House 1 Degree Warmer, Gas Usage 50% Higher

[CT05 Nose Cone]

Spending the first winter in my new house has resulted in a rather painful £88 gas bill for January. Originally I had the thermostat at 17 until the new year, where I decided to turn it up to a sweltering 18. But this seems to be the result





Turned it down a few days ago, which has reduced it slightly.



I live by myself and haven't changed any usage patterns aside from that single degree difference. But even with the extortionate cost of energy in this country, £2-3 a day to just about heat a 2 bed semi built less than 20 years ago seems a bit much. My old house was a lot smaller and didn't have a thermostat or smart meter so I've never had to concern myself with this before. It did seem like when set to 18 the boiler was "topping up" more often, or would it be better to turn the temperature up so it hopefully retains the heat and doesn't have to run as often. Or am I just terminally naive about the actual costs?

[B'stard Child]

Location?

You possibly aren't comparing like with like what you want to do is compare usage with HDD over the same periods

Use https://www.degreedays.net/ to find a weather station close to you - download the HDD data with a base line of 15.0 and then sum up the HDD by Month and compare energy used per HDD

[Cotty]

CT05 Nose Cone said:

My old house was a lot smaller and didn't have a thermostat or smart meter so I've never had to concern myself with this before.

This is exactly why I don't want one.

[scz4]

You need to overlay the outdoor temperature as that will have a big impact on your energy consumption. Suspect Jan average temperatures were much lower, they were with me. Also I'm certainly at home a more in Jan compared to Dec which is definitely more social.

Edited by scz4 on Wednesday 12th February 14:21

[JimM169]

£88 doesn't sound unreasonable to me. As already stated you can't really compare one month to the next if ambient temperatures have been different.

Despite the comment above not sure what having a smart meter has anything to do with how much gas you've used ?

[DanL]

Cotty said:

CT05 Nose Cone said:

My old house was a lot smaller and didn't have a thermostat or smart meter so I've never had to concern myself with this before.

This is exactly why I don't want one.

More accurately, you’ve never had this level of information before. You’d have used the gas, got a bill, and only then known the cost.

Honestly, £2-3 a day for heating seems quite reasonable to me. I was paying more than that to heat a flat pre-Covid, so to have that sort of cost for a house when energy bills are generally higher doesn’t sound too bad to me.

My detached 70’s house cost £294 in gas to heat in January, and £234 in December, albeit that I keep my place warmer than you keep yours!

So - just west of London it looks like January was colder than December so cost more in heating, but also your bills don’t seem too bad compared with my ~£10/day in gas!

[Cotty]

JimM169 said:

Despite the comment above not sure what having a smart meter has anything to do with how much gas you've used ?

If the smart meter is reading that the OP has used more gas than what they have actually used, is that not an issue?

[B'stard Child]

If I share my data

Month	HDD	kWh	kWh/HDD
Oct	159	442	2.8
Nov	278	814	2.9
Dec	300	1454	4.9
Jan	414	1939	4.7
Feb	140	600	4.3

Says Dec was my worst month for usage per HDD but Jan was my coldest month and I used a lower amount per HDD

This can be explained by the fact I transitioned to 24/7 heating from scheduled heating during Dec and I've continued to heat 24/7 in Jan and Feb

If I just used my HDD and plug in your usage (just for comparison purposes it indicates Jan was colder than Dec but you used more energy than the month was colder - if that makes sense

Month	HDD	kWh	kWh/HDD
Dec	299.7	771	2.572572573
Jan	413.8	1266	3.059449009
Feb	139.5	338	2.422939068

[The Three D Mucketeer]

Do you change gas suppliers as often as you change cars ?

[JimM169]

Cotty said:

If the smart meter is reading that the OP has used more gas than what they have actually used, is that not an issue?

No more of an issue than a non-smart meter reading more gas than they have actually used!

