From: Terry Harper 
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Subject: Re: Average monthly fuel bills?
Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2007 22:31:45 +0100

On Thu, 5 Apr 2007 19:00:14 +0100, Bert 
wrote:

>Ronald Raygun [no.spam@localhost.localdomain] said:
>> Bert wrote:
>> 
>> > Gosh people here have high fuel bills! How come?
>> > 
>> > I have a two bed semi bungalow and I pay £41 a month for my combined gas
>> > and electric - and I thought that was high and blame a north facing main
>> > wall with no cavity insulation for my excessive bills.
>> 
>> That's incredibly low.  Do you use something other than gas/elec
>> for heating (oil? coal? wood?).  Or is your heating turned off all
>> day when the house is unoccupied, and also off at night whilst
>> tucked up under duvets, so that the heating is only on in the
>> evenings and a short morning burst, plus weekends perhaps?
>
>I have gas central heating and water (combi) and no other heating at all 
>save for an electric fan heater that gets very occasional use.
>
>Generally there is no one at home during the day, Mon to Fri, the 
>heating being set to have the house toasty for 5:30pm but there are 
>holidays and high days when the house is occupied all day in the winter. 
>But even at weekends, after a morning boost, I rarely need to have the 
>heating on before 3 in the afternoon as unless it is a really cold day.
>> 
>> Our electric is about £50 a month and gas £160 for a 4 bed detached
>> bungalow, but the GCH is on 24 hours.
>
>£160 a month for heating? Wow! That's £40 a week....

Being up in the tundra region has an effect, of course. Down here in
the balmy south we pay £43 each for gas and electricity. Incidentally
I have found that turning the CH off during the day makes little or no
difference to consumption of gas. When the outside temperature falls
below zero and stays there during the day, I've also found that
keeping the CH on 24/7 is cheaper than turning off at night.

This is for a 4-bed house of about 1800sq.ft. with a non-condensing
boiler, but a good control system, with thermostatic valves on
radiators, cavity wall insulation and double glazing.
-- 
Terry Harper
URL: http://www.btinternet.com/~terry.harper/