Monthly kWh used for gas and electricity?

[deuxgarcons]

So the price cap (average family use) for gas is based on using 12,000 kWh pa (1,000pm) and electricity 2,900 pa (242pm).
I sat down this morning to review usage and am astounded at our kWh usage and really need to work out where we use it as we use much more than this.
I started to take monthly readings in July and our usage has been
Gas
July 437
Aug 909
Sept 1908
Oct 2272

Electric
July 456
Aug 523
Sept 526
Oct 484

Gas hot water, heating and gas fire which we haven't used in above figs and won't use this winter as we have now blocked up chimney to reduce drafts. Our boiler is ancient so it must be that?. We have turned down temp on water and have it on less. Heating now on 1 hr in morning and 2 hours evening.

Electric I am wondering about old freezer in our cellar which is an 'overflow' freezer for main one but think I'll defrost and switch off as it only has frozen chips and bread in it!! Also cellar has old fridge and florescent light which is always on so will turn that off now. No electric showers.

We are in a semi 5 bed (drafty) Victorian house. 4 people down to 3 now as one has gone off to Uni which is why I think electric went down in Oct!!.

What is everyone else's kWh usage?

@Blondeshavemorefun crickey our gas really stands out. I am going to look at that in a lot more detail but think it's a combination of ancient boiler and no room thermostat so it's going full whack all the time the heating is on even though I have radiator TRVs.

We only have one thermastat in hall

some rads seem to be much hotter. Like spare bedroom one. But can’t turn it down

very old boiler. In house when brought it and I’ve lived here 22yrs

@ivykaty44 We have the hot water tank heated for half an hour in the morning, it nay cost more to run it longer if you do? That's all I can think of. The tank is too big for us so I think a combi would actually be cheaper. I have a two minute timer, four minutes if I wash my hair, DS takes longer than me.

Looks at yourselves! They have us by the short and curlies! This time next year it will be doubled! Forget f#####g living, you will have bills to pay, otherwise you'll freeze or stink. I'm glad I'm 68 and won't be facing this crap for much longer. Read the news, rich kids are buying Burkin bags for £180,000 a throw. Kate Middleton wears a £3k coat at a visit to a food bank. It's laughable. Well it's society isn't it? What a joke.

@Athenen0ctua. we have a combi boiler so its cheaper when just heating for two showers. Your bills for gas are coming in at under £10 per month apart from October which will be just under £12 - thats incredible

Blondes - if some of your rads are hotter than others, your system sounds unbalanced, or you have sludged up radiators on the ground floor. First bleed your radiators.
If you know where your 1st radiator on the system is - Get a pair of plyers and turn off the return valve - which is the one with the pipe that warms up last, usually the left hand side of the rad ( clockwise to turn off) open it one full turn and see if it gets hot - if it does then move to the next radiator and turn that return valve off, then open it one and a quarter turns, then every following radiator by an extra quarter turn.

If the rads are cool at the top and hot at the bottom, It’s normally air and they need bleeding.
If they have cold spots then it is probably sludge and the system needs a flush,

Chemical is cheaper than a power flush.

Thanks @BorgQueen

i will send mr blondes

Hi op

Haven't read all the thread but just wanted to point out the 12,000KWh average is for a 2-3-bed with 2-3 people living in it.

For a 5-bed it's 17,000. So what you're using doesn't seem far off that. Plus of course if it's drafty and Victorian then that will be using even more.

I don't think your gas is that bad. I think people underestimate how expensive old houses are to heat, and you have the risk of damp so you must use the heating.

I live in a draughty 4 bed semi detached 200 year old cottage. In October we used 270kwh electric and 1050kwh gas. Two adults and a toddler here.

Our energy year runs from Nov to Nov, just received our final year bill this week. I'm working on cutting down gas usage (heating) as I absolutely resent paying these extortionate prices.

