How often do you put your gas on?

[kcchiefette]

I recently got my quarterly gas bill in - £600 for a 3 bed end terrace house!

Last year's bill was half of that! Luckily I have money put away as I wouldn't have been able to afford to pay it out of my wages.

I work from home so it gets a bit chilly but I generally put heat on 2x hours in the morning, 2x hours during the day and 2x hours in the evening.

I now think I am going to reduce to just 2x hours in the evening and layer up if its cold during the morning and day.

My mums bill was £1k!

Thank god the summer is coming in soon.

AIBU to think these prices are outrageous?!

I pay monthly, but if I add up my actual Dec, Jan, Feb gas usage bill it's £450. I live in a 4 bed detached. My heating kicks in whenever it gets colder than 20.5c between 6am and 10pm. I think that's alright really, considering.

@SpringSprungALeak yes but it is £369 whereas hiring one is around £100. Dh did the research on it and I think went for this because of being able to record/take photos. There are cheaper ones out there

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B089GHDK49

That's not too bad at all. There's some good tips given by other posters re insulation, thermostats etc. I also bleed the radiators every year & I've put silver reflective foam at the back of them, it's really easy to fit with double sided tape. Heated clothes airers can take the chill off a fair bit and make small rooms quite snug.

@OrangeStringer

thank you!!

yeah, I'll probably see about hiring one.

i live alone, in a fairly new area, any friends that might have had one are too far away now & not many people I know now need to use it, so not much point in investing in buying one.

i don't 'do' SM, so can't ask locally to borrow one, which seems a bit daft as there are probably so many sitting around in garages... doing nothing!!

but thanks for your help!

My gas heating goes on from 6.30-7.30 and from 6pm - 9pm

Gas water heating is on from 6am-6.30am (enough for two showers)

If I need heat during the day, I have a tiny convector heater in my office and I only heat that room. One bar of three, on medium keeps me toasty. Costs very little..

I spend £135 a month on gas & electric. My January bill was £205 for a 4 bed detached.

6-7 hours a day seems like a lot given that the weather has been very mild for the last month or so. I’ve just looked on my app and for the last 2 weeks (all the app records) we’ve had the heating on a max of 2.5 hours a day, most days it’s showing 1.5ish and there’s a couple of days we didn’t have it on. It does depend how well insulated your house is of course, mine is a new build and very well insulated.

My thermostat is set at 19° and the boiler is set to come on continually from 7 am to 10pm but obviously only kicks in if the temp drops below 19°.

I a recently retired and in and out at random times and it suits me to have my house at this background heat which I boost occasionally if I feel chilly in the evening.

My monthly payments for a 3 bed bungalow are about £140 a month but I’m due to send in my meter readings today so might go up as it was estimated last quarter. Hopefully it won’t be too much!

It also depends what her thermostat is set to. Mine is on all day, set to 18, so it only clicks on if it goes below that. Therefore if it’s mild outside, it just clicks on less often than if it’s cold outside. My heating is technically on all day though.

It's on all the time. We just adjust the thermostat, typically between 19 and 22. I don't get this UK custom of putting it on for x number of hours. Our gas bill last month was 95, not including the standing charges. That includes the cooker and hot water boiler.

I mean mine is "on" all the time but I use on for when it's actually heating
It's set to kick in below 5c all day but otherwise it will only heat for 2hrs a day to get it to 18c

Mine is set to 18 all day as I never really want to be colder than that 😂

That sounds like an awful lot!

I’m in a 3 bed terrace and pay between £110-120 a month on a pre-payment meter (so around £330-360 a quarter?) for gas.

I have my thermostat set to 17 degrees and my timer set for 1.5 hours in the morning and 5.5 hours (3pm - 8.30pm) in the evening so 7 hours a day in total. If its my day off work and I’m not snuggled under my duvet and I’m home I’ll often pop the heating on for most of the day as I hate being cold. My hot water is set to 4 hours a day and I also have a gas hob which I cook on a lot.

£600 for 4 hours a day seems nuts! How high is your thermostat set?

I do one hour 'boosts' maybe twice a day if it's needed.

Ours is on for about three hours a day and we pay about £60 a month.

