My gas usage is going up fairly dramatically. Since Feb 2011 it is roughly 30% higher most months, and in every month (as measured on my Eon account page) has been higher than the same month the previous year since Feb 2011. Funnily enough, Jan 2012 was 34$ down on Jan 2011.
The only significant changes have been a daughter has moved out, and the gas now only does the hot water and heating, whereas we used to have a gas hob.
I don't believe we are using the heating any more than we ever did, and the hot water is on the same time settings it's been for the past who knows how many years. The heating is off through most of the summer, in fact I am a tightwad and usually don't allow it on till October.
We have a vague recollection of our meter being changed at some point, but no idea when that was.
Feb - Apr 2011 was 192 Kwh. Feb - Apr 2012 was 211 Kwh and Feb - Apr 2013 was 273 Kwh
(NB I've now noticed that their tracker is wildly inaccurate in some of it's calculations but you get the gist).
We have an old Potterton - I know a condensing boiler would save but at quite some cost, especially as the plumber next door says they have a fairly finite life due to internal corrosion at about 10 years, and being sealed so not readily repairable.
The house is a 3 bed semi with good insulation and full double glazing.
Anyway, how would one go about challenging their meter accuracy, or does the team think I just need to keep the house even colder...
And how much gas do people in similar houses use?
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I live in the same type of house but by myself and I am away a lot; I have a very inefficient 20 year old combi boiler. I would start by reading and logging the gas meter readings weekly, or even daily, if you are around, and see if that shows any trend or clues.
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I'm not sure what units I am measuring in, but when I moved my gas supply a few months back I calculated that we had used 12,000 "things" over the previous year. Our house is detached, but modern and well insulated. I think its 1750 sq feet of floor space, we have a condensing boiler providing heating, hot water and gas hob. House is usually occupied during the day.
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Feb to April 2013 was blinking cold, by some margin.
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Our gas consumption has been 25% higher than 2012...
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Oh well, it's not just me then :-)
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No not just you, ours is up, a couple of colder (longer) winters have shifted more gas. Another advantage of a modern combi is they modulate their power output to match demand, which decreases as the TRVs shut down. It still takes a long time to recover the cost of a new boiler though.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 2 May 13 at 21:02
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My gas consumption for the year ending 13 April was 18,513.0 KWh costing £612.63 so only 192 KWh for a quarter doesn't seem right.
That's for a modern four bedroom house with GFCH, gas hob and gas fire in the living room double glazing and reasonably well insulated. Boiler is 20 years old.
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My gas for 2011 = 594.88 Kwh, for 2012 = 644.24 Kwh. Only gas usage is CH and hot water. 18,500 seems a lot, even for a bigger place.
Just thinking - I may have a problem with the 2 way valve thingy as the towel rail is often hot even when the heating is off (on the stat). Could account for some waste.
My leccy bill makes me happier though. Had solar panels fitted in Nov 2011. The years look like this: 2011- 202.4, 2012 - 156.7. So about 25% down. The panels seemed massively expensive (same installation would be roughly half the price now) and only have a max output of about 2.9 Kwh (14 panels) but are on target on FIT payments alone to get my money back in about 8 years or slightly less, with index linked payments guaranteed for 25 years.
EDIT: The EON site is very misleading. Just gone to look at my actual bill (rather than my
energy checker) and the bill shows 8387 Kwh in the last quarter - cost £346 plus standing chrges. Something's up, requires investigation...
RE-EDIT latest bill says I used Electricity 4,551kWh Gas 22,543kWh in the last 12 months
RE RE EDIT: Energy tracker is estimating daily figures hence the low totals
Last edited by: smokie on Thu 2 May 13 at 21:37
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I also believe that your figures are wrong - have you missed a zero off?
I have figures for the last 15 years at least. Showing variously an annual consumption of 20,000 to 28,000 KWh for gas heating and hot water.
I am away at the moment and cannot give exact figures or annual variation to show the effect of cold winters.
I replaced the 25 year old conventional boiler last June with a modern WB so I look forward to seeing the supposed economy associated with a modern condensing boiler.
Things get somewhat confused by spending long periods away now, but I have started recording monthly figures which should give a more meaningful picture for analysis.
EDIT I see from your EDITS that you have now started to question your figures.
My Electricity is about 4000kWh annually.
Your towel rail is probably set up as a 'bypass radiator' so will be hot whenever the boiler is running.
Last edited by: pmh on Thu 2 May 13 at 21:33
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I assume everyone is converting the gas meter reading into KWh correctly. The meter itself only measures either cubic feet or cubic metres of gas used. The conversion factors needed also depends on where you are I think.
