Hi, my smart meter shows we have use approx £4-5 on gas when we wake up each morning. We haven’t had the boiler on for central heating/hot water and no appliances used with gas either. How can this be?! Our boiler is in the attached garage so I was wondering if it was some kind of frost protection clicking on and off, but surely it wouldn’t use more than a few pence to do that…
Smart meter reading £4 with no gas used!
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Best Answer
Level 5519-01-23Best Answer
Is the timer a mechanical one or a digital one?
If the former like this one
Make sure that when you put it back on timer that it is 1/2 way. The picture shows the boiler in the ON position (only controlled by the thermosat) - the difference between 1/2 (timer) and ON is very little. Very easy to get it wrong with these mechanical timers. Why do you think the thermostat is faulty and what temp setting is it on?
Finally combi boiler? Or not? Model? -
Best Answer
Level 5519-01-23Best Answer
Re your thermostat something like this
Next question - is your thermosat connected wirelessly or hard wired to the boiler? The Worcester Bosch boiler that I had until I moved could be controlled with a wireless (fixed) thermostat paired with an RF unit hard wired direct to the boiler. Prior to that the boiler was controlled by a thermosat linked directly to the boiler operating via a mechanical timer (as per previous post). The one I have now is controlled via a wireless programmable thermostat that can move with me to a different area of the house if needs be.
Getting an efficient and easy control over your boiler (what make is it BTW?) would seem a good idea in the long term if your thermostat is not working. That is what I had to do in my present home when I moved into it as the Honeywell thermostat was unreadable (and therefore the boiler was not being controlled other than on or off)! Many of the recent Worcester Boilers can be paired with a variety of controls that will work well with it.
The one I had with my Worcester Bosch was
This is the better one for my present needs, an ESI, that I now have.
Hopefully though you won't need to go this far to get your system working more efficiently and conveniently.
BTW I got mine fitted by the heating engineer at the same time as its annual service.Last edited by Mailman; 19-01-23 at 22:54.
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Level 9219-01-23@VickyHod
I assume it's your In Home Display telling you how much you have used as you mention a monetary value?
Please, either switch your IHD to actual meter readings or take manual readings from the meter itself. Over a 24 hour period, monitor how much energy you use in actual kWh. That will tell you exactly how much gas you are actually using.
First most likely culprit is that the IHD has completely inaccurate tariff information so is getting the cash value completely wrong.
Secondly, something is using gas or the meter is measuring incorrectly.
Getting an actual consumption over a 24 hour period is your first goal, after which we'll have more of an idea what the issue is.
My money is on the IHD lying like a hairy egg!
Don't shoot me, I'm only the piano player. I DON'T work for or on behalf of EON.Next, but am willing to try and help if I can. Not on mains gas, mobile network or mains drainage. House heated almost entirely by baby dragons. -
Level 5519-01-23As per @retrotecchie's post. Set the IHD to show you kWh used (rather than £). If you get up and you see any kWh usage then the boiler is firing up overnight probably because the temperature has fallen below the thermostat settins. Another thing to check is the 'comfort setting' on the boiler as that may be another cause of intermittent overnight firing. My comfort setting is set to OFF but this morning saw my boiler fire up about an hour earlier than normal due to the temperature dropping below the overnight fallback thermostat temperature set. Mine invariably shows 0.00 kWh used when I wake up.
Last edited by Mailman; 19-01-23 at 11:12.
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Level 5519-01-23
My IHD splits the fuels gas/electricity separately. So for example gas (for most days except for today because it fired up earlier than normal) would show 'so far today' 0.00 kWh but £0.27 (due to the standing charge). Electricity similarly although the overnight usage will never be 0.00 kWh (for obvious reasons) but might be say 0.45-0.50 kWh depending on the F/F compressor more than anything else. Erm cost-wise never pay too much attention to that (as I have the IHD set on kWh) but def a litttle above £0.50 👍 -
Level 419-01-23Hi, thank you for your reply. it said 56.9kWh when I looked at the consumption this morning. This is just for the gas as it’s split on my smart meter. I’ve been home today and it is still going up but I’m not using anything! I have looked at the boiler (it is in the garage so very cold in there) and the boiler seems to turning on and off periodically. It sound like it is due to the frost control? I’m not sure what I can do about it though, other than pay a fortune to move the boiler into the house? -
Level 419-01-23Just the gas unfortunately. The display splits it for gas and electric on my smart meter.
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Level 9219-01-23@VickyHod
Ok, if you're not using the boiler, then switch it off at the electrical supply for a few hours and see if the consumption drops to zero over that period.
With the boiler disabled and not able to use any gas, and a cooker or fire not using any gas, your meter read should remain static.
If the reading continues to increase, you either have a faulty meter or a potential gas leak. The latter can be ruled out by shutting off the gas control valve going to the meter. If nothing racks up on the meter with the supply shut off, then it's likely not the meter, but a gas leak somewhere. If the meter continues to record consumption with the valve shut off, your meter will need to be looked at by an engineer.
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