Bob, Try lowering the temperature a degree or two. I think you might also be able to switch the boiler off overnight. Also check to see if the hot water is on constantly. You might find 3 or 4 hours a day is enough, maybe even less. We have a large 5 bed house and use 10,000kwh of gas per annum. I think you have loads of room to cut bills without reducing the comfort of your house greatly. Our house is occupied 24 hours a day. Good luck.

That's great your figures were right but you have to take into account summer usage [little/no heat usage] and generally mild periods [spring/autumn] when the heat is on sparingly. If I hear of any other changes in grant allowances I''ll let you know, you are gong to get a biggish bill after this cold snap remember if youre not on D?D you can ask to go on the budget plan, Oh check your readings when the bill come in the 1st 4 digits on the gas and your electric should be a modern meter [all digits] if not check your electric bill to check which numbers it should be reading off, Keep warm MIke

Hi Crocky,

Thanks again for all of this advice, will definitely take it into account when we look for our next place. As for the safety certificate, yes we did make sure that we got an up to date one before we moved in, but I appreciate you mentioning it.

To be honest, I am not sure who our supplier is at the moment, as my wife was shopping around recently and I think she moved us.

After setting the interval on the boiler to be on 1/3 of the time, I seem to have gotten the usage down to 480 cubic feet a day, which I reckon is about £5 a day. I reckon that will save me £100 a month, and the house is just as warm.

Many thank again,

Bob

Bob LOL

Sorry the figures were a different calculation and not as you quoted sorry about that, you are renting but there are moves afoot to open up the grants to more people so if you check the warmplan site from time to time you may get them free, landlords don't generally object then as they improve the energy efficiency rating if the lanlord has to produce the dreaded hip in the future, just to let you [if you don't already] know that all rented property HAS TO HAVE a gas safety certificate each year, its sometimes a good idea to be there when he [the fitter] services the boiler as for somebody who is renting they can tell you the best way to run different boilers. When you shop around for your new property it might pay to ask if the property has a condensing boiler as these are the most efficient and would cost you less, all new boilers are now condensing so if you find a property that has had a revamp it will probably have a condenser. EVERY energy company has a section on saving energy i don't find them much use but you could ring yours you might at least get some energy efficient bulbs out of them. Anyway good luck mate and happy house [and condensing] hunting. Oh i don't know who your supplier is but scottish and southern has said they will definitely reduce prices in the new year, save us all a few bob, Bob. Mike

Hi Crocky,

Thanks for your advice. From what you say, the figures that I am getting still seem very high to me, if the average per annum is 20,000 to 30,000. By my calculations I would use about 24,000 just in December, and would likely use a similar amount in January and February - so about 72,000 just for the winter.

I think that the lack of functioning thermostat may be a big part of the problem. The boiler has a dial timer with small levers (at 15 minute intervals). Yesterday I set every other one off (so I think that the boiler should now only run for a maximum of 12 hours a day). In the 24 hours following this the gas used was 550 cubic feet (which I think will reduce the daily cost to around £5.80), and would be around 51,000 cubic feet for the whole winter. The house doesn't seem any colder than yesterday (and it has been very cold outside).

Today I am going to try it with only 1 in 3 levers switched on, and see how we go with that.

Your suggestions for insulation improvements are appreciated, but we rent our house and the landlord is not too keen on spending too much money on improvements - so are options are somewhat limited (as we may only be here a few months more, I am not sure it would payback in time).

I will have to have a word with my wife about getting her pregnant and getting the free insulation! :)

Thanks again,

Bob

Seems right, if you hadn't had the gas on you wouldn't have used any!! Not being funny easiest way to check is to turn it off when you go out take a reading and take another when you come back it should not have moved more than one on the 4th number from the left the 2 numbers on the right should be sub numbers and are discarded for measurement. Do you have a prepay meter, this is the most expensive way to pay for energy better to have ordinary meters and pay D?D or a budget plan at paypoint. If your meter is faulty National Grid will check it. the readings are about normal for the time of year if you are on benefits[anyone in house] or if there is someone over 70 you will qualify for free insulation, if not it would cost you £150 on each measure on the grant scheme. If your house was built between 1922- around 1990 you could install cavity wall insulation and the recommended depth for loft is 12 inches. Most households use 20000-30000 per annum in standard houses more if there are people who are elderly or prone to cold through medical conditions and the like. For you it depends on your lifestyle obviosly people who are out at work school all day will not use as much as those home most of the day, Apart from only using part of the house the only alternative would be to look at something like a wood burner the cost could be allayed by the savings in gas and depending on installation normally has a payback of 6years or so obviosly for heavier users this payback is greatly reduced most companies will survey for a nominal fee and refund this you could also look at a system to run the water and cooking but obviously that depends on budget.

Under government guidelines WARMPLAN are opening up grants for boilers and insultaion to a wider audience you could check them out periodically to see if you qualify they were doing it free for pregnant ladies [seriously] so I don't know if you have any more plans along those lines. Check out their website only other thing to say is the best deals are for online accounts. Hope this helps. Mike

Hi,

I took a meter reading last night and one tonight, and it looks like I have used 780 cubic feet of gas in that 24 hour period. Just to make sure that I am reading it correctly:

- It has 4 white dials, a red dial and a fixed red zero

- It says cubic feet at the bottom

- The figure yesterday was 104380 (all dials plus the fixed zero)

- The figure today is 105160 (all dials plus the fixed zero)

It is my understanding that a hundred cubic feet is about 30 kWh, so I would have burnt about 234 kWh and I believe that my tariff is in the range of 3.5p per kWh, in which case I would have spent about £8.20 on gas in the last 24 hours.

We live in a 3 bedroom semi-detached house. Our heating is on all of the time (we have young children), the boiler seems to be running for a fairly large proportion of the day and our house is generally a bit cold and draughty (is double glazed, but with some single glazed windows and a draughty front door). I am not sure about the roof and wall cavity insulation. It is also currently quite cold where we are (probably a little above zero during the night and a maximum of 8C during the day).

We have a Vaillant combi boiler, which seems to be an older version of the ecoTEC range. The radiator dial on the boiler is set almost all the way to the right. I believe that the room thermostat (on the landing) may not be functioning, although the house is far from being too hot (kitchen - 22C, lounge - 23C, hallway - 24C, landing - 22C).

I wonder if anybody could please tell me whether I have made any mistakes with the above calculations, and whether the figures are within any kind of normal range.

Many thanks in advance,

Bob