If you have a question relating to one of the articles, could you leave the question as a comment on the bottom of the relevant article, in that way others with the same questions will have them answered.
If you wish to contact us with general questions, please leave them below with an appropriate subject heading.
We will try to respond within 24 hour. Other site users are very welcome to answer questions if the wish to do so.
We will anonymously add some of your questions (with answers) to the questions and answers section of this site to assist other users. Take a look there may already be an answer.
thank you
cheers
Richard
I stumbled across this website, as I was confused about why my gas bill has risen considerably, since British Gas installed a pre-payment meter. From an average of 55kW/h per day for using the shower for 40 mins and the central heating for around 10 hours per day in the winter months - I am now using 98kW/h for the shower for 5 mins, and the central heating for no more than 5 hours per day. (Plus I am on the same 2 tier tariff as I was on the credit meter, with 'no' standing charges), so I cannot understand why the kW/h are so much!
As you can see, this is a considerate rise in kW/h since the installation of the prepayment meter. British Gas say this is normal, because an average household pays at least £1.30 for central heating per hour - although I find this hard to believe, as my gas bills were far less than this when I had a credit meter. It appears that the new meter maybe ticking over too quick? (However, British Gas don't believe this is the case).
When the central heating is on for 1 hour, 19.25kW/h is being used - does this look right to you? (Does a gas boiler really use this much energy?)
Would really appreciate your advice, because I wonder if other people are also suffering the same problem.
Kind regards
Rebecca
More Questions I’m afraid. With my credit meter I pay by direct debit with my meter being read occasionally. The amount I pay each month is the same and is based on my predicted annual use. Annually we use about 20,000 kWh which approximates to 55kWh each day, It is an average sized house, reasonably insulated and in the North of England. In the summer, use is probably less than 10kWh a day and in the winter it is probably 150 kWh or more. Today I was feeling like a wimp so it has been on all day!
If before the meter changed you paid by direct debit then it is likely that you were paying an averaged amount which had little correlation to actual use in the given month.
If you paid quarterly and the meter reading were actually taken for the bill period you then clearly know how much gas you used over a given period. If they used estimates they could have underestimated actual use prior to change.
These questions sound a bit patronizing, but I’m just trying to work out the problem before suggesting that you get your meter checked. By the way you do have the right to ask for this. Have a look at this link
http://www.bis.gov.uk/nmo/gas-and-electricity-meters/gas-meters-introduction/Gas-meter-accuracy-and-billing-disputes
Cheers
Richard
Thanks for the quick response.
No, the meter was changed at the beginning of February this year, and it is averaging almost 9 cubic meters per 24 hour period, so I think that works out to around 99kWh per day?
The old meter (in the winter periods, and in the same period last year), averaged no more than 55kWh per 24 hour period, so there appears to be some problem here, but I can't think what it could be, apart from the fact - the meter is ticking over too fast?
Also we are using less energy than we did when utilising the old credit meter, and we are now in the cold most of the time, because of the high bills. British Gas are insisting the new meter is running at the correct rate, however; as can be seen - clearly it is not.
Have you ever heard of anyone suffering from such problems with British Gas? I have even received the previous bill from Nov 2012 to Jan 2013, (before the credit meter was changed). This bill shows an average of 54.93kWh per day - so I can't for the life of me think why the pre-payment is averaging 99kWh. (Plus with the old meter, we used more gas than we do now).
Would really like some advice, as we have children, and are in the cold most of the time.
Kind regards
Rebecca
It is very difficult to see what is going on here. Was it generally warmer outside before the change in meter?
Heating is much more significant than the water so lets concentrate there.
The British Gas value of £1.30 per hour is completely meaningless. Do they mean on average or when the heating is on and at full power output. It must be the latter or you bill would be £11000 a year.
[N.B. £1.30 an hour implies a gas boiler operating at about 30kW]
Just for info, having the heating on for 10 hours and then 5 hours is not linear with energy use. By this I mean that you may have had the heating on for 10 hour before but the thermostat will have switched it off periodically., with it on for 5 hours it is probably on at full power all the time.
The maximum power output of your boiler is likely to be capable of is 30kW, so 19.25 kWh is almost certainly correct and reasonable.
[N.B. the measure of energy is kWh and not kW/h, pedantic pain in the neck that I am! This is power 19.25 kW multiplied by the number of hours it is on. So if you had measured the energy use for two hours it would have been 19.25kW x 2 hours = 38.5kWh of energy used]
The difference is a mystery, The only conclusion I can come up with is that it was warmer outside before, when did you have it changed?
Cheers
Richard
Thanks
If and when this boiler fails beyond repair I shall be forced to replace it with a condensing unit which will mean relocation and new flue arrangements. This is likely to cost around £3000 + with labour.
