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My gas supply is solely for hot water/heating - how is my gas usage so high even when boiler is off?

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I have a Vaillant ecoTEC Plus 630 boiler paired with a megaflo eco systemfit unvented cylinder.  My gas usage is nearly 3 times my colleagues who has a combi boiler (they have a much larger house, more occupants and has a gas hob and oven). My gas usage is solely for hot water/heating.  My system is managed through the nest app and my water is heating for a total of 4.5 hours a day (I don’t have hot water whenever I want). I went on holiday for a week, turned my system off and it still charged me for all but 2 days of the 7 I was away.  We’ve had no heating on and only the hot water scheduled for the times mentioned above. My usage is around 800-850kWh per month.  I live with my boyfriend and two year old.  I’ve spoken to so many people who can’t find the issue - can anyone help?! Picture of my usage for the week I was away.

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Best answer by Jeffus 1 September 2022, 09:09

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Blastoise186
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Hey @Anders95 ,

Could you show us photos of your gas and electric meters please? Seeing those will help us figure this one out. :)

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Sure, picture attached. I also had the same problem in September last year. 

Blastoise186
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Ok, bear with me. I need to get my laptop out and I’ll be home in about 30 minutes

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Thank you! 

Blastoise186
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Ok, I’m back!

I see you have Smart Meters, so that narrows things down a lot.

Please can you go back into the app and show me screenshots of both the electric and gas meter readings? You’ll find them under Account > Meter Readings. I’m especially interested in the last months worth if possible.

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This is august! Gas is blue 

Blastoise186
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Those are the usage graphs, I’m actually looking for the meter readings under Account > Meter Readings so I can check whether smart readings have been going in.

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Blastoise186
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Well, after analysing what I’ve seen so far, I’d say these usage graphs appear to be estimates.

You might want to try asking OVO to put the meters into Daily or Half-Hourly Mode @Anders95 . That might help fix the problem going forwards. I’m also wondering if there’s signal issues, so I’d probably also recommend getting a SMETS2 Smart Meter Health Check done as well.

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Sorry, here they are!! I asked them to set it up to hourly before and they said they had! Does this not look like it is?

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Would this be the reason it’s saying my usage is 800+ kWh for gas per month without any heating or appliances, solely hot water? 

Blastoise186
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That’s more like it. Thanks! :)

Everything here seems to be pretty consistent and I definitely am satisfied that your meters are in at least Daily mode and probably are in Half-Hourly mode too - check the Daily tab under Usage for your meters and you’ll see stuff there if it’s all set up correctly.

I think this would be a good time to introduce you to @Jeffus , our resident number cruncher. He might be able to spot something that I’m not seeing.

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Thank you. Could you possibly help explain why it was charging me/using gas while it was turned off? It was off from 2nd-8th, turned back on on 9th

 

Blastoise186
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Almost everything here looks normal, but I’d like to get a second opinion just to be safe.

It’s worth noting that boilers often still have a pilot light for example, and that pilot light still uses a small amount of gas on a constant basis, so that might explain things.

It could also be that maybe something fired up at your house while you were away?

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Jeffus
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Updated on 19/10/23 by Abby_OVO

Hi @Anders95 I think i would start by getting a boiler engineer to look at your setup. Particularly your controls. 

On first inspection it doesn't look like the issue is related to your smart meter given the usage pattern when you are away. 

1. We need to see the daily usage page for the gas readings so we can see the 30min readings. Just to check when the gas boiler is firing up. For a day when you were at home, and a day when you think the boiler was off, but it still looks like you used some gas. I think your boiler may be firing up every other day when you are away. It will also help check your boiler isn't on for more than 4.5 hours normally. 

2. You have your water on for quite a long time 4.5 hrs. This seems a lot for the size of your household. It obviously depends on usage e..g  use of showers and baths., but still that seems high. Especially as you have a modern tank. Do you know the size of the tank? Have you tried reducing the time? 

3. I would check the thermostat on the tank to see if it is set at a too higher temperature.

4. I am not convinced the boiler is actually off when you are away. On first inspection it looks like it is still on and firing up every other day for a short time as the water in the tank has cooled down a bit naturally perhaps . 

5. It doesn’t look like you have a gas leak as you have a zero reading every other day when you are away. Unless it is something in the boiler when it is turned on. But you would certainly smell the gas leak then if it was happening. So i don't think it is that.

