Calor Gas RIP OFF prices

Bendihorse

I am being robbed blind by Calor gas for my home heating.

I live alone, in a 2 bed apartment. I had the timer set to come on for half an hour in the morning all summer, just to heat water for a morning shower. My summer bill came in at 180 euro for a period from April to August. I was flabbergast.

In October, I upped the timer to an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. The bill has just arrived for the Aug - Nov period of 180 again.

These bills are readings, not estimates.

I do not turn on any heat other than the timed amount.

What are my rights in this regard? Calor gas are the most useless shower of bastards to deal with. I'm livid. I just want to disconnect from gas and use electric heaters and immersion as this is BEYOND a joke.

Is there anything i can do about this or am I tied to them with their 30 a month standing charge?
I can not afford to pay this amount of money, especially at this time of year. They give you plenty of opportunity to get it together too, their invoice comes out today the 10th, with a payment date of the 6th of December.

Kristopherus

I don't know much about Calor, but I can tell you for sure you will spend more than that with electric heaters and an immersion.

JDxtra

How much gas did you use? Doesn't seem ridiculous to be honest.

L1011

Bendihorse wrote: »

Is there anything i can do about this or am I tied to them with their 30 a month standing charge?

You can get it removed and change to a different fuel - you can't change supplier with the existing kit, its their specific kit.

Put up your actual unit rate and actual standing charge and it can be compared to mains gas. The last rant from a Calor customer on here turned out to be paying basically the same for gas and 4c a day more for standing charge - which considering the cost difference between maintaining a single node on a major network vs. the costs of a micronetwork isn't that unreasonable.

Bendihorse

For the level of usage i have? How can half an hour of gas heating come to 180 euro for a period of 3 months?

The unit rate is 2.7526

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Have you the units charged and the number of billing days for each bill? Is it exactly €180.

Bendihorse

Louise Tasty Racer wrote: »

Have you the units charged and the number of billing days for each bill? Is it exactly €180.

Hi Louise Tasty Racer, for the summer bill where I had all the rads turned off and just heating water for half an hour it reads as follows:

Period: 24 Apr - 26 August

Standing Charge @ 0.2950 for 125 days 36.88
Gas unit rate 2.7526 for 43m Cubed (A) 118.36
Carbon Tax 0.12 for 43m Cubed 5.16
Vat at 16.68

Total 182.60

L1011

Is there a conversion factor to kW/h on the bill at all? I'm getting wildly varying conversion factors. The cm/3 rate seems rather high if the factor that makes most sense to me is used. I'm getting ~24 as suggestions which would be an equivalent on mains gas of about 1.20 a cm/3

The standing charge is fairly normal.

First port of call is to phone Calor and ask if the rates are fixed or whether there are any other deals; then you need to weigh up the total cost of converting to a different fuel source as well its running costs and see if its worth it.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Bendihorse wrote: »

Hi Srameen, for the summer bill where I had all the rads turned off and just heating water for half an hour it reads as follows:

Period: 24 Apr - 26 August

Standing Charge @ 0.2950 for 125 days 36.88
Gas unit rate 2.7526 for 43m Cubed (A) 118.36
Carbon Tax 0.12 for 43m Cubed 5.16
Vat at 16.68

Total 182.60

That's 94 days. €182.60 is 1.94 per day. Not excessive.

Bendihorse

L1011 wrote: »

Is there a conversion factor to kW/h on the bill at all? I'm getting wildly varying conversion factors. The cm/3 rate seems rather high if the factor that makes most sense to me is used. I'm getting ~24 as suggestions which would be an equivalent on mains gas of about 1.20 a cm/3

The standing charge is fairly normal.

First port of call is to phone Calor and ask if the rates are fixed or whether there are any other deals; then you need to weigh up the total cost of converting to a different fuel source as well its running costs and see if its worth it.

Thats all thats on the bill L1011, sure i haven't a clue what it all means except that 180 feels extremely expensive versus my usage. I'm depressed over this, can't seem to get ahead at all. I'm sitting in every night with a hotwater bottle strapped to me rather then turn on the heat and still, I get hit with this.

Bendihorse

Louise Tasty Racer wrote: »

That's 94 days. €182.60 is 1.94 per day. Not excessive.

Louise Tasty Racer, Did you read the part about where 'a day' consists of half an hour heating just water, no rads?

