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[mrjimbo]

Just had a letter from my gas supplier(FloGas) to inform me that from 1st April the cost of the gas i use will going up, suprise, suprise.

The cost before the rise is £1.7710p per cubic metre (£0.46p per litre) and the new price is £2.079p per cubic metre and £0.54p per litre.

How do these prices compare to what British Gas charge for there gas ? At the moment the estate where i live doesn't have a gas main and all the homes are supplied from large communal gas tanks but there is a possibility that British Gas might put a gas main in for us.

[Kevin Wood]

To find out you need to know the calorific value of the gas per litre. I would expect this to be on your bill. It normally is on a mains gas bill.

The mix of gases (and calorific value) can change seasonally.

Once you know that you can compare it with mains gas.

Having mains gas will at least give you a choice of suppliers.

Kevin

[mrjimbo]

It just says 'Metred Propane' and the amount of units used in 'cubic metres and litres'

[Kevin Wood]

OK. If it's propane (I'd expect it's a mixture of propane and butane, but it probably makes little odds), we have (from wikipedia):

Energy content

The energy density of propane is 46.44 megajoules per kilogram[11] (91,690 BTU per US gallon, 2220 kJ/mol, 50.34 kJ/g).

Weight

The density of compressed liquid propane at 25 °C is 0.493 g/cm3, which is equivalent to 4.11 pounds per gallon. Thus, compressed liquid propane weighs approximately 4.2 pounds per US liquid gallon, at 60 °F. Propane expands 1.5% per 10 °F.

So, 46.44 x .493 = 22.89 Mj/litre (= 6.36 kWh per litre).

54p/litre makes that 8.49p/kWh.

I think the energy in kWh is normally quoted on a gas bill so you should be able to compare that. From memory, mains gas is a good bit cheaper. Probably half the price, but I haven't done the sums for a long time (and it's probably gone up since then!).

Kevin

[aaronjb]

To give you an idea, my last bill (Scottish Power, I think still one of the cheapest around so likely a smidge cheaper than BG) was 4.720p/kWh for the first 249kWh and then 3.630p/kWh after that. I was using just over 3000kWh per month over December & January..

[mrjimbo]

So the new prices are basicly twice the price of what British Gas are charging then 

[TheBoy]

Bear in mind that some of us (an increasing number live in IGT areas), not only pay Transco to pipe it to the town (included in the gas price), but then a 3rd party to pipe it through the estate, which for me is an extra £40 a year, no matter who provides the gas 

[mrjimbo]

Even if we had to pay for it to be pumped by a third party it would still be much, much cheaper than these robbing breakwits 

[TheBoy]

Even if we had to pay for it to be pumped by a third party it would still be much, much cheaper than these robbing breakwits 

Domestic LPG, like domestic heating oil, is unregulated, so you get much more variation in prices due to the volatile oil price.

That said, like heating oil, it will always be more expensive than pipeline gas.

[Kevin Wood]

Even if we had to pay for it to be pumped by a third party it would still be much, much cheaper than these robbing breakwits 

To be honest, that those prices, it's probably almost cheaper to use electricity. I would certainly be using an immersion heater in summer for my hot water, and looking into cheap rate electricity / economy 7. 

Remember that, with gas, you are looking at the gross energy supplied. No appliance burns it 100% efficiently, and a fair bit of the heat energy goes straight out of the flue, into the floor from central heating pipes, etc. whereas with leccy, you get what you pay for.

Kevin

[freecall666]

ive just moved to e-on and price fix for 2years and says its 36p litre as from 1st april, for gas and we on a card meter and they have taken the line fee off as well.

[mrjimbo]

To be honest, that those prices, it's probably almost cheaper to use electricity. I would certainly be using an immersion heater in summer for my hot water, and looking into cheap rate electricity / economy 7. 

That might not be such a bad idea now. It hasn't really been an option up to now as i had to consider the possibilty of having no heating in the event of a power cut as my elderly mother was disabled, but she passed away recently and i am the sole inhabitant here now and i can manage a few hours without heating.

[Kevin Wood]

To be honest, that those prices, it's probably almost cheaper to use electricity. I would certainly be using an immersion heater in summer for my hot water, and looking into cheap rate electricity / economy 7. 

That might not be such a bad idea now. It hasn't really been an option up to now as i had to consider the possibilty of having no heating in the event of a power cut as my elderly mother was disabled, but she passed away recently and i am the sole inhabitant here now and i can manage a few hours without heating.

A gas central heating system needs electricity too.

I did an experiment one summer. Stopped using the gas boiler and used an immersion on a timeswitch for hot water. Drop in gas cost was about the same as the rise in electricity cost. Very little in it, except that on gas we were also heating a towel rail in each bathroom. So, with gas you get free warm towels in the morning. :-/

If that's the case on mains gas I should think the calculation would come down very much in favour of leccy for you, and that's before considering the possibility of using economy 7 overnight to heat the tank (assuming you have one).

Ripping out the central heating and getting storage heaters is probably a bit of an extreme move but it might be worth bearing in mind that, if you don't use all rooms 24/7, heating those you do use with leccy and turning down the CH would be a wise move.

If the opportunity of mains gas is there it's probably worth going for, though. I guess it'll probably increase the value of the property in addition to making it more attractive to potential buyers and making it less costly to heat.

Kevin

[TheBoy]

My mum heats her house with a 3 phase electric boiler, a real streetlight dimmer

Her electric bill roughly matches my combined electric and gas bill every month (admittedly I have more stuff on, and Mrs TheBoy gets the hump when I turn down the room stat). My heating and water is on 24/7, with the thermostats controlling it (room stat is one of those that sets different temps throughout the day)


Remember when doing the calcs, Economy 7 tarrifs tend to rape you on daytime electric usage.

[mrjimbo]

I wouldn't get rid of the gas c/h as it's always handy to have, and as it stands at the moment i can still have gas heating if we have a power cut as i don't need electricity for the gas fire in the lounge only for the programer and circulation pump etc. I also have provision for cooking with both gas and electric so that we could still cook if there was a power cut.

The biggest ballache we all suffer here is the huge discrepancy between British Gas prices and FloGas prices, just seems they've got you right where they want you. 

We don't even have the option to shop around for a cheaper supplier