[POIDH]

CT05 Nose Cone said:

a 2 bed semi built less than 20 years ago seems a bit much. My old house was a lot smaller and didn't have a thermostat or smart meter so I've never had to concern myself with this before?

1. Age of house has very little to do with thermal performance in my experience.. Newer houses are so shoddily built, even when specified to be a higher performance at design stage.
2. Smart meter / thermostat is nothing to do with usage, it just shows you the data faster.
3. Usage is more related to outside temperature and usage by you.
4. £88 don't seem that much in mid winter...
5. You need to be on things like improving insulation and draft proofing, boiler flow temperature and efficiency, layback temperature settings etc.

[Quattr04.]

Have you checked your boiler flow temps? It should be set to E or about 55 degrees, you might be heating the water up to 80 or so and using much more gas than you actually need too.

I live in a new build and my heating is always 21 degrees and that costs about £45 a month at most

[dhutch]

B'stard Child said:

Location?

You possibly aren't comparing like with like what you want to do is compare usage with HDD over the same periods.

Yeah, I was going to say, very crudely... Jan was much colder than Dec!

[CT05 Nose Cone]

Quattr04. said:

Have you checked your boiler flow temps? It should be set to E or about 55 degrees, you might be heating the water up to 80 or so and using much more gas than you actually need too.

I live in a new build and my heating is always 21 degrees and that costs about £45 a month at most

Both are set at 60, installed in 2019 and serviced a few months ago so I'd assume it's fairly efficient. Just checked that site and the HDD for November was 234, December 249, Jan 370 and this month 122. So seems January was a lot colder even if it didn't really feel it and rarely went below zero.

[1690cc]

dhutch said:

Yeah, I was going to say, very crudely... Jan was much colder than Dec!

Looking at ours only yesterday.

December heating was £318

January heating was £424

Can only be the weather as I've not changed the settings.

Rural Herefordshire with electric heating (no gas available here unfortunately)

[dhutch]

1690cc said:

Looking at ours only yesterday.

December heating was £318

January heating was £424

Can only be the weather as I've not changed the settings.

Rural Herefordshire with electric heating (no gas available here unfortunately)

Yeah, I dont have data for ours for this winter, but it was certainly significant.

Wirral, almost coastal but also not, edwardian house with 'mixed at best' insulation, and some outstanding areas of appalling air tightness!

[Dingu]

Cotty said:

JimM169 said:

Despite the comment above not sure what having a smart meter has anything to do with how much gas you've used ?

If the smart meter is reading that the OP has used more gas than what they have actually used, is that not an issue?

Deploy the foil!!

[muscatdxb]

Swap ya

[2fa]

Quattr04. said:

Have you checked your boiler flow temps? It should be set to E or about 55 degrees, you might be heating the water up to 80 or so and using much more gas than you actually need too.

I live in a new build and my heating is always 21 degrees and that costs about £45 a month at most

This sounds very sensible but I'm not sure I fully get the nuance.

Is there an idiot's guide available to help with determining the optimal temperature to run CH rads at?

For the OP - I paid ~£200 pcm for gas in December and January for a 4 bed detached 25 year old house with a 25 year old boiler.

Rads are run at around 65oC as I like them hot.

[B'stard Child]

2fa said:

Quattr04. said:

Have you checked your boiler flow temps? It should be set to E or about 55 degrees, you might be heating the water up to 80 or so and using much more gas than you actually need too.

I live in a new build and my heating is always 21 degrees and that costs about £45 a month at most

This sounds very sensible but I'm not sure I fully get the nuance.

Is there an idiot's guide available to help with determining the optimal temperature to run CH rads at?

For the OP - I paid ~£200 pcm for gas in December and January for a 4 bed detached 25 year old house with a 25 year old boiler.

Rads are run at around 65oC as I like them hot.

25 year old boiler so likely non condensing (does it have a condensate drain pipe?)

If it doesn’t you don’t want to run that at condensing fliw temps -