Excessive gas usage - proper figures included

[bhm1712]

in 16 days, i have used 2166 KW/h of gas which equates to £83.79

i have a Gravity hot water system and pumped heating which i know is not as effiecient as a fully pumped system, but it still seems alot. My boiler is a Glow worm Space saver mk2. Thermostat on boiler is set to low, to give me hot water temp of 140 degree F, and roomstat is set and left on 20 degree C.

i have the system on 3 times a day for a total of 12 hours (new baby in house so needs constant temp) once the house is up to temp and the stat satisfied initially, it calls for heat about every 20 mins after that for 10 mins just to keep the room temp right.

house also has new double glazing, cavity wall insulation and 200mm of loft insulation. all tanks lagged and cylinder insulated with foam from factory and then a tank bag added aswel.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Does not seem too excessive to me, but how big is the house and the system?

 

[bhm1712]

its a 3 bedroom semi, in total 7 rads. one in each room and one in the hallway.

i thought it seemed excessive but maybe im being paranoid.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I could be wrong, but with your usage it is £5.23 a day - which to my mind is not that excessive.

 

[Agile]

Seems normal to me too!

Turn stat down and put on some clothes!

They did not have central heating in the middle ages but the babies still survived. Humans are not as susceptable to cold as you seem to immagine. They have lives for thousands of years until central heating became popular in the 60s and 70s!

Also get a condensing boiler if you want to use less gas!

Tony

 

[bengasman]

your system probably has an overall return of about 60%, hence your high gasbill

 

[scatmanjohn]

The Gas bills are out and everyone is suprised at the big bills.

Gas is expensive these days....get used to it

 

[leakydave]

Gravity hot-water is such an inefficient way of heating; you can't turn it off even if your water is up to required temp.

Get your system upgraded to fully pumped and use your energy wisely... wall stat, cylinder stat, TRV's, loft and wall insulation and even two jumpers!

 

[bhm1712]

i have been considering a c plan. i cannot afford to upgrade to fully pumped!

 

[bengasman]

can not afford to get it done properly?
what you should ask yourself, with a gasbill of £150 a month, can you afford NOT to?

 

[scatmanjohn]

A Tapstat would give you basic hot water control.

http://www.uk-plumbing.com/brochure/drayton/TapstatlSales.pdf

The only real solution to high gas bills is a new more efficient system.

A Spacesaver on a gravity hot water system is like like warming the house up by burning fivers

How skint are you? Are you in receipt of any benefits?

If so grants are available.

http://www.warmfront.co.uk/?icid=A069-51865924-107M

 

[JohnD]

on a gravity system it is useful to thickly lag the primary pipes with BS climaflex or similar. this is cheap on materials but can be labour intensive if they are mostly underfloor. you will see the difference in summer when the heating is off.

 

[Malc C]

At over £5 a day that seems a bit high. We've just got our bill and it works out at just under £3.20 per day for heating and cooking. Our system is gravity fed HW and pumped CH to 8 rads (5 large doubles). The house is end of terraced, with the end wall north facing. The house has a shallow pitched roof so no loft, but walls have been filled.

Heating is programmed for 3 hours in the morning, and then 8 hours afternoon / evening, however most weekends and with the recent cold snap / snow its been on continuously from mid morning until we retire for bed at 11pm. This period also included the Christmas period, so again it been boosted outside of the programmed pattern.

I know you can't really compare individual households directly, but personally I feel that £3 per day in the winter months for all our heating, hot water and cooking needs is quite reasonable, especially for a family of 5.

 

[bhm1712]

what exactly is involved with converting to fully pumped?

electrically i can do it myself, but plumbing i cannot.

as far as i can understand, id need to connect the flow pipe to the cylinder to the heating flow pipe, with a motorised valve in between and same for the return pipe, and have a cylinder stat which controls the motorised valves, but what mods would i need to do to the programmer wiring?

is what i just said completely off the mark?

 

[bhm1712]

im not THAT skint that im on benefits, we just had a new baby so all the money is going towards him, and mortgage as we just bought our first house