Is 93kWh of gas a day a lot?

[WiggyClawsThe2nd]

We've just had our utility bill in. Very high as usual but especially shocking as we had an aga removed and brand new boiler and central heating system put in last summer. Just converted the 747 units into kWh and it seems to work out at 8339 kWh for the quarter, which is 93 kWh per day. This seems really high given that a typical household uses about 17000 a year (we have a smaller property too).
Does anyone have any experience with stuff like this? I'm starting to wonder if someone else is using our gas?!

The bill you've just received is for winter, so heating.

You won't use anywhere near as much between now and about September/October, so it will even out over the summer.

Everything is relative. I'm a very low Gas user as I live alone in a well-insulated small property, hardly ever need the heating on, and cook on an electric hob. I use an average of 2.5KwH per day across the year, so 93KwH per day is absurd to me, but you are likely in completely different circumstances.

As above, it is a winter bill, so will be much higher than summer due to heating.

I have quite a large 40kW boiler, so 93 kW would only equate to me having it on for just over two and a half hours. It's not a particularly high bill.

Yes that is really high.

My gas use has been 345kwh for the past quarter. I live in a 3 bed house with gas central heating, gas hob and shower. 2 adults and 2 young kids.

Where do you live op? I know pps are mentioning winter, but march has been quite mild here in the south east and i actually had to put my air con on in the car a couple of times.

My gas is astronomical it comes in with my rent and has gone up to nearly £50 per week and we still have to pay that in the summer too.
I can't believe we use that much gas and there is nothing we can do about it, we aren't even given any figures of what we use ect.

My gas usage over the last 3 months has been 2,310kWh.

BUT I live on my own, in a two bed terraced house, shower at the gym 90% of the time, don't cook on gas, and heat the house up to a max of 17 generally or 18-18.5 as a treat.

My entire gas and electric bill ends up at under £80pm even after all the price rises when you average winter and summer.

8000kWh is high to me, but I guess it depends how much water you're heating and how warm you keep the house.

Sorry op i am sleep deprived, i meant 345 UNITS.

Converting my units into kwh means we have been using 42kwh per day over the past quarter.

Yeah i have to be honest and say it’s quite possible that your landlord is robbing you blind. I was in the same situation years ago and knew it because I actually worked for the energy supplier so could see the energy account and how much we were actually using.

8,339 kWh for the quarter is not completely out of whack. I've used about 7,500 kWh of gas this quarter. Old house - too old for cavity walls, too listed for double-glazing, so not the most energy-efficient of homes. Usage has varied from 35kWh on warm days up to 180kWh on very cold days.

That seems insanely high to me. I’ve just looked at ours and picked a few high usage days in January and we haven’t gone over 12kwh per day.

3 bed terrace, admittedly well insulated, 2 adults and a toddler heated to 18 degrees.

I have a 1920's house heated to 21deg. I do 50kwh/d during summer and 150kwh/d during winter.

This is ours from 1st January to 21st February

1Jan24-21Feb24. 3,874.8 kWh, about just over 7 weeks, so for a quarter yours doesn't sound insanely high. That is for central heating and a bit of hot water, We have an electric shower and dishwasher so only hand washing really. If your shower runs off the boiler it will put it up or you have baths.

@MariaVT65 I just don't know what we can do about it, it's so frustrating.

We used around 9000kWh for Dec / Jan / Feb. Slightly less for Jan / Feb / Mar - around 6200kWh. We have a 7 bedroom house and heat it to about 19'c with heating off completely overnight. Usual showers etc for 6 of us. Doesn't sound wild to me. In summer we use about 200kWh a month!

The only thing i could do to resolve it was to move out tbh. Instead of living in a house share with rent per room and with strangers, i found somewhere on spareroom.com and moved with a lovely women the same age as me who owned the flat we lived in. People give more of a shit about taking care of the place and about keeping good tenants when it’s their own place they live in.