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>RE RE EDIT: Energy tracker is estimating daily figures hence the low totals
I had 'smart' meters installed for leccy and gas about 6 months ago. They come with a remote wireless display that shows current consumption (updated every few seconds), recent history and running totals. When I have a bit more spare time I'll buy a ZigBee adapter and hook them up to my PC.
My supplier also did an energy survey and topped up my loft insulation free of charge. I needed to get rid of loads of junk that I'd accumulated in the loft (sigh), but the extra insulation has made a noticeable difference.
They have now offered me 'Remote Heating Control' so that I can control the heating from my phone.
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EON gave me a meter with a remote display which has a clamp around one of the supply wires running into the meter, which is supposed to show and record my consumption. However it is skewed by my having solar panels, as the clamp can't tell which direction the electricity is flowing.
The energy tracker is a web page based (supposedly) on my usage, and shows comparative consumption on a monthly basis (which they must estimate, as it's based on quarterly readings) from the start of 2011.
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By law your suppliers statement will show how much gas and electricity you have used in the past year in KwH so no need to calculate anything.
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I've been with nPower for the past 18 months on a fixed tariff until the middle of this month for gas and electricity - cost average for gas and electricity has been £63 a month.
Naturally, it was due for a reappraisal, so went on the nPower website as well as a number of others. The average cost per month was usually £70.75 with nPower for periods up to various dates in 2014.
The final offer was for £70.75 per month until December 31st 2015. I grabbed it with both hands and was accepted...:-) Do you blame me?
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Thank goodness there's no mains gas here and we just buy the odd cylinder for the cookers.
I remember that changing the meter malarkey. What a good idea it was, privatising the major utilities to make them more competitive and efficient. Anyone would rather buy energy services from a hustling tertiary trader in it for the very big money than from a sleepy government monopoly, wouldn't they?
Great idea Mrs Thatcher bought from the US. Did us a real favour there.
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Don't worry. Bills will falls dramatically post 2015 when we have blackouts.
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Haven't looked at the bill cos i'm a letter box to bin man with boring things.
However i will have a poke nose when i see one next, just looked at the current account and the monthly DD for gas is now @ £178, it was around £130 but the heating has been on almost continually the whole winter.
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>>Thank goodness there's no mains gas here and we just buy the odd cylinder for the cookers.
Same here Sire, one 19kg bottle lasts us 18 months :)
Our heating bill o'er this winter came to £500 FFS - I'll just have to try and use less coal next winter.
:}
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"... I may have a problem with the 2 way valve thingy as the towel rail is often hot even when the heating is off..."
Some systems are set up so that the towel rail is always on, irrespective of the radiators, presumably the logic being that you may want to dry towels quickly, even in hot weather.
Do you have thermostatically-controlled radiators? These are regarded nowadays as an essential part of an economical system.
Last edited by: FocalPoint on Fri 3 May 13 at 10:25
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In our house there would never be an occasion where if the heating was on you wouldn't want the radiators on full blast. There are little temperature twirly things on the rads, but they are all permanently on maximum.
But I shouldn't contribute too much to this thread as our gas bills are zero.
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>>There are little temperature twirly things on the rads, but they are all permanently on maximum.
One would normally have those close to the thermostat or in small rooms turned down a little. Not because you want those rooms cooler, but because then it will focus more of the heat on the open corridors, large spaces and those distant from the thermostat or in a draught.
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I'm with Eon on a dual duel scheme and have noticed much the same pattern as you Smokie when looking at the tracker.
I fully expected the gas usage to be up this quarter when I submitted meter readings last week but I see that Electricity is down by 14% on last year and gas is up by 24%.
Three bed semi with only the two of us here.
What I can't work out is that adds up to a total increase of 18% overall but they want to put my DD up from £120 per month to £159.
Previously I have always ended up in April no more than £40 in debit but this year it is £140 in debit.
I have worked it out and have set the DD at £135 which I think is a bit more realistic.
Pat
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I wasn't able to get a straight answer from e.on about a sudden increase in electricity consumption in one quarter. They supplied me with one of the clip-on trackers mentioned above but it continued to show current being used, even when every appliance was switched off. I reported this by phone to e.on who said, yes, these devices were not completely reliable.
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Npower provided an estimate of my usage. When I checked the figures against the last year they had decided that my usage would more than double....and on this basis sou should my payments.
Nice lady I spoke to agreed it looked odd, but I left for another supplier anyway.
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Scottish Power have just tried the same with me. I can't get my head round it.
I changed to them (against advise on here, it has to be said) last October. My final balance from the old supplier was 40 odd quid in credit. I had been paying a monthly DD of £137 (gas and elec). I entered my annual usage on the comparison sites, and it showed I'd pay £122 with SE. Not massive, but worth it.
After three months, they decide to up my DD to £165. Woah, hold on there I says, you're supposed to be cheaper than my old supplier, who I used to pay £137. What's this about? My usage hasn't changed. We settle on £142, I'm a bit miffed but swallow.
