High Gas bill

jfg

I have just purchased a house with an old furnace. I have 11 radiators of various sizes, 8 rooms. I had the asbestos removed from the boiler. My gas bill for Nov 10 thru Dec 8 was hugh compared to the house I'm in now. 264 therms used.
I have not moved in, the thermostat has been set at 60 or lower. The entire house has brand new replacement windows and the place is very tight. Every time I go there the boiler is not on...Thanksgiving day and most of Nov was mild...Just wondering, what may be causing this excessive reading.

Constantin

I would find a professional...

... and get to the bottom of it. From the description, I'll assume that it's a steam system, some of them experienced 80% energy savings just from being set up right.

Furthermore, your house may not be as tight or as well-insulated as you may think it is. Hire an environmental company to come out with a blower door to determine how tight the place is and where the leaks are.

lchmb

just a thought

But have your gas company come in and do a gas check from the meter in. I would also have them check the calibration on the meter itself..:) Just my .02 cent's..

Lori_3

I agree. Have the gas company check for leaks, but otherwise, welcome to old house life. I hope I'm not out of line and maybe you already know this, but maybe I can offer some helpful advice.

You may think the house is tight, but get yourself up into the attic and seal up any penetrations through attic plane. If the house is baloon framed, be sure the top plates of all of the walls are sealed off as well as the tops of any walls that intersect the attic. Check that the chimney chases are sealed at the attic. If you have fireplaces, check the dampers. If the house has had replacement siding installed, there may be huge holes chopped into the original exterior that you cannot see.

The blower door test is a good idea. Old houses are notorious for unseen passages allowing heated air to escape into the attic and out the top of the house. Tight windows aren't a cure in and of themselves. Until the top of the house is sealed up and negative pressure resolved, the house will find other sources for pulling in cold "replacement" air. (Some of those sources not so nice, like sucking it back down your chimney along with exhaust gases)

When I first moved into my 1911 home, I had the thermostat cranked to 90* and the boiler was running full tilt all the time and I still couldn't keep the house above 60*. A couple of evenings work in the attic resolved that problem in short order for little more than the cost of some cans of spray foam. Our heating costs were also cut in half when the old boiler died (may she rest in peace) and we got a new more efficient boiler. (old boiler - 1900 sq. feet of living space = $700.00 per month, New boiler, $350 is the highest monthly billing to date)

Good reading - http://wwww.weatherization.com

Lori
http://www.lovemyoldhome.com
Old Home Lovers Webring and Old House Discussion List.

Paul Mitchell_2

if it had asbestos on it then

it is very old and now that you took all the insulation off forget about it. Removing the insulation is a lot bigger deal than you may think. Heat loss from that and the pipes will be tremendous. Also just because there is new windows and siding....you still don't know what is in the walls.....nothing or newspaper if you are lucky.
Good Luck and Merry Christmas
Paul

Betz

I'm the owner of

a very old house and I've always been told that my old boiler from the early 1900's with asbestos on it was maybe about 30 to 40 percent efficient. I had some extreme gas bills with that old boiler and am still having heat loss problems with all of the 3" cast iron that isn't insulated. The gas company rated the burner retrofitted to the old coal boiler and said it only put out about 150,000 btu but I tend to agree that most of those btu went out the chimney.

Lori_3

One other thought

To help you in determining if something has recently gone awry with the boiler and/or gas lines as opposed to this house just typically having huge heating costs, I would contact the gas company and get a meter history, especially for the time periods you know the house was last occupied. If your current bills are in-line with past usage, I would recommend first having the boiler serviced and checked that it is operating properly then go about measures to tighten up the house.

If your current readings are suspiciously high compared to the previous useage when the home was occupied, then I would suspect a problem with the boiler, a gas leak, or some recent modifications to the home that created holes in the thermal envelope.

Lori

Weezbo

what size vent stack do you have on the boiler?

does the roof have 10 " of insulation or is it possible the heats just roaring out the attic vents due to stack effect of a chase not properly blocked off...or may be a fire place chimney like Lori suggested..? it may suprise many buh even in the1960's people still looked at me like i had Horns when i suggested actually insulating the roof:)))or mentioned the use of insulation under cement slabs...even in the 90's people would balk at any concievable use it might have under slabs.... insulation is really important 600 dollars worth of insulation can save hundreds of gallons and thousands of therms over time...