Help please!

[Ady2012]

Hi all


I have recently moved into a rented house and am having problems with excessive gas useage in the region of about £6 per day during a warm spell and £8 per day during a cold spell. There is no leaks and there is only the boiler which is using gas. There was a service contract for the boiler and an engineer has been out and said that the burner pressure and gas rate where correct but said that, that was all he could do. He then went on to say it was himself that had personally looked after the boiler for the last 10 years and said to look elsewhere for the problem and then left. I have been on to the landlords and they said that they only spent £110 a month on gas and electric when they lived there and I got the feeling that they thought I must have the heating on 24 hours a day on hot. I run the heating for about 6 hours a day and the temperature is 18 degrees in the living room.

It is a Bosch Highflow 400 boiler with no room thermostat and only temperature controlled valves on the radiators. I have turned these down as much as I can in all but the living room and switched some radiators off. Even so, I have noticed that the boiler seems to fire up a lot. I monitored it for an hour and it was firing for 35 of the 60 miniutes. Other people I have spoken to said that theirs only fire up for 10 mins per hour.

I had the boiler temperature control turned to number 1 in an effort to reduce gas but have recently turned it up to number 3 and turned the radiator valves down to compensate as I was told this was more efficent but it is just as expensive.

Can anyone help please, I just can't afford to put the boiler on at this rate and I don't know how I am going to pay the gas bill of over £500 that has just landed on my mat for 2 months supply.

 

[TBServices]

The highflow has a very high ch output. Sounds like you need to have a roomstat fitted and possibly have the ch range rated down by a gas safe installer.

The boiler will run constantly without a room stat. The boiler is using the boiler stats to shut down rather than the room stat.

 

[annan]

Hi Ady.
Looks like the radiators don't give out enough heat.Power flush of the system should help.
All the best

 

[JCplumb]

Bit of a thread hijack but:
I rented a house where the boiler would fire up of its own accord, was putting about a tenner in the prepayment meter every few days - 10 years ago when gas was relatively cheap.
The house was rented off the guy who lived next door and they had an attic room that spanned both terraced houses. Turned out that I was supplying hot water for their attic bathroom aswell as heating half their radiators. They were also tapped into the cable TV line the cheeky sods.

 

[JCplumb]

Hi Ady.
Looks like the radiators don't give out enough heat.Power flush of the system should help.
All the best

Do you work for BG?

 

[villa_tom]

Do you work for BG?

You are so cynical 🙂

 

[dancinplumba]

Your so cynical 🙂

is it not you are ? not your ? 😉 😉

 

[dancinplumba]

Your so cynical 🙂

or perhaps you're ? 😉

 

[villa_tom]

is it not you are ? not your ? 😉 😉

What are talking about? 🙂

 

[REDSAW]

is the hot water on too?

 

[dancinplumba]

Hi all


I have recently moved into a rented house and am having problems with excessive gas useage in the region of about £6 per day during a warm spell and £8 per day during a cold spell. There is no leaks and there is only the boiler which is using gas. There was a service contract for the boiler and an engineer has been out and said that the burner pressure and gas rate where correct but said that, that was all he could do. He then went on to say it was himself that had personally looked after the boiler for the last 10 years and said to look elsewhere for the problem and then left. I have been on to the landlords and they said that they only spent £110 a month on gas and electric when they lived there and I got the feeling that they thought I must have the heating on 24 hours a day on hot. I run the heating for about 6 hours a day and the temperature is 18 degrees in the living room.

It is a Bosch Highflow 400 boiler with no room thermostat and only temperature controlled valves on the radiators. I have turned these down as much as I can in all but the living room and switched some radiators off. Even so, I have noticed that the boiler seems to fire up a lot. I monitored it for an hour and it was firing for 35 of the 60 miniutes. Other people I have spoken to said that theirs only fire up for 10 mins per hour.

I had the boiler temperature control turned to number 1 in an effort to reduce gas but have recently turned it up to number 3 and turned the radiator valves down to compensate as I was told this was more efficent but it is just as expensive.

