High gas bill cold house

I am sure this comes up every winter but can anybody help advise whether a bill of 230 Euro for the time between 16 Oct and 23 Dec could be correct for a 3 bed semi d terraced house? We're by no means living in a sauna, the temp in the living room rarely exceeds 19 degrees and the heating is on for a max of 4-6 hours a day depending on the weather outside.

Interestingly, we accidentally left the heating on "on" instead of the timer all night one of the days when it was particularly cold and the heating knocked itself off complete and the temp in the kitchen was down to 13 degrees the next morn.

I just refuse to believe that we should be paying that much money for a house that could hardly be called very warm! Friends who have the heating on for roughly the same number of hours mentioned their bills are considerably lower. We're expecting our first child in April and really do not want the poor thing freezing to death. Realistically, I will be home throughout the next winter but this now begs the question: Will we be able to afford the gas bill with me at home and not willing to sit there in 4 jumpers and a coat and the heating on a minimum?

Also..can someone advise when it comes to gas heating...what is more economical and better at keeping the house warm...have the heating on a high setting for a shorter time or a low setting for a longer time?

Board Gais website claims the rads should keep the house warm for a while after the heating has been turned off. Our rads cool down very quickly I find.

Any advice and suggestions welcome!

Agree with everything you said. We live in a detached house and Like you I feel the house is never warm despite the fact that we are by no means selfish with the heating. Its on 8 hours in the evening and in the morning. I also run it on and off during the day because I am at home.

The minute I turn off the heat the house cools down really quickly. The temperature is set very high because of the cold weather but makes little difference.

I keep making comparisons with out last house where we had oil and the house was much warmer. We also have a gas fire in living room and its useless, thinking of replacing with solid fuel.

Same again. In fact we use the heating for maybe 3-4 hours a day on off peak times (does that make a difference) and our last bill was 100 higher than ever before (€240). My jaw hit the cold floor. The house is cold which is an insulation issie but the price of the gas heating is incredible, will definitely be calling them to look for an explanation.

does anyone know if having an old boiler is really inefficient and if so whether it makes sense to get a new one (rather than letting the old one blow out naturally!).

Hi Cartman and Flashers2,
All in the same boat so. Well...I have a man coming to have a look at the boiler and the thing as a whole tomorrow. I am hoping he might be able to shed light on the issue and let us know when we can do to improve this. Certainly, I do not wish to go working solely for GAS and ESB bills .

I will let you in on any interesting insights. Here is hoping that whatever we can do will not end up costing us a fortune.

Thank for your feedback!

Mmmm... is there a conspiracy going on here?

I got my gas bill yesterday for a whopping €274.78 for the period 6 Nov to 5 January. My bills are normally abround the €100 for 2 months.

The bill stated that this was a metered reading bill and not estimated. However, my bill was last meter-read in Sept, so it's not like I've been getting an under-estimated bill for months and months.

My house is a warm modern 3 bed. Heating comes on a 5pm and goes off around 9.30pm. The thermostats are set to about 17 degrees upstairs and downstairs and the boiler temp is set to around 60% of its maximum output.

What the hell is going on!

Hi All,

Had my boiler repair man in yesterday. Had to get heat exchanger, temp sensor thing and control board repaired which came to 535 Euro. At least now she is purring away, staying on, coming on and off to heat the house to the temp required.

Alas, I am still extremely concerned because after testing the boiler yesterday and leaving it on for a grand total of 10 hours set to heat to about 17/18 degrees, it appears the meter is clocking up about one full unit an hour. (about 0.61 cent this would cost).

10 units at a conversion factor of 11.247700 multiplied again by the unit rate of 0.05471 comes to 6.15 Euro for 10 units. At about 68 days that makes 418 Euro BEFORE standing charge and VAT.

Granted, now that no-one is at home during the day, the heating will not be on for this long but in all fairness, being at home with a baby under 1 year of age next october-february, we have to have the heating on longer. If it costs us 61 cents to have it on for an hour a day, at 3 hours a day you would be looking at 125 Euro of a bill for a 68 day billing period. 3 hours a day is nothing in cold weather.

Should it be clocking up one whole unit an hour? Has anyone ever taken a reading, left the heating on for an hour and taken another one? One unit seems excessive. One has got to be able to heat the house and keep it at a comfortable temp if one needs to.

In all the adds they talk about being energy efficient and the "power of one" and saving loads of money by turning the thermostate down to a "cosy 21 degrees". What sort of bills do those people have who actually do live in a cosy 21 degrees?????

Argh! This is making me rage....I am beginning to believe in your conspiracy theory Daithi28.

One thing's for sure...this sucks with a capital S.