem there i dont think.
Boiler is a Glow-Work easicom 24. Not to sure on the installation date as we have no certs with the boiler.
However when plumber came and serviced it when we moved in 2 years ago he said it is safe but wont certify it beacuse he didnt install which is fair enough.
When we last serviced around a year ago he did tweak the boiler so it wouldnt use as much gas just the bear minimum to function but it didnt really help.
We have to have LPG as we have no mains gas on the estate!
We have contacted Flogas for a survey in regards to the bulk tank but they keep putting it off as they are making so much of us on the bottles!
Cheers, Dan0 -
We have contacted Flogas for a survey in regards to the bulk tank but they keep putting it off as they are making so much of us on the bottles!
You don't have to use Flogas.
Do you have any small independents near you?
Suggest you have a look at the UKLPG website:
https://www.uklpg.org/0 -
You should in any case shop around for your LPG.Hi G_M
No loft insulation as the estate we live on all houses have flat roofs.
so what insulation is there? If none, you can still install internal insulation.
Double glazed the property top to bottom when we move in 2 years ago costing a small fortune as windows and door were mouldy and causing damp.
The door we use opens into kitchen so not really a problem there i dont think.
???? So you open the external door into your warm kitchen and the warm air does not rush out....? Of course it does and of course your boiler then has to replace it.
Boiler is a Glow-Work easicom 24. Not to sure on the installation date as we have no certs with the boiler.
I'm not a gas engineer. Get opinions on its efficiency.
However when plumber came and serviced it when we moved in 2 years ago he said it is safe but wont certify it beacuse he didnt install which is fair enough.
Safe is good. Efficient? Gas-guzzling?
When we last serviced around a year ago he did tweak the boiler so it wouldnt use as much gas just the bear minimum to function but it didnt really help.
We have to have LPG as we have no mains gas on the estate!
I never said you did. I suggested considering switching your heating source as LPG is expensive. Not suggesting it's worth doing, just worth looking into. Heat pump? Off-peak leckie? Stove?
We have contacted Flogas for a survey in regards to the bulk tank but they keep putting it off as they are making so much of us on the bottles!
well if Flogas don't respond, find someone else!0 -
No loft insulation as the estate we live on all houses have flat roofs.
We have to have LPG as we have no mains gas on the estate!
If there is gas in the area (ie passing the estate entrance), it may be worth approaching your community council and seeing if they will canvass residents and approach gas transporters (of which Transco is one of many) for a quotation for gas infill connection.
The work may be funded either by initial payment or by a surcharge on bills. There may also be grants or loads available for gas infill connection schemes - try Energy Saving Trust website.
If there isn't gas in the area or infill connection costs are too high because of streetworks involved, then try forming a buying group of residents as 50 houses buying 200+ cylinders in bulk should be in a better negotiating position. The price of LPG is highly negotiable.
There may also be grants or loans for roof insulation.A kind word lasts a minute, a skelped erse is sair for a day.0 -
Hi All,
I’m hoping that someone here can shead some light on my current gas usage and hopefully help me out beacuse im about to lose my mind.
Flogas are currently supplying my 47KG bottles at £68.11 (inc VAT). I live in a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom end of terrace house. I have 8 radiators in the house (various sizes).
As both me and wife work full time the heating isn’t on during the day as no one is home. It’s on for around 7 hours a day few in the morning and a few hours at night.
We are using a full bottle every 9-10 days and we can’t seem to figure this out. Not only that the house is always cold.
During the colder months we can use 3/4 bottles a month, not only that but as the house is forever cold we are having to put electric blow heaters on as well which is eating the electric but its seem to be the only way to get the warm.
All radiator are hot, we have solid wall insulation front and back of the property and cavity wall insulation on the side. But the house just wont stay warm and were sick of living under blankets.
A couple of plumbers have come out and said that we needs a brand new boiler, but the one is in when we moved in around 2 years ago isn’t that old.
We seem to be stuck in a vicious circle as we can’t save for a new boiler as we need to keep buying bottles to heat the house (well try) and for showers/baths etc.
If anyone can help at all that would be very helpful
Thanks, Dan
Ok lets run a back of the envelope calculation.
Propane LPG contains 12.9 kiloWatt hours of energy per kg weight. https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2002/EricLeung.shtml
So your 47kg bottles each contain 12.9 x 47 kWhrs of heat, = 606 kWhrs.
A typical average radiator kicks out say about 1.5kW of heat and you have 8, so when your heating is ON you will be burning 8 x 1.5kW = 12kW.
So running your heating for an hour uses 12 kWhours of gas assuming the boiler efficiency is 100% (which it isn't. We'll get to that bit later).
606 kWhrs of gas in a bottle, and radiators that use 12 kWhrs per hour of running time, means you can expect one bottle to run the heating system for 606/12 = 50 hours.
You say you have the heating ON for seven hours a day so you ought to be finding a 47kg bottle lasts for 50 hours dived by seven hours = 7.14 days. But yours are lasting ten days so I think you are doing pretty well on the economy stakes!!
Now your boiler is probably only 90% efficient so theoretically I would expect your 7.14 days to actually be 7.14 x 90% = 6.4 days.
This is actually a really good illustration of how nose-bleeding expensive bottled LPG is. A bulk tank will be cheaper but do some figures. Bulk LPG is sold by the litre rather than by the kg so beware. A litre only contains 7.5 kWhrs according to the link I posted above.
Heating your hose with fan heaters *might* be cheaper. 4 fan heaters putting out say 8 kwatts between them will burn 8 units of electricity per hour. At say 15p a unit that is £1.20 an hour. For seven hours this is £8.40 per day. So £84 for ten days. So actually, bottled LPG is still WAY cheaper!!Boiler repair technician in Reading, will travel. Older and awkward boilers my speciality. Google "Mike the Boilerman".0
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