Yay!! My bath cost 4p!!

[FusionChefGeoff]

I love love love baths and was psychologically preparing myself to switch to showers.

Just did a before and after on the smart meter and it's only gone up by 4p

It's just a little thing but I can get us all clean (DS will jump in after footie!) and I'll be toastie warm for a bit too.

How do you heat the water for a bath?

Was it a cold bath?

It's a very new combi boiler and I've kept it shallow so guess it didn't have to fire for very long.

That, or I'm going to check in post bath and find out there was a massive lag for some reason but I boiled the kettle and saw that register so hoping I don't have a huge shock waiting for me downstairs

Is it a gas boiler? The engineer that fitted our smart meter warned us that the gas readings didn't update immediately, it can take a few hours to get an accurate reading to your display.

Our electricity readings are immediate, but the gas isn't.

@Bangkokbaby noooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

Ok I'll keep an eye - no heating planned today so any increase will be bath related - oh dear I've got an anxious few hours ahead of me then!!

Please update us :)

100% this.
Electric is instant on smart meter, gas isn't. Sorry

Will update but feeling very silly now! Oh well at least I know for all future experiments.

Our fix only just finished so that's why this is all new to me

There will probably be a lag..

Gas smart meters use the electric meter to send the readings so usually only update every so often.

Gas updates every half hour on the hour usually.
Baths are great but getting out of a warm bath in winter is hellish 🥶

Following to see the results later on
So shit that we are all having to do things like this 😔

Well I learnt something new too OP. I would have assumed both updated reasonably quickly, after all you were in the bath between both meter readings.

Please update.

I only have a bath - hate it
isn’t too bad but can’t wait to have a shower again

If it updates for more it still might be worth the bath.

We are about £1.50 a day for hot water on new rates. That generally covers a full adult bath, a child's bath, and a shower and incidental hot water for hand-washing etc. Ours is a system boiler with cylinder so not quite as precise as a combi.

Our gas is about 2-3 hours delay from use to showing on display.

Dont feel bad @FusionChefGeoff , you enjoyed your bath and youve taught a lot of us something.

You surely don’t share the same water do you.? That’s pretty yuck if you do.

I guess you werent around pre seventies then. A family of six used to have the one bath on a Sunday night only. Its still in living memory for many.

Me and DH always share. I add bubbles and a tiny bit more hot if I go in second. Not grim at all. How dirty do you think people are? We bath and shower daily.

Yes we share the same water - very 'unsqueamish' in this house.

Ok I can report back - gas registered a 60p increase which I can deal with once a week

60p a bath so if had one daily every month cost would be £18.60 a month

Very unlikely you would get a whole bath for 4p !

Assuming 40 litres of water, with temperature rising from 10 degrees (cold tap water) to 50 degrees (hot water) that would take :

40 x (50-10) x 4200 = 6,720,000 joules.

Divide by 3,600,000 to get joules into kWh = about 2kWh.

So even if the heating process was 100% efficient it would take 2 kWh or about 20p at the new rates. Physics says no to the 4p claim, unless you like your baths a bit on the chilly side.

By the time you take into account that you probably need more water and the heating inefficiencies, you are probably looking at more like double that or 50 to 60p.

Still you can be pleased that your new combi boiler is probably the most cost effective way of getting your bath, which you should feel pretty good about :)

Estimates I have read say that a shower is only cheaper than a bath on the assumption that it's under about 10 minutes. That's the approximate crossover point by which the shower will have used as much water as an average bath. That might be fine for those used to (or determined to get used to) 3 minute showers. Not for me though.

And actually if a bath = 60p = £218 to bathe every day for a year, and a five minute shower = 30p = £114 for a year anyway, I'll take the bath any day. For the price of one decent meal for two in a nice restaurant with wine, you've got the difference between just functionally getting clean, and a year's worth of one of life's simplest most beautiful pleasures, letting go of some of the shitty life we're all having to endure each day.

Perspective! The greater part of our insane gas bills is central heating, by far.