I have just had my bill in mid dec to mid march (3 months) £200. I have it on for about 2 hours a day in a modern-ish 3 bed semi.

It has not been on for the last few days though and will be off totally at the end of March.

It depends what temperature you set your heating at. 2 hrs at 16 degrees will use a lot less gas than 2 hrs at 20 degrees. We rarely put our thermostat above 16.

Have you checked in case it's an estimated reading or did you send a reading in?

And also the type of property.
Is your "3 bedroomed end terrace" a modern newish build or, like mine, an old Victorian single brick job with tall ceilings and draughty floorboards?

Thermal layers and keeping your neck warm helps a lot IMHO.

4 bed detached here (garage conversion downstairs too so an extra living room). House is 20yrs old. Our heating is on a lot. Thermostat set to 20. At the moment, during the week it comes on 7-10am. I try not to put on again unless it's quite cold outside but sometimes I do. Just put it on there at 2pm coz it's down to 17 and I hate being cold! I usually put it on again when youngest gets home from school at 3pm and it's on timer until 10pm to go off. If it's really cold sometimes it hasn't even got to 20.5 where it wld click off. This means it's been on for hours on end.

At wkend it comes on 8am-12pm then from 5-10pm.

We pay £200 per month for gas and electric all year round. In winter months sometimes it's £300 or £350+ if particularly cold that month but summer is sometimes less than £100 per month. Your bill seems high for what ur using. Is the boiler old, are walls insulated?

Maybe u shld try putting it on for longer in the morning. They say it takes more energy for boiler to power up and get everything going so having it on and off 3 times is prob costing more than having on twice for same number of hours.

Detached 4-bed new build so well insulated.
we pay £200/mo for dual fuel with EON. We just keep the thermostat at 19C all year and it kicks in as needed. Hot water is on for 2hrs each AM and PM.

30 minutes in the morning and the same in the evening. We had a woodburner fitted but even before that was fitted we wouldn't run it for more than an hour morning and evening.
We are in an old terrace and it never feels cold. The heating is mainly for house health rather than comfort. After paying 250 per month in my last house I'm very grateful.

I generally keep mine on really low, and keep it there 24/7.
I have PAYG meters and it's around £20 a week.

Mine is on all day in the colder weather with the thermostat set to 20. We turn it down to 10 at bedtime.
I have a combi boiler for the hot water.
I have good insulation, reflectors behind the radiators and shelves above the ones not beneath windows, such as in the hallway and bathrooms.
I also keep all the internal doors closed and close the curtains when it gets dark, even in rooms not being used. I have curtains over the external doors.
Due to the above, the thermostat doesn't click on too often and I pay £100 per month. Four bedroomed bungalow with a total of 12 double radiators.

We put our gas central heating on literally when it's cold! It was warm for much of February, but quite cold so far in March, so we have had it on more in the first half of March than in the whole of February.

Gas Direct Debit is £55 a month. Costs about £100 a month in winter, down to £25 in summer. So roughly £50-£55 a month on average throughout the year. (2 bed detached bungalow,) I have no idea how or why people are getting £200 to £300 a month gas bills. It's either they have a faulty or very old boiler/central heating system, or they have the heating on way too much/too readily. OR they have very bad insulation, and draughty windows!

Even when we had a 3 bed detached house - before downsizing - the gas bill was only £45 a month Direct Debit. (We moved about 5 years ago.) Our gas bill Direct Debit when we moved to our 2 bed detached bungalow was £33 a month. Obviously gone up to £55 with the cost of living!

I know some people who have the thermostat at 23-25 degrees C. That's insane. Ours is never higher than 17 degrees C. If it gets a bit chilly, we wrap up/put a fleece and some socks on... We don't just crank up the thermostat! We also have loft insulation and cavity wall insulation which also helps. Oh and our heating system - radiators and boiler - is just 7 years old, and our windows and doors are only 9 years old, which also helps!

£200 a month for a 3 bed end terraced house is very high @kcchiefette Even in winter. As I said, February was warm. You shouldn't have needed the heating on hardly. And why on earth was your mum's bill £1000 for 13 weeks?!

Our electric costs about £60 a month. Apart from our cooker and and heating, everything is electric.