View Full Version : Gas prices :(
Raistlin
03-12-2010, 18:01
Evening All,
Very briefly:
Single guy, living on my own, 2 bed flat. Gas used to heat water (showers, washing up) for cooking (although I'm very rarely here and so very rarely cook), and heating the flat (radiators, TRVs, on twice a day for a couple of hours a time).
Just got my latest gas bill ... for as month ... £92!
I'm barely using the sodding stuff and I'm paying nearly £100 per month. The flat's cold as it is most of the time because I hardly have the heating on :(
At this rate I simply can't afford to pay to heat the flat, so I'll actually have to turn the heating off altogether and just wrap up warm (a prospect that I really don't fancy - it's cold enough most mornings as it is).
I've looked on USwitch and there are some suppliers that I could change to, but I've not really heard of a lot of them. Also, the saving's only about £200 over the course of a year apparently so that's not actually going to help me very much (although it would be a start).
Anybody got any ideas? Would I be better buying a couple of the oil-filled radiators that you can get and using those to heat just a couple of rooms, or moving them from room to room as I move? Or will I find that the electricity costs are just as bad as the gas?
Thanks (a cold, and quite desperate),
Raist :(
superbiatch
03-12-2010, 18:15
I've no suggestions but sympathise with you! I've had to move in with my guy (temporarily!) as I can't afford to put my electricity heating on :erm:
It is a bit hard to compare, as we pay our gas bill by direct debit, with equal payments spread over the year.
We have 3 bed house & use gas for heating (radiators & fire), cooking & water heating (showers).
Our bill is £46 per month.
So £92 does sound a bit ott.
- is yours a combi/condensing boiler & how old is it?
dgardner
03-12-2010, 18:27
Thats very expensive, there are 3 of us in a 3 bed house and the gas and electric with
electric fire on almost constantly and gas central heating on from about 18:00 til about
23:00 still comes to about £75 per month.
Get your landlord to send someone out to check to make sure all is working correctly
You don't want to be cold Rob..especially as you are on your own..Makes the single life rather bleak.
I'd get a spare heater for the odd moments when it really is too cold..if you get one with a regulator it should keep costs under control.Also this is an unusal winter(as was last winter).For the previous 10 years we have had some exceptionally mild winters so you may not need the heater very often in the future.It's a back up for when you really need it.
All suppliers are putting their costs up at the moment which hasn't helped.Personally I've come around to the idea that putting all your heating requirements into one source is a mistake.
:)
Raistlin
03-12-2010, 18:30
Just can't get my head around it. I don't know if it's because the insulation's poor, or if the boiler etc are just really crappy - if it gets any worse than this though I won't be able to afford to carry on living here (tight enough as it is) and that'll be my new start completely buggered :(
---------- Post added at 18:30 ---------- Previous post was at 18:29 ----------
With regards to getting the landlord to send someone 'round, they did a Gas safety check a month or so ago - I'm assuming that they would have spotted any problems then?
J
With regards to getting the landlord to send someone 'round, they did a Gas safety check a month or so ago - I'm assuming that they would have spotted any problems then?
Possibly they did but it might not occur to your landlord to say.
DocDutch
03-12-2010, 18:32
mine is £100 p/m and thats for a 4 bed house living with my wife (but thats paying for last year as well as we have been paying £36 for a while and all of a sudden it gone up to £130 p/m. so yeah its quite dear.
Are you paying via a landlord's meter? If so you will be saddened to hear they can set the unit rate at what ever level they like.
Raistlin
03-12-2010, 18:33
is yours a combi/condensing boiler & how old is it?
Combi, doesn't look more than 5/6 years old although it's difficult to be sure.
I wonder how much of the problem is the fact that the only thermostats are the TRVs on the radiators - could it be that they're never closing (or that the flat never gets hot enough for them to close) and so the heating's constantly trying to push hot water around?
My last place was bigger than this, and I was living there with someone else, and the heating was on almost constantly in the winter, and I never paid anywhere near this amount :(
DocDutch
03-12-2010, 18:35
how old is your boiler and also have you got double glazing at all??? as thats my problem in my house no double glazing and also the kitchen door leading to my garden isnt great quite a bit of draft.
---------- Post added at 18:35 ---------- Previous post was at 18:33 ----------
you have to take into count that the price of gas has been increasing alot over the last couple of years.
