How often is everyone turning gas hearing on and how much is your bill

[Sabali88]

I live in a 2 bedroom flat and have 4 radiator running. Living room, one bedroom, hallway and bathroom. Its my first time in a flat where there is gas heating and i am scared that it will cost a lot to run.

At first i was turning it on for 2 hours in evening every now and then. Now as its been windy and cold. Indoors, the temperature drops to 12.5 -13 degrees sometime and therefore I have started putting it on for two hours in the morning when we wake up and 2-3 hours in the evening.

Our flat is a shitty old apartment with hardly any insulation and single glazed windows which let a large amount of draft in. I have taped it all up and tried to fix it as much as possible and tried to fill as many gaps I could to stop air coming in. Landlord has definitely done a cowboy job and saved his bucks by not replacing old windows or filling walls or floors with insulation.

I do feel that as soon as I turn heating off it takes an hour or two for it two go back down to 14-13 or even 12.5 in evening if its 1 degree outside for example.

We have an old 2000-2005 vaillant plus combi boiler, no thermostat fitted (even if there was a thermostat i believe as it is a cold flat it would come on more often than normal) old ass radiators that have not been changed by the looks of it since 1990’s or 1980’s. I keep my boiler on 60degrees when i turn heating on.

I think the most efficient way to use gas heating is to keep the core of the house warm. Do you need to heat the bathroom and bedrooms? Better keep the hallway constantly heated and the living room when you're using it. Other rooms will take residual heat from the hallway.

Firstly, I'd consider asking the landlord to get the flat double glazed. My wife owns a rental property that we used to live in. We had some fantastic sash double glazing fitted for £2600 (2016 prices). Basic double glazing was quoted at £1200.

Radiators are also fairly cheap and it should be pretty simple to replace the existing radiators with 'Type 22' double panel, double convector types. A remote control / thermostat could be fitted by the plumber at the same time. Given there are only four radiators, I'd expect that work to cost less than £1500.

Our old flat is fairly similar to yours and our combined gas and electricity costs used to be £40 a month, so I think you'd be looking at less than £100 a month (now prices have risen) once you've got decent radiators and glazing.

Living in a flat should help reduce the heating costs. You should be receiving free underfloor heating from the flat below and having a warm flat above should reduce your heat loss (heat loss is greater when the temperature difference is greater). If you're the top floor flat, you'll need loft/roof insulation to prevent excessive heat loss.

One other thing, if you've got old single panel radiators you might need to turn up the boiler flow temperature to 80°C. The heat output from a radiator is proportional to the difference between the radiator and the room.

20°C room and 80°C radiator = difference of 60°C
20°C room and 60°C radiator = difference of 40°C

So the 80°C radiator would output 50% more heat than the 60°C radiator.

You can only really run a lower flow temperature when you've got the bigger Type 22 radiators.

I think the flow temperature can only be adjusted via the installer menus, so please be careful because you might actually be looking at the hot water temperature. If you set that above 60°C there could be a risk of scalding water from the hot tap.

I live in a 2 bed with double glazing and a decent boiler etc
Currently around £110pm for gas and electric - that's with heating on up to 18c for a few hours a day, a dehumidifier and heated airer plus WFH

When money was tight a few years ago, I used to take meter readings every few days and calculate what we were spending. In time I got to know roughly how much we were likely to use during certain weather spells and would reduce if necessary/continue to use.

We' now in a converted bungalow with eight radiators, has four beds, a dining room and extended lounge, upstairs is draughty. Heating set to 18c, set for two hours am, four pm, obviously not constantly on once up to temperature. If less than 5c in the day, we'll probably fire up boiler once until up to 18c. Gas and electric £137pm, but we're well in credit and can reduce to £100. Elderly lady opposite with similar property spends £90pm on gas.

I usually have our heating on for an hour or so when we're getting up, and again mid morning.

Then around 3pm it comes on and stays on till 8pm. Our house isn't that old (built in 2012) and is large, but I typically only heat the lounge so currently spending £80‐£90 a month on gas.

Our boiler has just been more or less condemned, so probably spending a small fortune on running immersion heater for hot water while we wait for a new one. Warm enough in bed if you sleep in a jumper. Ugh. And 4k for a new boiler. Fun times.

Maybe buy a boiler and pay somebody to fit it?

£4k seems a hell of a lot for a new boiler.

https://www.mrcentralheating.co.uk/vaillant-ecotec-pro-28-combi-boiler-0010021837

@ThisOldThang - yes!

