High gas bills?

J

JMR

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I would be interested to hear people's opinions on whether the gas bills we receive would be considered exceptionally high or not

Every 2 months we pay in the region of €500 to €600 on gas bills.
This obviously differs from Summer to Winter but even during the warmer months would not drop below approx €400.

We are with Bord Gais and use gas solely for central heating (13 radiators) and cooking (double oven & hob).

We also have a gas fire in the sitting room but this has only been lit a handful of times in the 2.5 years we've been in the house.

There is a 3 zone control system (downstairs / upstairs and hot water) with thermostat controlling both heating zones so the heating is not left on unnecessarily.

I would have to gather bills together to see what amount of gas we actually use and what the rate is etc. but just looking for initial views.....

Thanks
 
I spoke to my elderly neighbour who lives in one of those new, fairly smallish 3 bedroom semi's over the bank holiday weekend and she told me her gas bills have been between €500 and €600 every two months since last September. I was quite shocked at this price and I asked her if she had the heating on all the time to which she replied no because she couldnt afford it. In comparison I have Oil central heating and and an open fire and I live in a much larger house and it never cost more than a €1000 a year to heat the house.
 
That seems exceptionally high. Thats 2.5-3k per annum on gas and €400 per two months during the summer is outrageous.

Whats are your levels of insulation like, when did you last get your boiler serviced?

With the amount of money your spending annuallly on gas it would be well worth your while to get an energy audit done on you house by a reputable energy consultant. Might cost you a couple of hundred quid but would be money well spent.
 

Great idea. I did get one done by( ESB) Halo last year. It was fairly good and it was for free.

[broken link removed]


You'd probably get a quicker one privately tho.
 
That does seem exceptionally high.

We have oil central heating, which with current oil prices should be higher than gas and in the last 12 months, we have spent 1400 on oil.

When you talk about your zoned system, does this mean that the thermostat in the system always decides whether to turn the heating on or not.

Amybe these are obvious questions, but how does your zoned system work ?

Do you have a timer to override this, for the night-time and when the house is empty ?

How many hours a day is the heating on ?
Surely it is off completely in Summer. Why would the heating be on at all in summer.

Maybe the thermostat is set too high.
Is the thermostat controlling the heat at night ? If so, are you heating the house all night ?
 
My gas bill is for the winter period around 110 Euro (every 2 months) while during the summer its around 60/70 Euro. I have electricity extra but that's about 50 Euro (summer) and 80 Euro (winter) so still not close to what you're paying. You should definitely get the boiler checked. Also did you check the actual reading every time you got a bill? Some people seem to get estimates for ages without realizing.

Also my friend used to have huge bills until she insisted on someone coming out to do the meter reading with her (she lives down the country and meter box was locked). Turned out that (in her case) ESB was reading (and charging) her neighbors meter all along and not hers. She got reimbursed for an overpayment of about 2k!
 
Thanks for replies, but it seems I was working off dodgy data.

While we do occassionally receive a bill in the region of €500 to €600 these are offset by lower bills at other times.
I have gathered a years worth of bills and our average bill is €234 (every 2 months)

Apologies for the misleading post....
 
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