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Original poster

Agas! Dh says our gas aga has to go - too expensive. Anyone else with same concerns?

24 replies

redwhiteandblue · 04/03/2010 10:18

Our gas bill has been truly shocking, nearly a grand for less than three months.
Dh blames the aga, I blame the horrible winter plus the fact we live in a large badly insulated Victorian house. Obviously the aga's part of it though.

Is anyone else thinking it's too expensive to run a gas aga. I love mine, can't bear the thought of losing it

OP posts:
overthemill · 04/03/2010 10:23

dont have an aga, wish i did but i remember hearing 'you and yours' prog about agas and was shocked at running costs and the carbon costs too. you may be able to find out more from radio 4 website?

BariatricObama · 04/03/2010 10:27

get a range cooker, aga's are hideiously wasteful

witchwithallthetrimmings · 04/03/2010 10:35

They are really really expensive to run but totally worth it imo. We run ours at a slighly lower tempreature (5/6) for most of the time and just turn it up on saturday night in time for cooking a roast on sunday. I'm guessing you know all the tricks about using the hobs as little as possible

Original poster
redwhiteandblue · 04/03/2010 11:50

Yup I know all the tricks. We don't have a kettle, toaster or tumble dryer to compensate for its gas guzzling, it heats the room but still ...

OP posts:
Sonnet · 04/03/2010 16:05

Can you compromise and just use that as heating downstairs - even if in the chillier months you are confined to one room??

Chaotica · 04/03/2010 17:02

Gas ones are very expensive - my mum had one. (We used to run one on solid fuel which was cheaper.) (Much cheaper...)

frogetyfrog · 04/03/2010 17:04

We were due to get an oil one but have decided against it. Whatever way you look at it Agas are hiddeously expensive to run - fine if you can afford it. There are loads of second hand ones around at the mo so can only assume lots of people cutting their costs.

Original poster
redwhiteandblue · 04/03/2010 17:24

Yup, our builder says everyone's shedding them

Our kitchen's a funny shape, it heats the cooking area well and probably gives a bit of heat to the surrounding areas but not enough to justify it as a heater. A plumber's coming too to look at our boilers, hoping he'll blame them but I know the aga's really the culprit

You can get them upgraded to electric models with timers but that costs about two grand, hardly worth it when you could buy a range cooker for that

Ebay here I come

OP posts:
shandyleer · 05/03/2010 22:21

Red, we too have a gas aga that is ruinously expensive to run. Our kitchen is always warm, which in the winter is great, not so great in the summer though (don't have anything else to cook on). We've been talking about selling it for months now, so I'd be interested to hear how you get on selling yours?

Original poster
redwhiteandblue · 07/03/2010 10:13

shandy, people have told me they've got £700 or so for theirs on ebay but i looked on ebay and have seem them starting at 99p

Every meal I cook now I get all nostalgic, the writing's on the wall ...

OP posts:
shandyleer · 07/03/2010 16:17

How long have you had yours for? We've had ours for about 5 years now. I do love it, partly because my horrid FIL disapproved so strongly when we got it, calling it "a pretentious bit of kitchen art". It will take some getting used to having a normal cooker again but, like you say, its got to be done

EggyAllenPoe · 07/03/2010 16:21

ok, so does this apply to rayburns too?
MIL has a rayburn on solid fuel, which is pita for many reasons (whilst she was ill, she had a job keeping the house warm for example, always gts back to a cold house, oven not at a controlled temp etc..)

TheBolter · 07/03/2010 16:33

We're in a similar position but have decided to stick for now. Our boiler's really efficient so our gas bill isn't as ruinously huge as yours - more about £100 a month, so your boiler may be to blame.

Like someone else says, it's worth running your aga on a lower hear, we do this esp in summer. It's a bit annoying sometimes (I dream of a gas hob!) but you get used to cooking slowly!

Umm... I have to say that if (when?) we next move I won't get a gas aga. I really like the aga cookers - the new ones that look just like agas but run like conventional ovens. They are expensive though - about the same price as an aga but they have the lovely look f one. Oh and we'll install underfloor heating to compensate for the lack of warmth!

Oh yes you might be interested in this: www.aga-web.co.uk/92_1261.htm

Also, Aga can 'part exchange' if you want a different model next time.

TheBolter · 07/03/2010 16:34

sorry, link

EggyAllenPoe · 07/03/2010 16:37

ooh and it costs me £100 a month to heat our house with a combi boiler this winter..(2bed double glazed bungalow) it has been a very cold winter. nothing like £300 though, but cooking was xtra on the leccy...

meltedmarsbars · 07/03/2010 22:03

I'd say its the boiler not the Aga.

Yes they are expensive, but we've just had one of the longest coldest winters for years so I'd guess your heating (and your Aga) has been on longer than for most winters. Last year we have a pic of us eating lunch in the garden in Feb FGS!

Our gas one heats the hot water too.

I'd have a solid fuel one if given the choice(was brought up with an anthacite one) Much cheaper.

JaynieB · 07/03/2010 22:08

My chum has one and they turn it off over the summer to save money.

ppeatfruit · 08/03/2010 08:51

shandyleer Is your aga run by bottle or mains gas? We have a house in france (no mains gas) and we are thinking of getting a gas bottle aga do you think that might be cheaper?

Original poster
redwhiteandblue · 08/03/2010 10:20

I reckon it's ... a long, cold winter

Big Victorian house, badly insulated

We work from home so heating's on all day (some heating is tax deductible thank God)

AND the aga

We've decided to give it another few months, think dh would be as gutted as me to see it go

TheBolter, thanks for the link, I looked into this and it costs around two grand to convert the aga - almost the cost of a decent range cooker so I'm not convinced. If Aga would do it for free .. [wishful emoticon]

OP posts:
joster · 08/03/2010 10:32

Have you had it serviced to make sure all a-ok, as your bills do sound particularly high???? Maybe something is working harder than it needs to and needs a tweek??

Lymond · 08/03/2010 10:39

Mine is one of the new electric ones, with a timer so it turns down at times we don't need it (while still keeping the kitchen toasty and warm). We bought one of those electric monitor things and it costs us £110 a month to run. My friend has worked out her gas one is £200 a month to run.

For me, this amount is okay. I don't put the gas central heating on in the daytime, I just stay in the kitchen. I turn the aga off for a few months in the summer, to save some money. We don't have a toaster, kettle etc...

I wouldn't be without it, but dH says he wouldn't have let me get it if he'd known how expensive it would be.

Are you on the cheapest possible gas tariff?

kju · 08/03/2010 10:47

have you thought about having AIMS fitted to your Aga? I think they can put it on older cookers now. It allows you to programme when the Aga will be on full or low or slumber. We have this on our gas Aga and were surprised that the costs were not nearly as much as we thought. Have a look on the Aga site for info on AIMS.

We replaced our old boiler at the same time as having the Aga fitted and our bills actually came down after having the Aga!

Original poster
redwhiteandblue · 08/03/2010 14:03

AIMS is the one that costs nearly two grand to put on

OP posts:
AgaMum · 09/07/2014 14:34

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