Cost of Heating Difficult Calculation

[Billhook]

So I just thought I would try and work out the cost of heating our house with natural gas per hour.  Simple I thought, just read the meter.

My meter is relatively modern and measures in M3 or cubic meters.  Some people will have to do another conversion if their box still measures in cubic feet.  Even the meter box is not that clear!  You wonder at first whether the red numbers are units or fractions of units and why the number in the right hand box is shown in a bigger red box

So I ran our Saunier condensing boiler for seven hours.  It is linked to the wood boiler via a Dunsley Neutraliser so that when the wood fire dies down over night the gas automatically cuts in.  Therefore the house is already warm and all the gas boiler has to do is maintain the temperature.

So they really make it easy to calculate the cost of heating your home per hour or per unit

 

In our case the unit is in M3  or cubic metres and that is shown in the first five numbers on the dial

You then have to know the calorific value of the gas which can be anywhere between 37 and 40 but which should be shown on the bill

 

Multiply that number say it is 38 by one M3

So 38

X 1.02264. = 38.86

Divide by 3.6 = 10.79

X price per Kw say 10.3 pence ( should be on bill). =111.18p per unit plus 5% VAT = 5.56p

Total 116.7 pence per cubic metre or unit

 

So we used 6.5 units on Monday night which I calculate cost £7.58 or a fraction over  a pound an hour if we ran it for seven hours.

 

it seems to me in conclusion that the suppliers of gas try to hide the running costs by making the calculation so difficult, just pay your bill and be thankful that you have any gas at all!

 

We have not used our gas for some time but I just thought I would try the boiler to make sure it still works and also give me more incentive to keep on with the wood!

 And it certainly has as we are still on a fixed tariff till next year when the price may be goodness knows where!

[the hoof]

Spare a thought for me, I'm getting charged almost treble for my gas and my supplier doesn't seem to be able to sort it out, despite 5 phone calls over the last month or so.

 

I have a metric meter but I'm being billed as an imperial meter customer so every unit I use is getting multiplied by 2.83. I only discovered this last month after not using any heating at all, I still got a bill of £180 for the months gas, so that would be for cooking and hot water only.

 

It took me ages to get to the bottom of it because of the difficult calculations on the bill, it fried my head after a while. What made it worse is that I tried comparing my bill with a bill from my old supplier and the format of the calculation is different, so it's a bit like reading the same thing but in two different languages.

 

I have rung my supplier again this morning as I got my latest monthly bill yesterday with the same incorrect calculation on it. I have made a complaint to them which they told me would be looked in to within the next 21 days.

[John Skinner]

I honestly don't want to think what our gas central heating bill might be atm (or the horrendous figures it might be in the future) had i not switched it off back in July. For hot water alone we're around £18-£21 per month. Scottish Gas must think we've died or gone overseas for the winter. As we'd normally have the CH on 24/7 at about 23C. Thank god i planned ahead and installed the stove 👍

[Steven P]

Mind, the coal I got this week is costing me about £40 a week (60-40 coal / wood - don't have enough space inside for 100% wood heating), £5.50 a day for 4 months of winter. Suspect if I bought in logs that figure would be higher.

 

 

(not directly comparable to you - house size, insulation, number of jumpers owned, we are further south though in Glasgow)

Edited December 8, 2022 by Steven P

[MattyF]

My sister told me her gas and electric bill is around £500 a month, nearly the same as their mortgage! 
Our only heating cost is the genny going off an hour or two a day to charge the electric that the water pumps are using in the wood boiler.. usually free during the summer thanks to solar but it’s amazing how useless solar is during the winter ! 

[John Skinner]

54 minutes ago, Steven P said:

Mind, the coal I got this week is costing me about £40 a week (60-40 coal / wood - don't have enough space inside for 100% wood heating), £5.50 a day for 4 months of winter. Suspect if I bought in logs that figure would be higher.

 

 

(not directly comparable to you - house size, insulation, number of jumpers owned, we are further south though in Glasgow)

 

Aye. The wood certainly isn't cheap now either. I think this is my third load of wood and peat since August, and must amount to around £1000 by now. But that'll do us well into Feb; I hope.

 

I'll be more organised next year, buy in (or find, cut and store) during the spring and summer for next year.

 

It's bloomin freezing up here 🥶 By the water too, so makes it feel even colder.

 

* Always have the hope that someone local will drop me a load of wood to my, as yet, un-used tip site 😉

 

 

 

[John Skinner]

30 minutes ago, MattyF said:

My sister told me her gas and electric bill is around £500 a month, nearly the same as their mortgage! 
Our only heating cost is the genny going off an hour or two a day to charge the electric that the water pumps are using in the wood boiler.. usually free during the summer thanks to solar but it’s amazing how useless solar is during the winter ! 

 

Solar is something i will be looking into further once we hit spring (if we survive, lol).

 

Aye, much the same as all our solar lights. charge up all day from what limited sun we get over winter. Come on for 5mins to remind us there are still there, then turn off again 🙄

 

[htb]

2 minutes ago, John Skinner said:

 

* Always have the hope that someone local will drop me a load of wood to my, as yet, un-used tip site 😉

Try Royal oak tree services if Forfar as they appear to have some of the A96 maintenance contract, they were working btw Inverurie and Huntly today, strimming in the snow and may get up your way and wish to pffload timber

[nemcc]

1 hour ago, John Skinner said:

I honestly don't want to think what our gas central heating bill might be atm (or the horrendous figures it might be in the future) had i not switched it off back in July. For hot water alone we're around £18-£21 per month. Scottish Gas must think we've died or gone overseas for the winter. As we'd normally have the CH on 24/7 at about 23C. Thank god i planned ahead and installed the stove 👍

I use gas to heat water too. And being in the Forestry game burn all waste wood for heating (too big, too small, not straight enough for timber merchants to take etc).

I costs my labour but I'm getting paid per ton felled. So whatever does not get extracted heats my family. 

Energy company has been furious for years and always send out people to read the meter as the don't believe my readings.

Sod em

 

[John Skinner]

8 minutes ago, htb said:

Try Royal oak tree services if Forfar as they appear to have some of the A96 maintenance contract, they were working btw Inverurie and Huntly today, strimming in the snow and may get up your way and wish to pffload timber

 

Thanks for that. I'll look into that tomorrow 👍