I dont have a thermostat at home either and all via the knobs on the radiators so in the rooms I hardly use I havent got them on at all.
Raistlin
03-12-2010, 18:39
Are you paying via a landlord's meter? If so you will be saddened to hear they can set the unit rate at what ever level they like.
Nah, meter billed by the Gas company (in this case E.On).
georgepomone
03-12-2010, 18:41
Hi,
that is really expensive. I have a two bedroomed house and my gas per month is £35. Though as has been said it been very cold this year. Like you I couldn't afford £90 a month either. I have to say I pay the same Summer/Winter over the twelve months so m
Maybe you should be looking at going on monthly direct debit if you can. Charges won't go down again for at least 9 or ten months.
Don't go for oil filled radiators, expensive to run.
Raistlin
03-12-2010, 18:41
how old is your boiler and also have you got double glazing at all??? as thats my problem in my house no double glazing and also the kitchen door leading to my garden isnt great quite a bit of draft.
---------- Post added at 18:35 ---------- Previous post was at 18:33 ----------
you have to take into count that the price of gas has been increasing alot over the last couple of years.
I dont have a thermostat at home either and all via the knobs on the radiators so in the rooms I hardly use I havent got them on at all.
Yep, have double glazing, and the flat's not draughty at all - I've just had a wonder around feeling the exterior walls and I'm wondering if they might be the problem. They're bloomin' freezin, I'm guessing all the heat from the radiators is getting sucked in there and that's why the rooms never seem to get warm :-/
Any thoughts anybody on oil-filled heaters? Likely to be cheaper or help at all?
What is your unit pricing Raistlin.
Whatever the best price on uswitch was, go to the company direct and you could save even more.
This certainly worked for me last time.
Nah, meter billed by the Gas company (in this case E.On).
Have they actually taken a reading or is this a guestimate?
dilli-theclaw
03-12-2010, 18:42
I pay £27 a month for gas (british gas) and £54 a month for electricity.
That's just for me (and my Boy at weekends).
Raistlin
03-12-2010, 18:49
Hi,
that is really expensive. I have a two bedroomed house and my gas per month is £35. Though as has been said it been very cold this year. Like you I couldn't afford £90 a month either. I have to say I pay the same Summer/Winter over the twelve months so maybe you should be looking at going on monthly direct debit if you can. Charges won't go down again for at least 9 or ten months.
Thanks George.
Already on a monthly DD - E.On originally estimated my usage at £35 per month (gas and electricity) and so that's what I was paying, I'm now nearly £100 in debit after this latest bill. Just used their online system to change to an online tariff which is supposedly cheaper, and their system recalculated my DD at £81. Which not only doesn't cover the usage, but also doesn't clear the debit :(
---------- Post added at 18:44 ---------- Previous post was at 18:43 ----------
Have they actually taken a reading or is this a guestimate?
They estimate every month, and they're normally UNDER - I have to ring them up and provide them with the proper reading.
---------- Post added at 18:49 ---------- Previous post was at 18:44 ----------
What is your unit pricing Raistlin.
Whatever the best price on uswitch was, go to the company direct and you could save even more.
This certainly worked for me last time.
Unit prices for Gas (with the new tariff) are:
Normal units up to 2680 kWhs per year
4.9644 pence
Normal units
2.9169 pence per kWh
On these figures, and taking the consumption from last month's bill, I'm still looking at about £70
On these figures, and taking the consumption from last month's bill, I'm still looking at about £70
On the plus side, it's not going to be that high every month. It has been a very cold month...
DocDutch
03-12-2010, 18:53
what you could do is put a heat shield behind the radiators as that would "bounce" the heat back into the house instead of going into the walls.
another thing give them monthly readings on your leccy and gas. E.on should have a customer logon for you so you can check things.
dgardner
03-12-2010, 18:54
You might try one of these:
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4150200.htm#pdpFullProductInformation
never used one myself but the reviews look pretty good
Raistlin
03-12-2010, 19:01
what you could do is put a heat shield behind the radiators as that would "bounce" the heat back into the house instead of going into the walls.
another thing give them monthly readings on your leccy and gas. E.on should have a customer logon for you so you can check things.
I don't think it's the walls behind the radiators that are thr problem, but I'll certainly look into that - thanks.
Have to give them monthly readings anyway, as they never (ever) come and read themselves.
