Gas Bill Massively Up / Pls help with Set-Up

[thx1138]

Hello everyone - the gas usage in our house is significantly higher since our boiler was replaced 6 months ago. We live in a 5-bedroom house and have a Kelson C40 boiler installed and an Ariston WRc-NSF tank. Interestingly, the new C40 boiler replaced one of the same model (which melted!).

We haven't really changed our usage patterns at all, but the gas usage shown on our bill has quadrupled. I have taken to try and understand the system myself and have started playing around with the different thermostat settings on the boiler and the tank. My main questions are:

(1) what temperatures should I set the boiler to (for both the central heating and the water system). i have set central heating to 55c and water system to 70c at the moment (thinking this ought to be higher than the temperature on the tank thermostat, to avoid constant cycling of the boiler - is this correct?)

(2) what temperature should the tank be set to (I think it's 60C, but I can't tell on the thermostat what temperature the tank is set to - help)

(3) from what I gather, the tank can either be operated with its immersion heater or not. in the cupboard, there appears to be an electric switch that reads "immersion only on if no gas). it is set to be on at the moment - is that correct?

I appreciate your help and sorry if these appear to be rookie questions. I am a rookie in these matters...

Thanks.

 

[cso30]

Hi,

Firstly, Have you had the installatoin engineers back to have a check?

Also have you had your gas meter changed recently, if so they might be chaging you for imperial readings and not metric. That's probably a long shot but check it out.

The actual boiler temperature settings sound ok,

I would definately turn off the immersion heater because your electric bills will be huge,

Turn the stat on the cylinder down to about 50c most people won't be able to hold there hand in water any hotter than that so you don't need it any hotter.

Remember hot water is lighter than cool water so if the cylinder stat is at the bottom of the cylinder and it is set to 60c the water is probably 70c at the top of the cylinder

Try and have the hot water timed to go off about an hour before you the last time would generally be using it in the evenings.

Play around with the temperature and times, eg try the hot water on for longer at a low temp for one week and then the next week run it at a higher temp for shorter periods, at the beginning and end of the test take meter readings and see which one uses the most gas

 

[gas4you]

Turn the stat on the cylinder down to about 50c most people won't be able to hold there hand in water any hotter than that so you don't need it any hotter.

You do for legionella control and regs.

60C is the optimum all round setting for the HW cylinder.

 

[cso30]

Do the regs apply to domestic properties?

If a cylinder stat is set at 50c surely the water at the top will be 60c?

Or do the newer stats allow for that?

Have you heard about the new reg for bath temperatures? It's supposed to come in later this year!

 

[snb]

the regulations do apply to domestic properties and they require that the temp of the water at the furthest hot tap from the cylinder is 55 degrees C.

To achive this the tank stat normally needs to be around 60

 

[bengasman]

Both still under warrantee, get the installer back.
What did you have before?
Are you with british gas?

 

[D_Hailsham]

Hello everyone - the gas usage in our house is significantly higher since our boiler was replaced 6 months ago. We live in a 5-bedroom house and have a Kelson C40 boiler installed and an Ariston WRc-NSF tank. Interestingly, the new C40 boiler replaced one of the same model (which melted!).

I know it's too late now, but why does your house need such a large boiler? I could understand it if you were installing a combi and had a large hot water requirement. Was it just because the old one was a C40, so you decided to go for the same again?

Unless you have a very big house with five double bedrooms, single glazed windows, no loft or wall insulation and draughts everywhere, I doubt if you would have needed such a large boiler.

Apart from replacing the boiler (and cylinder?), did you have any other bits replaced or added - e.g. TRVs, programmers etc?

Was the system balanced?

 

[htgeng]

I know it's too late now, but why does your house need such a large boiler

Nevermind that, but why did you replace a keston with a keston Do a search on this forum for keston boilers

 

[mickyg]

Interestingly, the new C40 boiler replaced one of the same model (which melted!).
.

 

[bengasman]

...Interestingly, the new C40 boiler replaced one of the same model (which melted!)..

Why not? Labour got reelected.