6. Unfortunately with a tank you will end up heating water you don't actually use. You have a modern tank so this will help, but some of the water will cool before you use it. That is not the larger issue you are seeing though i think. 

7. There is a small chance you have a leak on one of your hot water pipes from your boiler so you are heating water you are then loosing somewhere. But that doesn't explain the usage pattern when you are away. 

8. You could try downloading this app and seeing what is says for your gas readings, especially to see if the app can see your 30min readings. 

https://www.glowmarkt.com/

9. You are right, there is no way you should be using 800kWh of gas just for water heating. That would be 9600 kWh a year. A typical house only uses 12000kWh for heating and water according to the ofgem figures and most of that is for heating and not hot water. 

Does that help? 

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Hi,

Have  just had new gas/smart meter installed as my usage seems very high. Live fairly large 4 bed detached, family of 5. But we are not high users!

My Gas usage from Jan-Aug 2022 is 30822 kWh 

& Electricity for same period 5086 kWh 

As I understand average gas usage per year is 17-20kwh.

 

Does this sound incorrect? 
Thanks 

Blastoise186
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Hi @REC1970 ,

17-20kWh of gas usage for an entire year is impossibly low. Roughly 30k sounds more realistic based on what most people get through.

Keep an eye on the usage data, you might be surprised!

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Thanks for reply. My 30k is for period for year so far so on annual basis more like 50k.

But will keep an eye on usage data.

thanks

 

Emmanuelle_OVO
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Hey @REC1970,

 

Welcome to the OVO Online Community!

 

Great to see our community members giving you some tip-top advice here, thanks @Blaistoise.

 

As usage is personal I can only make suggestions without your account information. For example, the recent smart meter installation may be a factor here. 

 

My understanding of an average 3-bedroom semi-detached property is a gas annual consumption of between 12k-15k kWh. So the 30k being suggested here seems high, but not impossible given your house is bigger than this average.

 

It might be helpful to  look through your previous usage graphs which you can do on your online account to see if there has been any spikes in usage. It would also be helpful to check if your previous bills were estimated. 

 

This similar thread might be helpful:

 

Have you checked out OVO greenlight? A free feature on the online account. The OVO spotlight tool will mean that you can now check to see what appliances in your home are using the most energy. Sometimes customers can find that an appliance in their home may not be energy efficient, such as an old boiler. 

 

Our partner The Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) offers really great, free, energy efficiency advice. 

 

Let us know how you get on!

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OFGEM quotes the average dual fuel user in their price cap tables as 12,000 kWh for gas and 3,100 kWh for electricity.  You may not think you are high users but the figures say otherwise.

Your home is bigger than most, Your occupancy is perhaps normal, but when you factor in a lot of other households is probably bigger than most.

When you say you have had new meters installed  because of high usage, have you noticed any difference in consumption?  @Blastoise186 is the expert, but I think that  when meters are replaced it is standard for the old ones to be sent for accuracy testing before they’re scrapped / reissued (if they’re smart meters).  If I’m correct, then if you hear nothing then the old meters were within calibration limits.

That would leave you with the inevitable conclusion that despite your beliefs, you are high users.  If the new prices are scaring you a bit (with your usage they’d scare me) then you perhaps need to look at why your usage is high and what to do about it.  Incentivising the family to turn things off when not being actively used might pay dividends.

Eon and EDF customer. Don't think smart meters are worth the expense.
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The only gas usage I have today is between 1.30 and 2.30  but no one was home at that time so how were we using gas? 

Blastoise186
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It may have been a pilot light or your hot water tank running.

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Emmanuelle_OVO
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Hey @Jan Obrien,

 

Welcome to the OVO Online Community.

 

@Blastoise186 has some good suggestions here.

 

It could also be residual gas left in the pipes that causes the meters to clock consumption. Do keep an eye on it though, if you are certain you are are not using any gas appliances it could mean you have a gas leak. These guides may be helpful:

 

 

 

Are you checking the smart meter reads to get this information? Are any of the reads estimated? 

 

 

Keep us posted!

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
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Think about your gas appliances and how they are set to operate. A combi might cycle to maintain internal temperature or a system boiler might fire to maintain tank temperature.  you could have a leak on your hot water pipes - lots of possibilities, but you should be able to work it out.

Eon and EDF customer. Don't think smart meters are worth the expense.

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