Hate to break it to you, but 17000kWh of gas a year is a high usage household (4+beds, 4-5 people).
Typical usage is 11500 - 2-3 bed house, 2-3 people.

We hit the high users description and usage pretty exactly. And don't usually go above 100kWh day in winter. But it's more like 20kWh (cooking and hot water) once the heating goes off.

How many people live in your house?
How big is it/many radiators do you have?
Are shower electric or gas run?
What temperature is your heating set to and roughly how long a day?

The above all make a difference.

Our daily usage is predicted to be 23kwh a day. 2.5 (DD stays with BF half of the time) adults live here, it's a converted four, converted four bed bungalow, eight radiators, shower runs off boiler, cooker hob only gas, heating set to 18c. On average heating probably runs 90 mins am and 75m pm, but we put it occasionally when it's around freezing in the day.

One thing that might be worth doing is watching your gas meter or smart meter when absolutely nothing gas wise is being used in the house to ensure dials aren't moving. Also, making a note of the reading a few times when no use is likely, ie you're all at work/school, asleep at night and making sure the reading doesn't change. If it does, then either faulty meter or gas leak. I'd think the only way something could be linked to your gas supply, if it you live in an apartment/flat. Where is your gas meter by the way?

Well it is high, but not outrageously so.

You don't say what size your house is #bedrooms.

You don't say whether it is terrace, semi or detached.

You don't say what temperature you maintain it to.

You don't say whether it is new build or victorian, or a 14th century stone walled cottage.

You don't say whether it is well insulated with double glazing, roof insulation etc.

So it is pretty hard to tell.

OK so it's a 3 bedroom 1910 house, with thick walls, no double glazing, thermostatic radiators (brand new) , brand new A energy rated boiler (24kWh) and cooker, in the SE. CH has been off for 2 days, no more than 1 hour of gas hobs used over that time, and minimal hot water use and gas meter dial still clicking up even when nothing at all is on.

You will be losing most of the heat through uninsulated walls and single glazing.

The problem with kWh usage is not what it costs to get it up to temperature, but to keep it there.

We live in a 12 yo house but the thermostats are all on the wrong walls so they are constantly going on and off to try to get the temp to 19, even though we are highly insulated (where we are is very windy too).

At least 20% of my winter electric is turning the damn thermostats and TRVS on and off.

We used 2079 litres in oil last year = 21,500kwh. In winter oil is at least 10 litres a day = 103 kWh. Almost all of it is the stupid system turning on and off. Heating our water only uses 12 kWh a day.

You say you haven’t had the heating on and it keeps going up. What are the TRVs set to in each room? 1 is to stop pipes from freezing, 5 is like having your head in an oven. I have mine switched to 3 and when the OH is cold in the other side of the house and I am hot, I turn mine to 1.

I wonder if your boiler is still firing up to send a signal to TRVs to turn on and the action of it trying to turn on is costing all the money? Turn your TRVs to 1 and see what the £ looks like at the end of the day afterwards.

I am afraid the sort of house you describe loses a lot of heat, so 93 pd is what I would expect.

I think there is something on boilers like a pre heat thing so the hot water comes through quicker, I would maybe check that out as you may not want that on and you can save gas by turning it off

I have used 3700kwh so far this year. 4 bed newish house with good insulation. People home all day. I will use about 11000kwh over the year.

Before this I spent six months in an older house similar to the one you describe and the heating costs were astronomical. I couldn't believe how high they were. So could well believe you used that much in a similar time frame.

...and when I lived in the older house, I lived alone and was out 12 hrs a day. Still cost me a fortune!

We are about 6000 kwH a YEAR which makes us low energy users.
In this context, 93 kilowatts a day is indeed huge.
3 bed semi, 3 people household, not quite a new build but not a victorian either.
Reasonably well insulted i guess, we have heating on thermostat at 19C 7 am-11 pm.
Turn it permanently off 1st of April each year, usually back 1st of November (again on thermostat)