DP and The Gas Bill.

[Jellylegss]

We live in a semi 3bed not a new build but 60’s so not ancient.. I believe it’s well insulated (haven’t ventured into a wall cavity or the loft to check) but the gas bill always seems high. Heatings set to 17c during the day with a quick burst at home time. Proper fire if it gets too cold downstairs. Combined gas and electric was £140 last month so he’s on the war path if I so much as glance at a raidator too long.

Half of the problem is the massive floor to ceiling stone kitchen (I swear that rooms never warm) where he stands with the back door open and his obsession with condensation leaving the bathroom window open for hours so let’s all the heat out.

Smart meters being fitted on Friday, I’ve even bought a window vac to suck the condensation up.. you’ll guess how often it’s out .

How do you cut a down on the gas side of the bill/keep the house warm at the same time? What’s a normal monthly gas/combined bill?

I'm in a three bed end terraced 60s built house. Solid walls and lots of loft insulation and good windows and doors.
Electric £120 per month
Gas £50 per month

We’re in a 3 bed semi. Built 1900. We pay £72 a month for gas and electric. We are in the North (not sure if it matters when it comes to bills)

Some of it is house design- our living rooms are in the centre of the house where the two houses join, so have no external walls other than one per room where the window is. We are east/west facing so have the sun all morning on one side of the lounge and all afternoon on the other.

Some of it is interior design- the colours we have are soft browns, creams, oranges and reds so physiologically its a “warm” room. Our furiniture is all warm oak. When we moved it it was all grey/whites and blacks and it felt like such a cold colour scheme for us. We have curtains which when closed on a night time insulate the rooms very well as well. We also have carpets everywhere other than dining room/ kitchen and have a modern vinyl in the bathroom so there are no cold tiles in the house. I actually had the underfloor heating removed when we removed the tiles when we remodelled the bathroom; better to put vinyl down which feels warm underfoot anyway than waste money heating tiles in my opinion

I find we don’t need the heating on. It’s set to go on at 16 degrees but rarely needs to come on. We live in a small village and our house does have the original fireplace which now has a log burner in but we’ve only used it once or twice this year. The house can almost be too hot with it on as it never gets below 17 degrees even with the heating off (we have a thermometer in the room) The only thing I feel makes the rooms colder is that we have double height ceilings but even that doesn’t really affect us.

We're in a four bed detached and pay £120 combined gas and electric so yours does seem high. Same as you in that I keep the heating on 17 all day and maybe increase to 20 in the evenings if really cold (turned off over night though.
Can you use a dehumidifier for the condensation? I use one in our poorly insulated utility and it has the added bonus of making it quite warm in there

£140 a month combined here, 4 bed detached house. That's more than I spend on food :(

Energy prices seem to have gone crazy

We rented a 3 bed detached cottage that was horrendous for insulation. The boiler looked older than me. We couldn't keep it warm at all and it cost us over £1400 a year in gas and £1300 in electricity! So that was about £130 gas and £115 (ish) for electricity. And we tried to have the heating completely off in the summer time.
Now we have moved and can have a smart meter, I've been using it to figure out what costs the most and how to save money (even though our bills halved immediately thanks to this house being insulated and about 100 years younger at least.) I went around the house and shut off every plug socket when it wasn't being used (so everything but the fridge freezer, boiler, modem and phone) and we saved up to £2 every single day. It really adds up.

OP, you should invest in a decent powered extractor fan for the kitchen so the windows can stay shut and the cold doesn't get in!

1930s three bed semi - £134 a month

I'm in a converted two bedroom flat, built in 1737. Combined is £110 per quarter. I've recently stuck sort of cellophane on all the (sash so no double glazing) windows.

Otherwise, thick socks, blankets and fluffy cat.

Large 4 bed detached ( modern with good insulation) £120 per month for both
Yours seems really high

Thanks, I’ve suggested the dehumidifier for upstairs, the kitchen doors open when he lets the dog out.. instead of shutting it behind him to keep the heat in.
We’re getting smart meters put in shortly so that’ll let us see where it’s actually going. It’s always been around this high apparently even when he was here himself .
I’m convinced he’s gas powered

Yours is high. I have a 3 bed semi converted to a 4 bed with a loft extension
£98 a month for both. I don't like it going over the £100.
We have cavity wall insulation which I now read is a bad thing but it has made the house warmer

If you're leaving your heating on all day then it will cost more. That's not a massive bill for a winter month I don't think and all the people quoting lesser amounts, do you pay the same amount via dd the who.e year?