Thanks for the link.. it's prompted me to have a proper look online. We were quoted c.4k and I assume this includes the work. For our house type / size / age & the current boiler set up which I've now learned is a system, I think the price is about right. The guy doesn't do Vaillant - DH has said he's talking about a Worcester. I wasn't there as was ill in bed with a flu type virus when the engineer came, so all my info was from DH.

So we'll just have to wear that but since it conked out last week we've been using the immersion for hot water so I am a bit concerned about what our next electricity bill will look like! Boiler won't be in until Friday at the earliest. DH has been moaning about being cold so has also been putting on a little fan heater. I'm more of a put a jumper on & sit under a blanket type of person. I am half Scottish

Our gas bill for 7 December 2023 to 7 December 2024 (1 year's gas) was £493.00 ... Heating and cooker. So our average is £41 a month.

Our electric is £720 a year - £60 a month.

So £1200 a year is our energy bill. (Small-ish 3 bed 1930s cottage.)

We only put the heating on when the temperature goes below 3 degrees C outside, and never have it above 17 C.

10 year old boiler/heating system.

Unfortunately my landlord is in no way wanting to change anything. We have a shop under our flat and in recent days even when i turn heating on for 3 hours, it goes max up 15-16 degrees in hallway/kitchen and then stays there.

It is such a shame that governments somehow miss or avoid to look into properties like that which I am sure are illegal with old single glaze window and no insulation.

I had to find ways myself to fills in gaps where air was coming from. Filled the toilet gaps with spray foam and around the door i added sponge strips to prevent draft from coming in.

As i have laminate flooring all around my apartment, I am looking into investing in runner and rugs hoping that it will somewhat help.

This is very helpful. I have two different options in my old boiler. One for tap and one for heating. So far I was turning the heating one upto 60 thinking about the bills just incase. But I will try going upto 80 and see how that goes. Might report back in a day or two 😊

Unfortunately my landlord is in no way wanting to change anything. We have a shop under our flat and in recent days even when i turn heating on for 3 hours, it goes max up 15-16 degrees in hallway/kitchen and then stays there.
It is such a shame that governments somehow miss or avoid to look into properties like that which I am sure are illegal with old single glaze window and no insulation.
I had to find ways myself to fills in gaps where air was coming from. Filled the toilet gaps with spray foam and around the door i added sponge strips to prevent draft from coming in.
As i have laminate flooring all around my apartment, I am looking into investing in runner and rugs hoping that it will somewhat help.

Going to bed is never an issue. I keep that room cold. I use duvet, a thick throw and another light throw on top and its very cosy. You should give that a try then you wont need any jumper nor socks 😊

O wow your bills seem pretty decent. Whats your indoor temperature like when outdoor is 3 degrees without heating. Mine drops to 13 indoors and heating the hallway for example up to 17 degrees easily takes upto 3 hours

I dont heat up my bedroom. Its the hallway which is the pain of my existence as the kitchen and hallway are open and i am sure there is draft plus tiles in kitchen and laminate flooring in hallway. I tend to keep the doors of the room shut to keep the heat in.

I'd still ask the landlord if they'd consider getting new windows. A couple of grand for modern glazing is a pretty small bill.

If the landlord refuses, I'd consider handing in your notice, moving and reporting them to the local housing authority as a slum landlord.

Your property is well below the WHO recommended minimum temperature of 18°C even after running the heating for 3 hours. If that's the case with a properly configured boiler/radiators, it really isn't acceptable.

I have my heating on 7am - 11pm at the moment. I think in the winter months our heating bill can top £500pm. We pay £250pm year round for gas & electricity combined.

We have a 4 bed house, heating on everywhere from 6am to 10pm - around 20/21 degrees - it costs around £9/£10 a day for all the gas and electric. Monthly cost over the year is £180 per month.

I'm sure it's illegal now to not have a thermostat with gas central heating. I live in a 2 bed flat and my heating is put on from 7pm to 6am because my 2 year old doesn't believe in blankets or fleecy pyjamas 😅 I pay £80 a month on my gas

I have a 1930 3 bed house. My gas bill this month is £90 (heating and gas cooker)

The rest of the year electricity and gas together usually is between £65- £80 but in Nov/Dec/Jan that can go up to £150 in total because of the central heating.

I live in a 3-bed new build and have the heating on for 2 hours on the evening. It costs between 80p ish and £1.20 a day, depending on how many degrees it has to go up to. But the house has fab insulation and is terraced, which really helps.

May I ask how many heaters you run and for how many hours? I have from today on increased my boiler heating temp to 75 degrees as my floor was no way reaching 18 degrees even in three hours time.

Lucky you. I wish I could say the same about my insulation in the house 😔

Wow 500pm sounds a lot for just gas. Does it run on thermostat between 7am to 11pm