We are a 2 person household, the house has not dipped below 18° Celsius = 64.4° Fahrenheit without heating. Last weekend outside temperatures dropped to minus 2 and we put the heating on for 3 hours which cost just over €4.
Moving around more, occasional hot water bottle and a blanket have been both useful and comfortable

Gas for the whole year was =7565kw = €1082
Elec for the whole year was =2255kw = €216

Our monthly instalment for electric was €21, which has been raised to €130.
Gas was €80 and has now been raised to €204, they're having a giraffe.

Gas
July=264kw
Aug=190kw
Sep =179kw
Oct=211kw

Electric averages out 188kw per month

Our gas usage has averaged at 689kwh and our electric 212 kwh per month this last year - that's 2 adults and 2 pre teens in a 3/4 bed 60s townhouse so we seem to be below average users for our house /household size.

We have what was one of the most efficient combis available installed 10ish years ago - it' was slightly overspecced to cope with pumping water to the 2nd floor main bathroom. We seldom have baths but between us averages 3 showers a day, looking at the summer readings, it would seem its about 100kwh in gas for daily showers/ hot water for 2 weeks as our usage dropped by thar but our electric usage doesn't change much while we're away so the background running costs of appliances (fridge, freezer etc) must be about 120kwh. The heating has on to 19/20 for 3 or 4 hours a day from the beginning of the month so later start than last year. OH and I both wfh 3 days pw and occasionally last winter we did put the heating on in the day time but we've not done yet this year.

Have you had someone in to check there isn’t a problem somewhere? We were using a lot of gas even when heating and hot water were switched off at the controls. Turns out a valve was stuck open, so the boiler was constantly heating water. Only found out when we switched the hot water off and we were still getting it. That was using around 50kwh of gas a day! Fixing that and changing the boiler for an efficient one, reduced our usage by 90%!

we aren’t saving that now, of course, as the heating is now on

@Residentnumber1 the meter was still when everything run by gas was off so I don't think there is a problem like you describe but definitely I checked!

That's astronomical useage OP, something is very wrong somewhere.

We are 2 adults in 2 bed terrace, since mid October heating is on first thing till bedtime set at 19 (both retired so home all day). Our kWh useage

                         Gas             Electric 

August 101 137
September 112 106
October 294 127

Just submitted the November readings (we pay by variable DD) and think our Gas bill will be double what it was for October (£38.62).

So far we haven't used enough electricity to exceed the £66 credits so have had nothing to pay last 2 months and a credit to set against November's bill.

Don't know if this is helpful OP but our ancient boiler is using approx 50KWH per day now that it has turned colder - that's heating on for a couple of hours morning and evening (and cooking on an all gas cooker). Electric is 7kwh a day, including electric shower and running a dehumidifier.

3 bed 1920s semi with not much insulation!

Jeezus! You are going to have HUGE bills! Surely it would be cost effective to get a new boiler installed? 😮

50kwh a day of gas is just over a fiver. 🙄 It’s 10.3p a kwh.
So £5.50 a day including standing charge. It’s about £1.50 more than I use with a newish combi and a well insulated house.
Gas is a third the price of electricity.

That's £165 a month just on gas, and it's only November not January. We certainly couldn't afford it.

That's £165 a month just on gas, and it's only November not January. We certainly couldn't afford it.

your bills are coming in at £10 for the months so there is a big difference

All in all we are spending approx £8 or £9 a day on gas and electric including standing charge. £7 a day once you factor in the £66 a month from the government. It is a lot but am budgeting for it. A new boiler would take a long time to pay for itself!

That us interesting to know, thanks @BorgQueen

@BMW6 for the purposes of the price cap, the average household uses approx 12000 gas KWH per year. We usually come in at about 16000 KWH per year (obviously aiming to use less this year!) so more than average but not exactly unusual? Older houses are harder to heat.

A new boiler would take a long time to pay for itself!

how old is your boiler?

About 25 years old.

It is very, very reliable. I will say no more as I don't want to tempt fate!

How are people using so much gas in the summer? Especially the 2022 summer.

I have an old imperial gas meter and I used 1 unit a month for months, which converts to approx 32kwh a month.

I don't understand what people were doing all summer with their gas usage.