V.High Boiler consumption & excessive bills

[lifesagasman]

Thanks & will do tomorrow..

And that is interesting. The encumbant supplier here when we moved in was EON and we had a £680 Gas/Electric bill (£420 Gas) for less than 6 weeks usage before we switched to BG.

Now with BG the bill is £300 per month combined. Still really high than our previous property but not as high as EON..

Meter is being checked by BG next week.

I'll report back with the readings tomorrow.

as has been said, bills don't accurately reflect consumption. the only way to clarify your claim is to have the meters checked. did the sparky concur that your leccy meter was not reading accurately?. it would be an odds-against miracle if both meters were not registering correctly

 

[SibeSpace]

I agree. Both are metric digital meters. For 1 to be faulty is almost impossible, for both - I'd get better odds on winning the lottery (which I might need to do for these bloody bills )

Sparky turned everything on in the house (every light, cooker, TVs washing machine, tumble dryer) and checked the usage through the fuseboard. He said it was pulling 12 amps total - which I guess is nothing really. He was stumped as to what was taking the electric.

IF the gas meter is reading correctly and IF the boiler is not buring excessively - am I right to assume the only thing that can be causing it is the boiler burning almost constantly? i.e. never shutting off?

If so, can that only be caused by the thermostat not switching off or the house not reaching the temperature that the thermostat is set to?

 

[lifesagasman]

it's a dead cert the boiler won't be burningmore gas than it was designed to do. even if it was most of that gas would probably convert to heat. if it never turned off you'd probably be walking around in shorts all winter.
you've got a mystery on your hands but not an unsolveable one!

 

[aelitaman]

What temp is the termostat set to and where is it located?

 

[SibeSpace]

The Thermostat is set to 17 and is located in the hallway next to the front door. If we turn it up to 20 the boiler never shuts off. If we turn it down to 15 the boiler never comes on.


Front door is double glazed and we have a porch that is also double glazed..

 

[xr4x4]

linkyplumb - I'm slightly south of Tadley..

cor.. me too..!!

 

[SibeSpace]

Uh Oh

 

[Agile]

Leave the heating and hot water off for a few hours like overnight.

Turn the boiler on so that its burning away on maximum power at first and then read the gas meter EXACTLY at a two minute interval.

Using the information in the FAQ on this site you can calculate the Gas Rate. Thats the power in kW that the boiler is using.

If the calcs are too much for you then just give us the meter readings and we will do it for you.

Then multiply the kW by say 0.032 to get the hourly cost in pounds. Multiply by the daily hours used and then by 30 to get the monthly cost.

Then you and us can see whats going on.

The boiler is unable to use a lot more gas than its designed for but the meter COULD be out of calibration but dealing with that is a complicated business. I am not very happy with it as its arranged by the energy supplier and I dont fully trust them. EON were charging me about £1000 per month for a two bed house which is not really possible to disipate.

Tony

 

[mikely]

The spec for your boiler quotes a maximum gas rate of 2.72 m3/h. So 20 m3 a day would mean the boiler is running at maximum output for over 7 hours a day. This should not be the case if you only have the heating on for 8 hours a day.

To check your electricity usage, you could get an electricity monitor which would help check usage and identify the big consumers.

 

[lifesagasman]

I agree. Both are metric digital meters. For 1 to be faulty is almost impossible, for both - I'd get better odds on winning the lottery (which I might need to do for these bloody bills )

Sparky turned everything on in the house (every light, cooker, TVs washing machine, tumble dryer) and checked the usage through the fuseboard. He said it was pulling 12 amps total - which I guess is nothing really. He was stumped as to what was taking the electric.

IF the gas meter is reading correctly and IF the boiler is not buring excessively - am I right to assume the only thing that can be causing it is the boiler burning almost constantly? i.e. never shutting off?

If so, can that only be caused by the thermostat not switching off or the house not reaching the temperature that the thermostat is set to?

electric cooker, was it?? tumble dryer on heat, washer on heat cycle, lights etc etc would draw more than 12 A

 

[big-all]

you best call your bungalow 2x power use plus a further 2x for the reduced insulation so you should expect up to 3x the energy consumption!! assuming 4" loft insulation over 6" in your old house
fewer radiators just means longer to get to temperature so greater heat loss