Are you in all day to enjoy it being on? If not you should just have it when you need it. Even if you are in, we set ours to come on for 30 mins every couple of hours, and that is enough to feel like we are not freezing.
Can you get a spring to close the back door???
If you don't actually know you have lift and cavity insulation i would assume you don't, and at least investigate...

It’s set to maintain a temperature.. it’s not the type of thermostat I’m used to where you pick a temp on a dial and punch in when it’s on so it’s set to 17 from 8-8 and 13 over night. There’s only on an a temperature no off .
I’m in all day.. mat leave, so I’m atleast using it rather than being out.

He’s paid the same for the whole year, submitting reading but never querying it. I’ll need to stick him on a ladder not a clue how you’d check cavity walls though.

Haha! I wouldn't bother having it on at night- but if you've a tiny baby I can see why you do!
If he still has the survey from when he bought the house that might mention insulation????

He leaves doors and windows open? Shut them. Get a dehumidifier.

Google the model and instructions to see how you switch it off altogether, then you can do that at least some of the time.

Last month my bill was £51 for both gas and electricity. I'm on a good tariff, but equally it's a poorly insulated 3 bed terrace.

We have the heating on for about 2 hours in the evening, usually 7-9. The rest of the time we're either out of the house, busy (exercising and housework both keep your core temp up!) Or I'll use an extra jumper or a hot water bottle.

1910s mid terrace with £48 direct debit for gas and electric combined.
Need to invest in a thermostat you can turn off and on although usually they 'click' off when they go below 15. Have you tried that? (clearly not an engineer)

We have ours set to 14 in the day when we're out (simply because if it gets any colder it takes forever to heat up in the evening), but I wouldn't do that if I was in with a baby (I'd have it set to 20 all day cos I I have bastard Raynauds in my bastard nipple, but that's another story).

He needs to shut the bloody doors and windows, you paying to heat the outside!

The manuals as much use as the thermostat , the auto (timer) setting only shows you how to pick times to have it at a temperature between.. I have figured how to turn the full thing off but besides literally shutting it off completely it seems to just want to be on.
I do follow him shutting the windows and continually chant how freezing it is/heating the street won’t help. But if listening was his strong point we’d already have smart meters n he’d have checked his tariff .
Discovered the fires air vents were open.. lovely breeze . By the end of mat leave I’ll have driven him mad looking for drafts lol

That sounds really high to me, we’re in a 3 bed post war semi, very leaky and draughty and we pay £55 per month for gas and electricity combined. We don’t usually have the heating on during the day but it’s on all evening and weekend.

That seems really expensive. We pay £81pcm for combined Gas and electric for a 3 bed semi, approx 1950/60 build. That’s with EON.

A monthly figure means nothing, it depends on usage and tariff. Look at your annual usage and plug it into a price comparison website to see if you coukd pay less elsewhere. What tariff are you on? Paying by direct debit on an online tariff (No paper bills) is often cheaper.
Just to add, I pay £125 Combined per month but we use a lot of electricity even though we have gas central heating so its not the heating driving up the price

Would you consider getting an energy audit done?
Our house is end of terrace victorian single brick wall (no cavity) and we found we were spending ££££ on heating. When the heating went off the whole house cooled in about 20 mins so obviously huge draught problems even though it didn't feel particularly draughty.

We got a local energy auditor in who did a full check including door blower and thermographic inspection (taking photos with a thermal camera to show up areas where cold air was getting in)

It was a real eye opener and showed us the areas we needed to focus our attention on. Gaps between floorboards, window and door seals mainly but also odd things like hairline cracks in plaster which let cold air leak in. We also discovered a hole in the wall of an under stairs cupboard where cold air was pouring in.

The audit cost us about £100 5 years ago and the low cost changes we made as a result have saved us that many times over.

More info here: www.energy.gov/energysaver/home-energy-audits/professional-home-energy-audits

We are £151 a month in a 1960’s 4 bed detached in the Scottish Highlands. Our heating comes on from 6:30-8:30 in the morning and from 4-8 in the evening in winter. If it’s just dh and myself at home we try to wear layers and keep moving but if the boys are home we override the timer and put it on once they start to complain. It’s always off overnight. It’s been -2 all day today here so I’m glad I’m in for the night!