High Gas bills for new heating system in a new house...

[jayfield1979]

I have limited understanding of central heating and hot water systems but i require a little advice and the benefit of your collective knowledge…

4 months ago i moved into a brand new Barratts 3 storey 4 bedroom semi-detached house.

The central heating system is like nothing I have ever seen before. The hot water tank room has a massive amount of pipework, 2 pressure vessels and a tank with so many "boxes" on it so i'm completely lost.

To get to the point; i live alone, the house is very well insulated yet my first gas bill was over £220 for the quarter (Nov- Jan) which I believe to be excessive considering the following:

Firstly I have consulted my neighbours who live in a bigger house with more radiators and their bill was half mine and they have the heating on a LOT longer than me.

The HW was set to Manual Off.

The CH was set to come on for an hour in the morning and an hour at night. I probably put it on for an additional 15 hours during this period as I am away a lot.

My setup is as follows:

Ideal Ikos HE15 boiler
Siemens RWB29 HW/CH Timer Controller
Range Tribute HE Water Tank
12 radiators (4 on the ground floor, 5 on the second floor and 3 on the top floor)

I am supposed to live in an energy efficient house but the bills are 3x more than my old drafty 3 bedroom terrace house which was only slightly smaller.

Any initial ideas on how I could reduce my bills?

I have asked Barratts but the guy who installs the heating has been moved off site as they are nearing competition and they are not been very forthcoming with the answers.

I am aware of the heating water temperature (on the boiler) which i have reduced to a point where the radiators just about heat the rooms but even this has had no effect on gas meter readings i've been monitoring over the past month.

I will say this, my boiler comes on every 15 minutes for 3 minutes (burner on for 1 minute 20 seconds) 24 hours a day. Is this normal? Whats it doing?

There is a thermostat on the hot water tank. Does this do anything as i've adjusted it and it appears not to have an effect?

There is also (what i assume is) a pump on the hot water tank which is going 24 hours a day. That has 3 settings which appears to make the pump pump faster (louder). It was on setting 2 I have moved it to setting 1 as I couldn't stand the noise to be honest. Is this wise?

Sorry for all the questions but I am very keen to lower my bills as I really believe my current setup is costing me a lot of money.

 

[fekarrs]

4 months ago i moved into a brand new Barratts semi-detached house.

For that alone, you have our deepest sympathy!

 

[fekarrs]

Ideal Ikos HE15 boiler

My mistake. It gets worse.

 

[Norcon]

There is also (what i assume is) a pump on the hot water tank which is going 24 hours a day

Secondary circulation pump most likely.
It should not run 24/7. A pipe stat and timer should control them or a multifunction timer alone will work.

If the loop is badly insulated it will increase the energy loss but maybe not to the level you are experiencing.

 

[big-all]

wrong meter assigned to the wrong house if they are communal??

 

[vulcancontinental]

Did you get the meter read before you moved in?

You can have it checked of course as it's new though there's a charge.

Is the bill estimated?

Read the meter, wait a week, read it again and log the consumption for the week. Is it roughly a twelfth of your previous bill if the last one was a meter reading?

 

[jayfield1979]

It is definitely my meter and the meter reading was taken when I moved in and was very low. The bill was raised when I submitted my meter reading after an estimated bill.

I have logged the Gas meter reading for the past 3 weeks and despite all the adjustments, there is no decline in the amount of Gas i use... in actual fact this week i have (apparently) consumed more Gas despite me not being in the house all week and reducing my CH program to half an hour, twice a day.

Boiler is still going off every 15 minutes for 3 minutes and pump on tank is still going 24/7

 

[JohnD]

... my first gas bill was over £220 for the quarter (Nov- Jan) ....

And this through the coldest winter we have seen in 500 years? So what?

My Mid Nov gas meter reading was 09050 cubic metres and my mid Jan was 09471. That's 421 Cu metres or about 476kWh. I pay about 50p per cu.m. Including the standing charge, about £240

1) how many cubic metres did you use in the cold quarter, and how many cu.m per day are you using now?

2) If as you say the boiler is still going off at intervals, do you mean this is happening even though the programmer is on "off" and/or the room stat is satisfied? What is the room stat set to?

 

[craig51]

Does this boiler have a preheat? Can you see an economy button or preheat on the front?

Does it still fire up every 15mins even if you have the water and heating off?

"There is a thermostat on the hot water tank. Does this do anything as i've adjusted it and it appears not to have an effect?"

To test this, turn on only the water. This should fire the boiler up. Turn the stat down and the boiler should go off, turn it up and it should go back on. If it doest turn off, then the stat is faulty and might be contributing to your problem, along with the potentioal preheat mode keeping some water warm. However, I suspect you may have a wiring issue, as the pump certaily should not be pumping 24hrs, again this will cost you money as te water rattling around the pipes will cool, hence costing you gas.

 

[ianniann]

Overall 220 quid isn't excessive for that house for the last three months. However, there is no way that 2 hours a day plus a few extra hours would use that much gas. In fact that would cover only about half your bill.

For the rest, assuming you really did only use it that much, you can look to the water. Did you only use it on manual? Is the tank always warm? You may be heating your house through the hot water pipes and tank! 3 minutes every 15 minutes is excessive for maintaining even a full tank of water unless you are drawing off quite a bit of hot water. It is more than you are using to heat the whole house and would comfortably account for your bill.

The pump is probably OK on 2. I wouldn't expect it to be able to handle that size of system on setting 1. The top setting 3 is too high for most houses. If some radiators, either furthest from the boiler or perhaps on the top floor, don't get warm then the pump may be set too low.

 

[bengasman]

To get to the point; i live alone, the house is very well insulated yet my first gas bill was over £220 for the quarter (Nov- Jan) which I believe to be excessive considering the following:

Winter quarter bill ( dec - feb ) is approximately half of the annual total, hence you should expect to pay about £500 for the whole year; quite good at the current gas prices.

Based on who built the house, I would not be surprised if the systems was not balanced properly, the settings were wrong, and the timer not optimal ( doubt that it is an independent model ) Sorting all that out could knock another 10% of your bill.

Sadly, you boiler is a piece of junk, and short of ripping it out, nothing will alter that situation.

 

[jayfield1979]

1) how many cubic metres did you use in the cold quarter, and how many cu.m per day are you using now?

2) If as you say the boiler is still going off at intervals, do you mean this is happening even though the programmer is on "off" and/or the room stat is satisfied? What is the room stat set to?

1) will have to work that out

2) Room stat is set to 16 degrees and yes, even with both HW and CH set to Manual Off the boiler is still going off every 15 minutes.

Forget the fact it was the coldest winter, I wasn't even in the house for a month of that period. The heating was only set to go on for 2 hours each day and I hardly ever had to override that even when I was living in the property so my Gas bill should have been lower.

 

[picasso]

I reckon norcon is on the money with your secondary pump running 24/7, try turning it off and then check you gas usage, there should be an isolation switch near the pump.

 

[expertgasman]

£220! winter qtr! Jeez, that would be like a pay rise for me!

 

[mickyg]

The CH was set to come on for an hour in the morning and an hour at night. I probably put it on for an additional 15 hours during this period as I am away a lot.....................................................
I will say this, my boiler comes on every 15 minutes for 3 minutes (burner on for 1 minute 20 seconds) 24 hours a day. Is this normal? Whats it doing?

No this is not normal! The boiler should never fire without a demand . . you have a fault that would explain excessive gas usage . Get it looked at asap, I wouldnt be surprised if its been wired up wrong and the Perm Live has been wired into the switched live on the boiler, wouldnt be the first time thats happened on new build ! Slap, dash, run ! yeehaw !