Delta Whiskey
03-12-2010, 19:02
I'm in a one bedroom flat, my normal usage is around £30 a month. During the Winter months I expect this to rise to £50. I keep all the curtains closed as well as all interconnecting doors. There is a draught excluder on the outside door. If I feel cold I'll put on more layers, the heating only goes on for an hour a day. When the heating is on, I make sure to move anything that is in front of the radiators, chairs etc.
dgardner
03-12-2010, 19:31
Thinking about i might pop to argos tomorrow to get a couple in case the heating goes
---------- Post added at 19:31 ---------- Previous post was at 19:04 ----------
or if you are near a lidl:
http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/lidl_uk/hs.xsl/index_15870.htm
papa smurf
03-12-2010, 19:59
i recently purchased a new stove [multi fuel ] its from Bulgaria/ old soviet design it runs for 10 days on a bag of coal -it also burns logs -coke-any old wood i come across [broken pallets etc] it has a built in oven and fully functioning hot plate - my house was built in 1897 so has a fire place which is a great advantage with the price of gas , keeping warm is getting too expensive the utilities are just hiking the price and making huge profits ,they have us over a barrel but what can be done ?
Silly question, maybe, Raist - apologies if you have already considered this, but have you checked the radiators have been bled & the boiler has had the pressure 'topped up' ?
Raistlin
03-12-2010, 22:55
Hey Gaz, both good thoughts thanks - the boiler's fine, but I haven't checked the radiators. I have a key so I'll add that to my list of things to do tomorrow. Good call :tu:
TheDaddy
03-12-2010, 23:09
Some advice here (http://www.saga.co.uk/money/gettingthebestdeal/keeping-your-fuel-bills-low.asp) that might help
MovedGoalPosts
03-12-2010, 23:47
That does sound rather excessive.
If you are only running the heating for a few hours at a time, especially in this bitterly cold weather, walls and most of the structure will remain cold. It takes some time for heat to get into a building before that all you are doing is heating the air. What may make more of a difference is insulation levels especially in the roof. Unfortunately 1950s and 60s flats with flat roofs could be about the worst for that. If the flat has recently been sold or let to you was there an Energy Performance Certificate? If so how badly was the flat graded?
A gas Safety Certificate simply says the boiler is safe, i.e. fumes are going where they should be, externally. In theory they will have serviced the boiler when they did the safety test, but what really is a service?
Many heating systems only have rad termostats (TRVs) and no room stat. Not a big problem but the room stat, and a good programmer aids control.
How old is the gas meter? Is it in fact still cabale of being calibrated correctly. Does the energy company consider your use is consitent with the type of property?
I am on EDF online saver 6 at the mo and it is cheaper than anything else on the market. For me the difference between standard tariff and the online was around £400 my bill is only around £900 so the difference is huge
Raistlin
05-12-2010, 13:07
I've had the heating on constantly for two hours now, with the radiator valves adjusted to what I think are the optimum settings ..... Turns out that if I keep using gas at the current rate I'll be using £4.75 worth of gas PER DAY! That's a bill for a standard month of about £147.
That's without any cooking, and not using much hot water.
I think I'm going to have to play with this and do some more detailed monitoring / calculating over the next week or so.
How high have you set the water temperature on the boiler? If I set ours to Max, the radiators get too hot to touch, at Min they hardly give any heat out at all, so I plumped for the Mid setting.
Raistlin
05-12-2010, 16:15
Yeah, that's all part of what I've been tweaking.
Have two dials, one for water and the other for heating.
The water one's on demand, so that's set nice and high so I can have really hot water for washing up and showers. The radiator one's about a third of the way up.
At the moment things are balancing out ok I think. The heating's been on all day and I think I've used about £3.78 of gas, which should be £117.32 for the month (actually £ 107.93 after discounts).
I'm starting to think that the boiler's not as efficient as it could be, but also that it might actually work out more economical to have the heating on constantly but set very low. The house seems to lose heat VERY quickly, so having the heating cutting on and off on a timer allows the two bedrooms to become VERY cold indeed - they then obviously need more energy to warm up. I'm going to ask the landlord to get the boiler properly checked and serviced, but I'm also going to monitor a few days worth of continuous usage for quantity and cost and see what effects that has on temperature generally and whether or not there's a happy balance to be found.
Probably nothing to do with your case, but here's a tale from a colleague:
His son moved into a converted house (2 bedsits downstairs, 2 upstairs, with the landlord living below his).
