On 26/05/2010 13:56, whisky-dave wrote:
I've been told that supplying gas is very expensive which is why my gas bill
is high but on asking around it's been suggested that I should ask to be
disconnected from my Gas supplier (npower, London) and use calor gas bottles
which work out much cheaper I've been told under half the cost.
This year I plan to measure my gas usage, I only use Gas for the frontroom
fire which is one of the standard baxi gas heaters with flame and coal
effect behind glass.

My last 1/4 ly bill for gas was about £140. nov-feb approx

So does this saving sound reasonable am I and other being charged so much
for delivery of gas and would there be anything I should consider regarding
swapping over other than the usualy safety considerations.


Difficult to tell without knowing the model specification or your use.

I'd estimate at the very most £140 - that's using what I'd consider to
be high but not bonkers estimates of 12 hours/day, at 2.5kW/h
consumption (not delivered heat), 5p/kWh.

Gas fires can be pretty good, but vary a lot in efficiency - 30 to 90%,
I think. The flame ones tend to be lower efficiency. So if your is 50%,
of that 2.5kWh you're consuming, you only get just over 1 kWh - about
the same as a one bar electric fire. Not much in a big room.

This is just my educated guess from a spreadsheet I knocked up a while
ago - I'm sure others here can do better.

Rob