Although the the new boiler would be more efficient and make less CO2, I don't expect to get the same service life due to much greater complexity, electronics and complex materials. In fact i believe the repair/ replacement cost of the condensing unit will be more than the gas cost savings.
Why have we been forced into this situation?
I have heard that running costs are extremely high - ie a bottle per week (rough cost between £65 and £100 per bottle).
I would be very gratefl for ny experiences/advice people can offer or give.
thank in advance
Danny
Should I replace the storeage heaters with new versions and replaced the open fire with a log burner (very rural location with plenty of wood freely available)
gas?
It makes no sense at all. Currently, the wholesale price of gas is 65 pence a Therm (29.3 kW).
This equates to a unit price of 2.2 pence for Natural Gas?
Electricity costs 11.25 pence a kW. Both these figures exclude the standing charge.
your unit prices are not correct, but the question you ask is why is electricity per unit of delivered energy much more expensive. The answer is quite simple. with gas and almost all fuels you burn in the house the process of converting the fuel to heat energy is very efficient 90% + with a modern boilers.
With electricity generation fuels like coal or gas are also burned . These are burned in the power station and used to power a turbine with steam which in turn generates electricity, this process is very inefficient, about 30%. So given that electricity providers have to burn the same fuels we use in our homes electricity is about 3 times more expensive , because of the inefficiency of converting the energy in the fuel into electricity.
cheers
Richard
Please can you help? We recently bought a 17th century cottage with a new conservatory. The conservatory is completely open to the house and is used on a daily basis as a living room. It has a polycarbonate roof, tiled floor and no heating. We are planning on having a cedar shingle roof fitted over the existing roof to include insulation between the two and are also fitting an engineered wooden floor as the existing tiled floor is very cold. We currently use an electric radiator with fan booster to heat the area when necessary. The windows have wooden slated blinds that can be closed at night to help insulate the room. Is there anything else we can do to reduce the heat loss from this space and what would you say is the most efficient way to heat it - a radiator attatched to the oil central heating system or underfloor heating? We have also considered having a wood burning stove fitted as we already have a spare one although the fitting costs have been on average quoted as £2000.
This is a common problem and I have been racking the brain for simple solutions for years. In my own house I have made my own insulated slide in panels for the inside of conservatory roof, but your solution sounds better, but more expensive.
With regard to the floor, can you put some insulation under the engineered wooden floor?
Under floor heating in this instance would be electrical, and would be very expensive to operate, but nice on the feet.
A radiator on an internal wall would be the cheapest option to fit and reasonably priced to operate.
The stove might actually be cheaper to operate given the cost of oil, but it would certainly be more hassle, but nice I guess if you have the time.
The only other comment from my own experience is heavy curtains with an insulating fabric liner (do a google) make quite a lot of difference.
Cheers
Richard
We live in NI.
How much would it cost to operate an infrared space heater (600 watts) for 10hrs?
Thank you for your help!
answers it gives is 82p but it could be up to a £1
I'm contacting you on behalf of GenFit, a renewable energy provider who are a cient of mine. Dave Houston (founder and owner of GenFit) has written extensively about the Feed in Tariff changes as well as the Renewable Heat Incentive and the implications (of both) for domestic installation of renewable energy systems. He has also created a table of ROI for solar pv which gives a rough idea of time frames of return on investment for solar pv with the recent changes to the feed in tariff for the average household. Let me know what you think of the table (http://www.generationfit.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010-vs-2012-feed-in-tariff-return-on-investment-comparison1.png). Additionally, Dave has written several editorial pieces on the changes which I would happily send across if you were interested in a guest-post from an industry expert.
I look forward to hearing from you either way.
Thanks and kind regards,
Arthur
The numbers in the table stack up given the installation cost figure of £8500 for 4kWp (inc or ex VAT? 5% I think). If the fuel prices include VAT it is only fair to add them to the capital cost.
I would like to see the editorial pieces, and am very happy to add a guest post, provided it is factually based. I will e-mail you.
cheers
Richard
Dear Editor,
I have recently visited your site and wanted to get in touch as i work for the website OilPrice.com and was hoping to speak about the information you are currently showing.
Our team has spent the last 3 months creating some excellent free Energy widgets and after looking at your content and style our designers think they would be a great fit for you.
(There is no charge for using them and at present there is nothing else like them available.)
The free widgets cover Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Coal, Solar Energy, Wind, Nuclear, Geothermal and all other energy sub sectors. We also have many other widgets that may be of interest which cover gold, silver and other financial data.
All widgets are interactive and are constantly moving – which adds to their interest and value to visitors. They are superbly designed and the data provided would normally be very difficult to obtain and especially difficult to package into meaningful charts and graphs.