The 3 rented bedsits each had their own combi boiler, gas meter and electricity meter. The control panels of the boilers were locked shut "to stop tenants fiddling" and all had been set to "constant" but the landlord explained that the TRVs would make sure there was no wasted power.
Very well-appointed place with washer/dryer, microwave, small cooker, fridge-freezer. Double glazed and insulated. The landlord made a charge for using the communal bathroom which he had to request a key for when he wanted to use it. A charge was made for this for "cleaning and hot water".
My colleague advised him to note his gas/electric readings once a week to show him what living away from home actually cost.
He locked the place up for Xmas to come home, leaving the TRVs on their "frost" position, but made the booboo of then tripping off the mains as he left (obviously did not know that gas boilers also use electricty).
On his return , he found the mains had been switched back on, and a note left from the landlord "Leave the heating on to prevent damage to the waterpipes".
A quick check of the meters showed a huge ammount had been used in his abscence, but the landlord put this down to "very cold winter weather".
My colleague visited his son just before Easter and was shocked at the power useage... so did some pipe-hunting.
His son's boiler was heating the communal hall, landing and stairs areas and providing hot water for the bathroom! Central heating pipes led into the landlord's bedsit!!!
The landlord pleaded innocence but was eventually made to make a substantial refund... and then to disconnect the pipework that led out of the bedsit.
He then increased the charge for the bathroom!!!
Raistlin
05-12-2010, 16:52
What a git!
Luckily this place is self contained - although I do currently feel like I'm paying enough to heat everybody else :D :D
One thing you could do is actually check the room temperature. Put up a thermometer and if you feel cold check what the reading is first. I did this and it cured the missus and twins of fiddling with the TRVs and hall thermostat.
If you're looking for a supplier consider Utility Warehouse, I've been with them for a while now and I'm pretty happy with them. One thing I do like are the layout of the bills - makes them very easy to understand.
Worth a look.
Si thee :Sprint:
I have a 3 bed detached bungalow on scotish power standard tarrif (paid on receipt of bill). Live on my own. Gas was £370 over past year and electric £240 less prompt payment of £150. Total bill £460. Heating is left on low all year round but have got cavity and loft insulation. Just signed up with edf online saver, showing bill will be just over £400 for the year but also get £100 from edf and £80 signing up with quidco, this is paying monthly dd. I feel for you, that sound way ott!
dazzer89
06-12-2010, 03:55
The thing is with Gas is to leave it on in the winter. Most gas useage is when the boiler is heating the system up from cold. The lowest mine goes in the winter is 50c I use the emersion heater to heat the water (that saves on gas).
My gas and electric bill for the month is £80 all year round, this is with a condensing boiler running 10 radiators in a 4 bedroom house.
Electric immersion heaters cost over 4 times gas-heating water.
AFAIC the only time electric heating wins over gas is using an electric oven as the heat stays inside whilst the door is shut and doesn't pour out of the gas oven's "chimney".
Yep, have double glazing, and the flat's not draughty at all - I've just had a wonder around feeling the exterior walls and I'm wondering if they might be the problem. They're bloomin' freezin, I'm guessing all the heat from the radiators is getting sucked in there and that's why the rooms never seem to get warm :-/
Any thoughts anybody on oil-filled heaters? Likely to be cheaper or help at all?
You can get a thermal insulation that is meant to be put between the radiators and the wall it is covered with reflective foil, might help .
http://www.ecohome-insulation.com/products/radiator-insulation-kit?gclid=CNux4bjR16UCFYpO4QodQxaOkQ
...or cut sheets of corrugated cardboard to size and coat with aluminium foil. A shelf above radiators also helps throw the heat into the room... remember to tuck curtains behind radiators under windows!
A neighbour backed his curtains with cheap lightweight quilts and says they really hold the heat into his house.
In Ye Olde Days, tapestries were hung onto walls to keep the heat in. Fancy a quilted home?
...or cut sheets of corrugated cardboard to size and coat with aluminium foil. A shelf above radiators also helps throw the heat into the room... remember to tuck curtains behind radiators under windows!
A neighbour backed his curtains with cheap lightweight quilts and says they really hold the heat into his house.
In Ye Olde Days, tapestries were hung onto walls to keep the heat in. Fancy a quilted home?
Sometimes I think a padded one would be of benefit for me lol
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