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Hi lads,
I like to plan ahead so had a chat with swmbo today about gas. I'm pretty bad at carrying a grudge. I'm still a bit hacked at myself for dipping into cheap gas last Winter.

So, as an entirely non partisan or judgemental reckoning here's my recent figures. Back in the day I was burning 32,000kWh gas pa. I've kicked that figure right down the road. Here's last Winter, I am still pissed off at myself!

Here's the one before, thought I was Saintlike!

Here's the most recent for completeness


We are from all regions and circumstances, the only playing field that matters is against yourself, wanna play?

I'll be playing with WBS, decent double glazing, pretty thick loft insulation and access to Octopus Intelligent Octopus & a reasonable VB (Virtual Battery) at start. The lofty personal aim is zero gas and I'm not fucking about any more.

Get intae it. You against You. EVERYONE can play.

Im In.

Ref " The lofty personal aim is zero gas "

There is no gas supply to my part of the village.

ALAN/ALAN D wrote: ↑Fri Aug 04, 2023 5:44 pm Im In.

Ref " The lofty personal aim is zero gas "

There is no gas supply to my part of the village.

You against You, . My lofty gains are mein own.
What ye playing with Alan? Please don't say a didgeridoo...

Joe, we’re not going to reach zero gas, but we constantly try to become more efficient and reduce usage.

Biggest step forward was achieved last year. We replaced the bay windows to the front of the house - this constituted 75% of the front elevation of the lounge and main bedroom.

The bay was a crap construction - partly stud with render, and two inefficient PVC DG window structures that had failed in so many ways.

We replaced with, effectively, a SIPS structure and new windows. We also incorporated the ‘roof’ of the bay into the house roof - it was previously uninsulated with a flat lead roof.

We now have a structure with up to 200mm of PIR.

We also replaced all of the DG units in the rest of the house with modern gas filled E glass in the existing frames - most of the old units had failed.

The benefit has been a 50% reduction in gas usage over the winter period - we’d have it coming on in the morning before we got up.

The house feels better too.

As we use little electric too, the reduced use of GCH reduced our electric use significantly - the pump uses, proportionally, a significant amount.

Anyway, sorry for the ramble, but our gas and electric usage (use an app to monitor with weekly meter readings) is attached.





White is last year, coloured this year.

We’ll continue to challenge our usage, but we won’t reach zero as we rely on it for DHW and most cooking.

ALAN/ALAN D wrote:
Im In.

Ref " The lofty personal aim is zero gas "

There is no gas supply to my part of the village.
You against You, . My lofty gains are mein own.
What ye playing with Alan? Please don't say a didgeridoo...

Not a winner.
I have soldered two 15mm to 22mm copper fittings this year.
with a propane torch. My maths not a lot of cop. Dont know how much gas used.
Did clean up pipe work before soldering. Took about three minuets.

ALAN/ALAN D wrote: ↑Sat Aug 05, 2023 1:12 pm Took about three minuets.

Would that be a Bach or other minuet ?

We are about as low as we can go now in our gas usage, at less than 1 kWh a day.

We used to be 30,000+ kWh a year a decade ago using gas to heat the house, but now down to around 300 kWh a year, only used for cooking or occasionally running the gas boiler to prevent it seizing up.

Our hot water and cooking equates to 15kWh a day on gas
That’s pretty steady now the gas heating has been off for the past few months.

We have range rated the boiler for heating load, the boiler modulates for DHW, and actually looking forward to the heating now gas consumption can be monitored to make changes and see the improvements

nowty wrote: ↑Sat Aug 05, 2023 2:17 pm We are about as low as we can go now in our gas usage, at less than 1 kWh a day.

That's one hell of an achievement. I would be pleased with half that [reduction] as a starting point and would aim for maybe 90%... You show it can be done.
A

I'm now virtually zero gas courtesy of solar PV and thermal plus most importantly ditching the gas boiler for an ASHP.

Unfortunately I still have a gas hob but it's a great Lacanche range which I can't bear to ditch.