To see what we have please take a look at: http://oilprice.com/free-widgets
The widgets focus on:
Worldwide energy consumption (by country – figures updated every second)
Worldwide energy production (Crude oil, coal, natural gas, solar, Nuclear, updated every second.)
Alternative energy production (by method: Solar, wind, hydro, etc..)
Crude oil clocks
Greenhouse gas counters
Oil & Gas news
Gold holdings by country (US, China, UK, Switzerland. Constantly updated and moving.
+ Many more...
Installation is incredibly easy as you just take the code by the side of the widget and paste it into your site. There is also an installation guide to the right of the screen.
Oilprice.com has also created a discussion forum for like-minded energy professionals, news followers, investors & traders to gather and discuss all things energy. Whether it be crude oil prices, the latest solar energy developments, wind power, nuclear fusion, global warming, trading ideas, geopolitics + many other topics.
You can find the forum at the following link: http://oilprice.com/discussion
We hope you get a chance to look at what we have available as the data is very engaging and if you do choose to display it on your site, we are certain it will encourage visitors to return again and again.
If we can be of any further service to you please do get in touch.
Best regards,
James Stafford
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
+44 203 239 4080
I too am with EDF energy (French Owned) and disbelieve the way they calculate my energy
use. We are on the fixed 2014 tariff, which sounds good, as prices have risen. However, despite
giving actual consumption figures at the beginning of the contract, which fixed our use at 13393
kw for gas and 3330 kw for electric, at a quoted price for both per annum of 980 gbp, what they
acually have done, instead of taking 80 gbp per month by direct debit, they OVERESTIMATE our
consumption and in one month the took 145 gbp by direct debit, or any amount they choose.
This is not what we agreed, but this allows EDF to rape our account, to ensure a Credit Balance in their favour - now estimated to give the big six energy cartels ove 2 Billion free money. I cannot get them to agree to take 80 gbp/month as agreed, so now I read the meters monthly on around the 17th of the month, and submit on line to make it difficult as possible for them to cheat me further, and ask for a refund of overcharged unit, which they do,
reluctantly. I know this is a pain, but I no longer trust the energy giants or their computer models. I had a similar experience with Npower and British Gas. so switched to EDF of a clever
sales pitch, by their agent (who incidentally received 50 pounds for selling me the contract). We
pay for this in our bills.
One last thing, a question no one can get an answer to is, Why do we pay 5 times the unit
price for electricity compared with that of gas. The wholesale price per uniit of gas is approx 2.2 pence, electricity is 12 pence. Why is this. Look at the profits of the big 6, 6 Billion pounds a year, and the National Grid 2.7 Billion, with the government tax taking 5%.
I maintain that consumers have not benefited from deregulation of the UK energy industry as all prices when compared are almost the same.
We (2 of us) are pensioners in a detached 3 bed house and are in fuel poverty where more
than 10% of our income is taken up with energy!!
The whole industry is fixed by foreign multinationals who care nothing for their customers, so
expect continued rises in energy, because they expect you are I to pay for their future capital
equipment expenditure!
Happy New Year - Keep a weather eye on these sharks.
Mark
I imagine something like this
Cost per unit x energy per unit x efficiency of apparaatus x energy in each unit. = True comparative cost ( that can be varied by the user as energy prices vary )
Many thanks
I am very pleased to find your website after much searching for info on cooker energy usage
My daughter wants to set up a small business and wanted to put the cost of using the oven so many hours a week a certain temperatures into her business plan.
Your cooker page is very helpful but gives less specific information.
You base your estimate of cost on Cost per use @ current prices - could you please clarify what you mean by "per use"? Presumably this is an average length of time an oven is used - for example 30m.
Our range is B rated apparently - with one small and one larger oven.
Could you give an indication of how many Kwh it would use at different temperatures per hour?
How could I find out this information?
I am really hoping you can help us with this
with many thanks
Sarah
We are currently staying on a camp site in an American RV whilst we are buying a house. The owner of the site has just informed us that he is charging electricity as an additional cost starting from this month. He will not disclose who the energy supplier is(I presume he has business rates) and has not yet advised how much per unit he will be charging. We have heard on the grapevine that it will be 20p per unit, plus 14 pence per day, plus 1% (have no idea what this is for),plus vat...
Can he do this legally and who would we take advice from if not? Over 3 days with hardly any electricity use we have used 40 units according to his meter. This could cost us in a month close to what a house owner would pay a quarter. Any help or advice greatly appreciated. thanks
40 units seem high also, if you do not think you have used it much. you could get a device to measure how much you are using to check his meter.
To get advice I would go to trading standards, they are usually very good. Sorry we cannot be more helpful.
cheers
Richard