Old Boiler!!!

[shoegirl36]

Please Help... advice needed!!! I moved into a property with my partner and father-in-law in November. Since moving in our EDF energy bill is around £600 a month after the £67 discount provided by the government. I am disabled and my father in law is a pensioner. We checked the valiant boiler today and see that it is around 14 years old. Can we request that the boiler is changed or can we request that the rent is lowered with the old boiler/bill in mind? Or is the landlord not obliged to do anything at all? We are struggling with that amount every month and EDF have said there is nothing they can do. Any help would be amazing.

It definitely sounds like something is not right. Could it be the meter? Are you on the right tariff?
A boiler should be upgraded after 10/15 years as it's reaching the end of its life and replacement parts will start going obsolete

How well insulated is the house? Do you have double glazing? Do you have thick, thermal curtains? Curtain over the outer door? Are the radiators heating efficiently eg have you bled the radiators? Does the radiator system need draining and cleaning out? (Download a thermal imaging app and see if you get a large cold spot in the bottom/centre of the radiator where sludge has accumulated)
Really more likely to be lack of insulation - which you can probably rectify yourself as cheaply as the cost of the gas you're using. Try Dunelm for thermal curtains.

It's unlikely a 15 year old boiler would be that inefficient.

I think the regs making condensing boilers mandatory were around 2005. This means it is unlikely your boiler is non condensing - but I guess it is possible.

You'd have to provide the boiler model number/identification for it to be confirmed.

My guess is that a boiler of that age might be 20% less efficient than a new boiler, so not a huge amount.

To me it's far more likely that a) you are using a huge amount of gas b) that you have a billing mix up or c) you have a units mix up.

In order to be able to figure out you need to do some detective work, and if you want people on here to help you need to post a lot more detail. To start :

i) How much of your 4000 kWh per month is electric and how much gas ?

ii) How many hours do you have the heating on per day ?

iii) What does the meter display in units (ft3x100 or m3) and what does your bill say for the units used ?

iv) What is the change in value of the actual meter over a well defined period ? For example read your meter in the morning, and then the next day at the same time to get your usage in units and we can help calculate the actual kWh.

People on here can help you get to the bottom of it, provided you post the information they request.

@shoegirl36 Did you ever get this sorted? I was looking for my own thread regarding my mum's EDF bill I posted ages ago and found yours.

It could be that when the meter was switched over, EDF have not done the calculation properly - it's something to do with not considering the switch from imperial to metric.

My mum was really struggling, she was paying hundreds of £'s a month and I posted here, everyone was telling me the same as what I was telling her, that it couldn't be right. She wasn't sure and assumed the large energy company must be right.

She recently switched to pay as you go and the calculation was then correct, showing that she had in fact been massively overcharged for years. She's taken it to the ombudsman and has been told she will be owed a significant sum of money.

EDF are really bad for stuff like this; keep pushing!