Can anyone help please, I just can't afford to put the boiler on at this rate and I don't know how I am going to pay the gas bill of over £500 that has just landed on my mat for 2 months supply.

by turning stats on rads down you are preventing the heat getting out of boiler and just wasting heat, do as tb says and try get landlord to put room stat in

 

[dancinplumba]

What are talking about? 🙂

"your" should be "you are" or "you're" 🙂 learn to enunciate 😉

 

[villa_tom]

"your" should be "you are" or "you're" 🙂 learn to enunciate 😉

I know. I think you'll find if your check my original post I did type "you are"

oh, the joys of the edit button 🙂

 

[erpkid]

As TB says it needs additional controls. I understand it will be difficult for you to enforce this but a further word with your landlords could help. Don't forget their expense experience was when gas was a lot cheaper.

 

[dancinplumba]

I know. I think you'll find if your check my original post I did type "you are"

oh, the joys of the edit button 🙂

lol bar steward 🙂

 

[Rob Sale]

also try comparing you energy supplier with other on sites such as which. to see which is the best price.

 

[tamz]

lol bar steward 🙂

I think you'll find Steve that standards of English grammar and punctuation have slipped so far from those set in the 60's and 70's. It is deplorable.
At present, with the help of my daughter, i am teaching myself tx speak. I'm having trouble with it but hopefully getting there.
Wt tht mns fr t futr of langwej m8 am fkd if i no!

To the OP. With the consent of the landlord, contact the supplier and request a pre pay meter. At least then you know and pay for what you use without the big surprise bills.

 

[Mike Jackson]

The highflow 400 has a store of hot water to boost the flow rate. If there is a dripping tap etc. in the house this will deplete the store and increase gas usage. Have you got any teenage daughters spending hours in the shower?

 

[Ady2012]

Thanks everyone. I am going to see if we can get a roomstat added to the system. Is it normal for this boiler to keep trying to fire up every couple of minuites? I have got the temperature setting on mid way at present but have tried on its lowest setting and it still keeps trying to fire up every 5 miniutes. My parents boiler is set on max for the heating but our radiators get too hot to touch on the middle setting sometimes. It seems hit and miss though, one moment you can be hot the next cold. Trying to control the boiler via the raidiator valves seems a bit hit and miss as I have only used these in the past to balance the heat in different rooms. Coudl the heat exchanger be fouled up so that the heat can't get to the water for the radiators properly?

I have got the hot water to come on for half and hour in the morning and half an hour at night. We then switch in on when required and switch it off straight away. There is only myself, wife and our 6 year old here. It is deffinatly the heating side of it not working properly.

 

[dancinplumba]

I think you'll find Steve that standards of English grammar and punctuation have slipped so far from those set in the 60's and 70's. It is deplorable.
At present, with the help of my daughter, i am teaching myself tx speak. I'm having trouble with it but hopefully getting there.
Wt tht mns fr t futr of langwej m8 am fkd if i no!

To the OP. With the consent of the landlord, contact the supplier and request a pre pay meter. At least then you know and pay for what you use without the big surprise bills.

understood every word 😉

 

[Ady2012]

I contact Worsester Bosch to see if they would add a room thermostat and they were not interested and said I would have to go elsewhere, despite the fact that the owners are paying them a contract each year. If the landlord says that they are not willing to pay out to get it done then is it a simple enough job to do myself?

My gas useage has been calculated at about 5 cubit feet per day which seems high to me but EOn have said that that figure is normal. How does that compare to what everybody else is using?

 

[TBServices]

I pay £44 a month for gas and electric. That's with an old worcester 35cdi.

How well insulated is the house?

 

[AMGasServices]

Are you on a per pay meter your charged something like 60p per day whether you use the gas or not. Has the house been empty ? Or was it let out before you ?

 

[Ady2012]

I am on a normal meter not a per pay meter. We are the first people to ever rent the house since the owners went abroad. My estate agent has been intouch with the landlord and they are just not interested. We asked them if we could fit a room thermostat and we offered to pay for it ourselves and they said no as they were worried it would invalidate their service contract with Bosch. It seems that they are just expecting us to put up with these large gas bills and it is not there problem as far as they are concerned.