I have no option to go elsewhere as its a group system. Most of the houses on the estate have converted to oil.

cerastes

Bendihorse wrote: »

Hi Srameen, for the summer bill where I had all the rads turned off and just heating water for half an hour it reads as follows:

Period: 24 Apr - 26 August

Standing Charge @ 0.2950 for 125 days 36.88
Gas unit rate 2.7526 for 43m Cubed (A) 118.36
Carbon Tax 0.12 for 43m Cubed 5.16
Vat at 16.68

Total 182.60

Bendihorse wrote: »

For the level of usage i have? How can half an hour of gas heating come to 180 euro for a period of 3 months?

The unit rate is 2.7526

For a start thats 4 months of hot water for 45 per month, seems reasonable, how are you getting 3 months, before you put in dates it could even have been 5 months.
the thing is, you might not be paying for much more to heat the place as if you are running it anyway, it will likely run more efficiently to heat to the capacity it was designed to meet, ie space and hot water heating.

electric is very unlikely to be cheaper.
Do you have other options for hot water for showering? if you have an electric shower, that might use less on the basis that you only use what you need, but it will still be more per Kwh Id say, having said that, there is no left over hot water unused in the tank, but I would at least heat the tank full blast occasionally.
I think its possible to save on costs by using an electric shower if living alone as you can manage the time spent in the shower (crappy that this has to be done), any showers at work? or in a gym via work? maybe even calculate a low cost gym option? go for a ten minute cycle and then use the showers, might work out less than paying to heat water?? if not that, maybe something else?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

It's costing to heat water from cold every day. Plus what is the thermostat set to?

L1011

If your boiler isn't a combi you're not really just heating hot water, you're heating all the heating infrastructure *except* the radiators. Watch your meter yourself on a day or two you actually have the heating on and see if its costing any more.

cerastes

Its no suprise it costs the same for summer and winter bills

If all you are doing is heating the water and not the living spaces.
Personally I prefer when its cooler and put on a jumper, and find it very uncomfortable when Im anywhere and its really hot.
Although when it gets as cold as it is recently, I certainly prefer to take the edge off it, still the space heating is on as little as possible.

Is the tank insulated? does it or the room spaces have a stat?
If it doesnt have an insulation layer on it, maybe the cool space is causing it to be cooled or causes it to take longer to heat?
The thermal mass of the building should conserve some heat, this not being the case may cause the water to take longer to heat from cold too if its not insualted and is surrounded by a never heated space.

Being an apartment, I'd have thought you are at least surrounded by other warmed spaces or spaces not exposed to the temperatures outside.

cerastes

L1011 wrote: »

If your boiler isn't a combi you're not really just heating hot water, you're heating all the heating infrastructure *except* the radiators. Watch your meter yourself on a day or two you actually have the heating on and see if its costing any more.

If there are controls, even a manual valve shutting off the rads, then its possible this might not be the case and not much more would be heated than a combi boiler.
As the OP said they are heating the water for half an hour, it makes it sound like its in a tank and they are pre heating it to have it ready for a shower, so I doubt its a combi boiler.

TheChizler

Louise Tasty Racer wrote: »

It's costing to heat water from cold every day. Plus what is the thermostat set to?

It would cost more to keep the tank constantly hot due to the constantly high temperature difference and therefore power loss to the environment.

Bendihorse

It's a baxi system boiler according to the label. The water tank is absolutely massive, floor to ceiling height and looks to be split in two. It has spray insulation coat on it. My apartment is built in the last 5-8 years... There is a thermostat linked to a pipe coming to/from the tank also. I'd get about 10mins of high pressure hot water from it in the morning before it would go cold.

I thought I probably wasn't saving by heating water only alright. I realise the flame is still lighting of the same period of time, but it still seems an awful lot of money for the boiler to be inaction for 30mins a day. Maybe I'm thick and don't understand the mechanics.

I complained to the gas plumber when he was out to service the boiler before the summer that it was a pain I had to heat the house to heat the water as it was making the place far too hot on summer mornings, he went around and turned off all the rads.

I guess I really wanted to ascertain that there wasn't a leak or something dodgy going on and going by your replies, I guess there isn't. I also wondered if i could switch and I can't. I just turned the heat back to half hour in morning only, will be employing the hot-water bottle more from now on. Thanks everyone.