Now, this week I get another notice - We'd like £178 per month please. Hell's teeth. What happened to £122? So I call them again, well, they say, I don't know why that is, the system shouldn't have made that assessment as we haven't had a meter reading since early March - so I give them the current readings, and I'm £250 in debit on the account after the winter's heating costs. So they say I need to build up credit over the summer to pay off the higher usage next winter as well as the £250. So now we settle on £160 DD. I'm at a loss to understand how, on a cheaper tariff, I'm paying more and more every quarter. I suppose the difference could be down to the length and coldness of last winter, but they are trying to sneakily increase my DD way beyond what's needed at every opportunity. I feel like it would be reasonable if I were on the same DD as the old supplier now, given that the new on is supposed to be cheaper, but I'm not. It's getting higher all the time. Not that my old supplier didn't increase it, of course, but this seems a new level of venality. I suppose that's what I get for trying to be tight.
I'm on a fixed rate tariff, until Feb 2014, so it shouldn't be down to price variations either. Happen I'll switch again next spring, but I'm not confident the ever increasing monthly DD will benefit. It's getting silly.
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I went with Utility Warehouse. The advantage with them is one bill (phone, broadband, gas, electric) which is paid per month based on fuel consumption readings. Painful in the last 3 months due to gas consumption, but dwindles to a small amount in warmer weather. I only pay what I owe, no wrestling with pick-pockets:)
Will need to review shortly and get comparisons re tariff. Disadvantage is disentangling all the costs of the services I suppose, if they turn out to be a luxury too far!
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All of that back and forth with increasing monthly payments is exactly why I don't do a monthly direct debit at all. I read the meter when they ask every three months, and pay for whatever I've used. I also have a spreadsheet so I can predict approximately how much the bill is going to be in advance as we go, and update that every so often.
I'm happier with that arrangement and they seem to be ok with it.
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>>I'm happier with that arrangement and they seem to be ok with it.
I bet. They're being paid *guesses* 10-20% more for that.
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£2.50 a bill, so a tenner a year.
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Alanović>> changing direct debits
Stuartli>> fixed direct debits
So what? The direct debit is irrelevant; the number that matters when comparing suppliers is the price per kWh. The DD is a function of the number of kWhs you have used. Use less, pay less. Simple.
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>> ;>> changing direct debits
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>> Stuartli>> fixed direct debits
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>> So what? The direct debit is irrelevant; the number that matters when comparing suppliers is
>> the price per kWh. The DD is a function of the number of kWhs you
>> have used. Use less, pay less. Simple.
That's right up to a point. If you're on a budget account the DD is a function of predicted annual usage/12 * price per kwh (plus perhaps a contingency for hard winter).
Alanović reports Scottish Power playing fast/loose with that equation. My experience is similar.
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Indeed MM. But I'm using the same amount and paying more, on a supposedly cheaper tariff. That's what's boggling my mind.
The DD amount is important for monthly planning. I don't want it fluctuating all the time. I thought, at the time of changing, that they would take my predicted annual usage (using past records), and divide that up over 12 payments, according to their tariff. Which gave a monthly payment of £122 in October. I'm now up to £160, with little change in usage and a supposedly fixed tariff. What's going on? I should have paid £122 per month from last October until this coming October, and had an account balance of (near as dammit) zero. The goalposts have moved somewhat.
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>> Anyway, how would one go about challenging their meter accuracy, ...........
You could try telling your gas supplier that you want the accuracy of your meter checked. They would then change the meter, and take the old one away to be tested. If it's found to be accurate they'll make a charge.
See MG123's post dated 20th March 2009. tinyurl.com/bryuvcf
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Unlikely I know, but the next scandal? Imagine that eh... :o
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>> Unlikely I know, but the next scandal? Imagine that eh... :o
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Ditch the gas utility shares and buy into telecoms....
Just think of the surge in more unsolicited phone calls, the PIP solicitors have got to find something to occupy their time!
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Thanks L'es, the last line in that link rang a bell or two... "It is a fact that meters slow down with age (they pass more gas...)". SWMBO would say they are the only things which do that!
From all the input here, and after further overnight consideration, I think initially I will monitor it a bit more closely. The towel rail is NOT "always on", but it is the first rad to get hot (and probably for me the most noticeable before going to work), and I am thinking maybe we haven't turned the thermostat down quite enough at night to shut off the system completely in the colder weather, but it isn't enough to get the whole system up and warm, so maybe it's our fault.
Interesting discussion anyway about utilities...
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Our towel rail in the bathroom will normally warmed via the central heating. But it also has an electric heating mechanism you can use too. But we don't use that. But some towel rails can be on all the time if you want.
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Gas consumption - Meldrew
