very high gas bill

[johno12345]

Hi,

We have an ideal concorde C boiler and we have just had a monthly gas bill of £1800. As I am still recovering from the shock, what should I be checking installation wise. There are no other gas appliances fed from the meter and the boiler is set to shut down at night etc. How can I check the meter is working corectly, it was flooded 6 months ago about 12" deep.

Thanks

 

[mikej2005]

I'm not sure if a domestic boiler in an average-sized house could actually use that much gas in a month !

How big is your house and what have your previous bills been like ?

 

[JohnD]

this usually happens when previous bills have been based on estimates and the new bill has caught up on previous bills that were too low.

Look up your old bills and draw up a table of meter readings, showing which were Actual and which were Estimates.

As you are worried about your gas usage, start noting the meter reading weekly - start today, and see how much has been used since the latest reading on your bill.

Until we know how much gas is actually going through your meter we can't comment sensibly on the size of your bill.

You say the bill is a monthly one - aren't you billed quarterly?

Who is your gas supplier?

 

[johno12345]

I missed some detail as usual...

We are a commercial premises but the building in question is just a large 4 bed house. The bill is monthly I will go and check the meter over a fixed time period to see how much / munite we are using.

Thanks

 

[JohnD]

and what about your previous bills?

 

[johno12345]

Hi again,

Previous bills are between £1600 and £1800 for the last 6 months, that is why it has been passed to me. I dont have the actual bills just the readings and invoice costs.

I have been watching the meter and I timed 60 seconds.

Metric meter
Start reading 413349 0/10
End reading 413349 9/10

The boiler details are
Ideal Concord 170 Series 4
Heat output 48.4Kw / 165000BTU
Heat Input 62.1Kw / 211500BTU


Meter is stationary when the boiler is off.

 

[tonybhoy]

Hi again,

Previous bills are between £1600 and £1800 for the last 6 months, that is why it has been passed to me. I dont have the actual bills just the readings and invoice costs.

I have been watching the meter and I timed 60 seconds.

Metric meter
Start reading 413349 0/10
End reading 413349 9/10

The boiler details are
Ideal Concord 170 Series 4
Heat output 48.4Kw / 165000BTU
Heat Input 62.1Kw / 211500BTU


Meter is stationary when the boiler is off.

That is a big old boiler.Cast Iron heat exchanger with 1&1/2" tappings.

Doesn't surprise me the bills are huge.

Typically those boilers were fitted in really large houses with a gravity hot water set-up.Usually loads of rads ,in short loads of water in the system which means lots of energy to heat the house.

Was never really a problem back in the day they were installed cause the owners were normally loaded and gas prices were relatively cheap.

When you say between £1600 and £1800 is that per month or for the six months?

 

[WDIK]

concord c

how old is that?

 

[tonybhoy]

concord c

how old is that?

At a guess I'd say 25 years.

Loads of them fitted round near to where I live.

That is actually one of the smaller ones.

Still hundreds of Ideal e-types installed here too,some of them over 30 years old and still going strong.

I pull them out regularly,though.

 

[WDIK]

thought it was,

bottom line get rid, get a modern boiler in and some decent controls.

 

[johno12345]

Hi,


The boiler was installed in 1982, a rather good year, I was born

We have another but it is 350000btu.

The system did have gravity hot water but it was scalding people so we disconnected it and fitted an electric meegaflow so we can shut the boiler down in summer.

I would like to say that it is a reliable old girl but it isnt. It goes through thermocouples like nobodys business and it has had 3 gas valves in the last 18 months.

That is £1800 per calendar month.

Someone suggested a Keston boiler but I think we might just improve our A/C system and add a few electric fires in the stairwell.

Thanks

The pipework is 2" steel and it has loads of rads that only get nicely warm, never really hot.

 

[WDIK]

Hi,


The boiler was installed in 1982, a rather good year, I was born

We have another but it is 350000btu.

The system did have gravity hot water but it was scalding people so we disconnected it and fitted an electric meegaflow so we can shut the boiler down in summer.

I would like to say that it is a reliable old girl but it isnt. It goes through thermocouples like nobodys business and it has had 3 gas valves in the last 18 months.

That is £1800 per calendar month.

Someone suggested a Keston boiler but I think we might just improve our A/C system and add a few electric fires in the stairwell.

Thanks

The pipework is 2" steel and it has loads of rads that only get nicely warm, never really hot.

reliable? 3 gas valves in 18 months

no mate this boiler is so inefficient that most of the money is going up the flue

not knowing your system but from what you say it sounds like the boiler is under sized probabley scaled and franky is well overdue a major failure.

you can play with air con and reversable systems that give you heat as well as cooling, they are very cost effective as the major feature is using cold air to warm the refrigerant.

dont touch a keston.

a high efficiency boiler may be the way forward but on a 25yr old system there may be some problems

you need to sharpen up your energy policy not just because you have high bills.

 

[Corgigrouch]

Something is very amiss... I have a pal who has a huge three floor farm house and offices heated with a 40Kw oil boiler and his oil bill is only £450 a month so your building must be very large indeed. If your water is heated electrically then air source heat pumps (A/C) are worth looking at, you can heat each room as you need it but do make sure that you buy a decent make.. Cheapies will bite you on the bum. Do remember that servicing costs will be higher than a boiler

 

[tonybhoy]

Something is very amiss... I have a pal who has a huge three floor farm house and offices heated with a 40Kw oil boiler and his oil bill is only £450 a month so your building must be very large indeed. If your water is heated electrically then air source heat pumps (A/C) are worth looking at, you can heat each room as you need it but do make sure that you buy a decent make.. Cheapies will bite you on the bum. Do remember that servicing costs will be higher than a boiler

Must be some size of property he has.

Eighty KW of boilers and £1800 a month for heating only which is nearly £22K

 

[Corgigrouch]

Something is very amiss... I have a pal who has a huge three floor farm house and offices heated with a 40Kw oil boiler and his oil bill is only £450 a month so your building must be very large indeed. If your water is heated electrically then air source heat pumps (A/C) are worth looking at, you can heat each room as you need it but do make sure that you buy a decent make.. Cheapies will bite you on the bum. Do remember that servicing costs will be higher than a boiler

Must be some size of property he has.

Eighty KW of boilers and £1800 a month for heating only which is nearly £22K

It sure is, his livingroom has a larger floor area than the whole of my 3 bed semi.. He even has a small Cinema. But he works incredibly hard and has earned it...I'd hate to have his mortgage. He did utter something about Ground source heat pumps.. the house is situated in the middle of a field so this is no problem but I see myself doing some more learning