If you are on a gas meter, how much do you use a week?

[Marne]

Hi, we moved house a few months ago from a house with electric heating to a house with gas heating, we have a gas meter and it seems to be costing us a fortune, i know its extra cold at the moment so we are using it more but its costing us twice as much as the other house.

How much (roughly) do you pay for gas each week/month?

Would it be better to get rid of the meter?

If you want to know how much you use, you have to look at meter readings. The amount you pay by direct debit is very uninformative, because it includes inaccurate estimates, previous under- and over-payments, and attempts to average out the payments over the year, and varies as the price of fuel goes up and down. If you have a prepayment meter the price is generally extortionate.

I take my meter readings monthly, and input them online so I never get estimated bills. The gasmeter measures usage in cubic metres. Some very old (1970's) gasmeters measure in hundreds of cubic feet, but it will be marked on the gasmeter and shown on your bill.

In December and January, we use an average between 6.5 and 7.4 cu. m. per day, depending on whether it is a cold or mild winter. Averaging it out over the month gets over a few cold or a few mild days. In summer, about 0.5 cu. m. per day. Annually about 1100 to 1200 cu. m. depending on whether the summer was long and cold or short and mild.

Your energy costs will almost all go on heating. Lighting, TVs, PCs etc are relatively tiny energy users. Insulation can make a huge saving.

Energy from electricity costs about three times as much as energy from gas. If you have an economy overnight rate (the daytime price goes higher) it might average at about double the cost of gas.

p.s.

I should have added that 1 cu.m. of gas as measured by the gasmeter, contains about 11.1 kWh of energy. Gas energy costs (us) about 3.4p per kWh.

Electric energy costs (us) about 11.32p per kWh.

There is then 5% VAT, discounts, and standing charges to add to the mix, but our December gas bill (total 221 cubic metres) cost about £96 all together, and January will probably be about the same. August (17 cu. m.) cost about £15, but the price of gas energy was a bit higher then, at 3.6p per kWh.

A kettle, or a fan heater, uses 3kW so would cost about 34 pence per hour

An energy-saving light bulb, or a bathroom extractor fan, uses about 0.02kW so would cost just under a quarter of a penny per hour.

Zombie thread guys!!!!

£20 a week in winter £5 in summer
We have a 3 bed semi heating is on 2 hrs in a morning 3/4 in an evening also have gas cooker.

We looked at getting outs taken out but the gas company wanted to pay £170 a month DD when we use no where near that amount so we've stuck with the meters.

Utility companies like to give the impression that they have the right to fix your dd, but you can refuse their estimate. Some of them are very keen on overpayments, which mean you are making them an interest-free loan. You must of course pay off your balance.

I put in my meter readings online every month, so there are never any estimates to argue over.