Hello,
There seems to be a fairly serious problem with the gas in rental apartment we are living in, the bills are about 4 times higher than in our previous place.
The Gas is used for central heating, heating hot water in a tank for showers and for 2 rings on the hob, oven is electric.
The previous bill was very high (€250+)but our latest one seems ridiculously high for the amount of gas we are using.
For the past 2 months the only use of the gas is for heating hot water for 40 mins in the morning and 40 mins in the evening. I have the boiler set to the lowest level that will heat the water to a decent temperature (certainly not boiling). Our bill said we used 257 m3, or 2920kWh, and was for €181.80
To me, for a small amount of water heating this seems incredibly high.
The place was built in 1991/1992, the boiler is a Poterton Netaheat.
We had Bord Gais come out to service it the other day, the guy could not access the boiler as there is a plaster board bit over it preventing access. This means the boiler has never been serviced. The guy from Bord Gais said that he didn't think servicing it would make a huge issue to gas consumption, he didn't really have any other ideas as to what was the problem and so didn't do anything.
As far as I can tell the gas pressure seems very high, when we have the gas hob on the flames are about 3 inches high and the gas comes out with huge force. Do you think this could be the problem, ie the flow of gas seems too strong.
I had a look at the meter in the basement of the apartment complex and when even the hobs are on the numbers seem to move very quickly. There seems to be no way to adjust the flow, there is a yellow handle that seems to control the flow on/off beside the meter, I moved this from fully on to closer to off and the gas flow seems much more normal, assuming this is reasonably safe to do? Will check the usage over the next week or so and see if this makes any difference. Is there another way to regulate the gas flow?
The other thing to do is to bang away the plasterboard and get the thing serviced, though as I said Mr Bord Gais did not think this would make a huge difference.
Would really appreciate any help with this. We really like the apartment and where it is but the bills are crazily high (previously posted about the high electrity bill, it was mostly as a result of an incredibly inefficient 18 year old fridge freezer. We can't afford to live here unless we can sort out these high bills.
The landlord is a nice old man, but incredibly reluctant to spend money, hence I'd say the apartment has had practically nothing done to it since new.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance
There seems to be a fairly serious problem with the gas in rental apartment we are living in, the bills are about 4 times higher than in our previous place.
The Gas is used for central heating, heating hot water in a tank for showers and for 2 rings on the hob, oven is electric.
The previous bill was very high (€250+)but our latest one seems ridiculously high for the amount of gas we are using.
For the past 2 months the only use of the gas is for heating hot water for 40 mins in the morning and 40 mins in the evening. I have the boiler set to the lowest level that will heat the water to a decent temperature (certainly not boiling). Our bill said we used 257 m3, or 2920kWh, and was for €181.80
To me, for a small amount of water heating this seems incredibly high.
The place was built in 1991/1992, the boiler is a Poterton Netaheat.
We had Bord Gais come out to service it the other day, the guy could not access the boiler as there is a plaster board bit over it preventing access. This means the boiler has never been serviced. The guy from Bord Gais said that he didn't think servicing it would make a huge issue to gas consumption, he didn't really have any other ideas as to what was the problem and so didn't do anything.
As far as I can tell the gas pressure seems very high, when we have the gas hob on the flames are about 3 inches high and the gas comes out with huge force. Do you think this could be the problem, ie the flow of gas seems too strong.
I had a look at the meter in the basement of the apartment complex and when even the hobs are on the numbers seem to move very quickly. There seems to be no way to adjust the flow, there is a yellow handle that seems to control the flow on/off beside the meter, I moved this from fully on to closer to off and the gas flow seems much more normal, assuming this is reasonably safe to do? Will check the usage over the next week or so and see if this makes any difference. Is there another way to regulate the gas flow?
The other thing to do is to bang away the plasterboard and get the thing serviced, though as I said Mr Bord Gais did not think this would make a huge difference.
Would really appreciate any help with this. We really like the apartment and where it is but the bills are crazily high (previously posted about the high electrity bill, it was mostly as a result of an incredibly inefficient 18 year old fridge freezer. We can't afford to live here unless we can sort out these high bills.
The landlord is a nice old man, but incredibly reluctant to spend money, hence I'd say the apartment has had practically nothing done to it since new.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance