First gas bill with heating on

[Pootle40]

So we had our first gas bill (we pay monthly) through. For a five week period we used £175 of gas 🤬 (incl standing charge). It's a large 4 bed though to be fair.

That's keeping a house at 19.5c at periods only with it timed for 1 hour on waking, 4 hours at night but not actually 'on' that whole time. It's a fairly efficient house and during day thermostat (hive) is never dropping below 17.8c yet so it's not like it's needing to heat a huge margin. Quite scary really. Our showers are run from boiler and we don't have any baths. Water heated a few hours a day.

They're not exempt from the current government price guarantee though, surely?

Noone is currently on the price cap, the maximum right now is held down by the government price guarantee which is a different thing to the cap.

Apparently 15,000kwh of gas is the typical amount of gas used to heat an average sized 4 bed.

I'll have to re read the emails but I'm pretty sure it said something about being exempt. Maybe I'm confused between cap and guarantee. We are still getting the £67 monthly discount until march/ April.

We use 4000 electric and 22000 gas annually but obviously trying to cut that right down but combination of factors make it hard

Just received our annual gas bill and we managed to get it a bit down compared to the year before.
Last year it was 7800 kW, this year it’s 6400 kW. But our house is reasonably well insulated.
3 bed semi.

Our house also four bed. Heating is set 18-18.5c and seems to go off at 18.3c. It's set 75mins am and three hours pm, but isn't coming back on after initial fire up as I guess heat from cooking helps. Looks like ours will be approx £75 including standing charge. Two daily showers off boiler and gas hob.

Temperature ours is set seems to make a difference to cost.

I got an email from BG yesterday saying this week, so assume today or tomorrow.

If your annual usage is around 14,000kWh that is only just over the assumed average, and you ate in an above average sized house. Sounds like you are doing pretty well, and shows the beifit of the average of bills over the year if you pay by direct debit.
200 next month, and 40 in the summer, or pay 120 all year round. Guestinated numbers!

I do struggle below 19c but trying to stick to 19c or no higher than 19.5c.

We did have a huge tank so we could potentially cut back even further on how much we heat the water so I might make small changes there but nothing drastic.

We're fortunate that we can afford it but just trying to get into a stricter controlled routine as it seems it will get worse cost wise before it ever gets better .....

Do have a huge water tank not 'did' 🤪

We've had the heating on for 2 days after the kitchen was 8.5 degrees on Tuesday morning . It's been on 7-9 in the morning and 4-6 in the evening and it's costing £6-£7 per day, and that's with the thermostat set at 17 degrees.

The house is modern, triple glazed, not quite enough insulation in the loft, 2 year old boiler and modern radiators. I guess part of the issue is we were starting from a cold base, but I'm also totally confused about the best way to sort this.

If the thermostat is in the living room, the hall, kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms are still freezing. We also have a very elderly family member living with us who has to be kept warm ( we've been using oil filled radiator in their room plus heated throw.)

What on earth is the best way to maintain a half reasonable temperature in the house as a whole?

I can see it costing £20 per day during really cold weather and tbh, we can't afford it.

You cant "find a smart meter and plug it in". It will be in a fairly large meter cupboard inside or outside of the property, not difficult to find.

Well what did you pay last winter? And was your usuals a similar amount to then?

Hard to tell how expensive it is without the comparison

Usage, not usuals

8.5 degrees inside 😮.

I have a 3 bed semi in the north. Work from home most days so my heating is set at 18 - 19 degrees all day, everyday. This costs around £6 per day atm.

My heating is off at night, but it doesn't get anywhere near as low as 8.5 degrees! It was about 16 degrees this morning.

Maybe your bill is higher because you are letting the house get so cold?

My usage last year in a 5 bedroom house with a teenage son who was at home 2 days per week was 20,525kwh

This yer he has gone to uni, the thermostat is turned down from 20 to 19 and we don't have the heating on in the day only morning and evenings.

'Maybe your bill is higher because you are letting the house get so cold?'

Yes, we assumed this, but most of the house is still cold because the room with the thermostat is heating up then the boiler is clicking off. Never given so much thought to how this stuff works and it's doing my head in!

The house is cold again in the morning so we're basically having to heat from scratch every day.......

8.5c is extremely cold in a room and sounds like there could be a wider issue with building. Our heating goes off 8/830pm and from 19c at that high point the lowest it gets to by dawn has been 15.9c but most days still just hovering over 16c. I'm in Scotland........

So are we!

Maybe try keeping it on a little later in the evening so that it doesn't drop so much overnight. Mine is usually on until about 11pm.

It could be an insulation problem of course, in which case leaving it on later might not make much difference.

My thermostat tends stay in the coldest room.

It is confusing.

There are three things: the price cap set by the regulator based on market rates; the guarantee that came in from the Govt a couple of months ago to limit prices (lower than the current cap); and the £400 funding (£67/66 pm) for everyone.

There is also extra funding for those on benefits, and an extra winter heating allowance for pensioners. Plus of course some people still have fixed rates lower than the current guarantee (I do).

And some money at some point going to those who use oil/LPG.

If you can't move the thermostat, turn down the rads in the room it is in (and ensure they are turned up everywhere else) so it stays on longer to heat that room.

Or just turn it up - though you will suffocate at 24deg watching TV and go to bed in a room at a more reasonable 19deg!

My bedroom is cold for this reason, especially if I cook or use the tumble dryer, it clicks the therm off. And I have my bedroom small window open to prevent damp and stuffiness. But I don't mind a cold bedroom and I put a small heater on just for ten minutes.

Surprised your place loses heat that quickly.

I'll give you some stats for mine.

Outside at the moment its about 6 degrees C.

The other day I put 1 hour of heating (about 12 kWh) in at 14:00. That changed the temperature from 13.2C to 16.8C. By 03:00 the next day it was at 13.2C again with no more heating.

So it took 13 hours to get back to where it started - so it loses about 1 kWh per hour ? (in fact it's a lot more complex than this, but it is a good estimate).

If you are getting your kitchen up to say 17C and it is down to 8.5C the next day after switching it off it does suggest some sort of issue. I doubt whether mine would be much less than 12C under similar circumstances if it was 6 degrees C outside.

Triple glazing suggests really good windows, so there must be some heat leak somewhere else.