Hello fellow redditors,
I have just moved in into an apartment (50 m2) where I have to pay the gas bill on my own (gas used for heating only).
When I moved in, the gas meter was 13.962, and after 7 days, the meter reading is 13.999 that means ~40 m3 of gas is consumed (thermostat put on 22 degrees only!).
After consulting the wizardry calculators online, it seems that I have consumed around 500 kWh ?! The companies I have checked gives you an amount of 5000 kWh a *year* for a 50m2 apartment on average which is not enough in this case!
Are my calculations correct? Is there something wrong with the meter? Should I have a technician check it?
Unfortunately, my landlord is not that helpful so I am seeking your help. Thanks!
Edit: meter image: https://ibb.co/R090TQs
24 comments
There are kwh calculators and price calculators online, as well as experience/average numbers for your size and kind of flat.
> thermostat put on 22 degrees only
If you’re talking about centigrades, that is on the high end. Normal inside temperatures are 19 to 20 degrees, a little colder in the bedrooms, a little warmer in the bathrooms. The concept of putting on board shorts and a tank top in winter and running around the house as if it was a warm summer day is not common here.
> ~40 m3 of gas
Are you sure you’re reading that right? 40 cubic metres of gas are 40000 litres.
Is 13.999 almost 14 m3? Or 14 thousand? Maybe you’re off by 3 orders of magnitude in your readings.
Are you sure it’s not 0.04 m3 consumed?
German and English have their ways to separate numbers with commas and dots reversed. I suggest you take a photo of the meter, maybe this can clear up the confusion.
Are you sure the meter reading is really that high? If there are red digits or a red box around some of the digits they can usually be ignored. Depends on the meter of course.
How old is your apartment? Because a year of heating is mostly October – March, so while you mightve consumed a lot it might “only” be around twice the average which wouldn’t be unusual of your reference is a new building and you live in some drafty old building. Also 22° C is quite a lot. Are you keeping all rooms this warm all the time?
100 kwh per m2 per year is normal for not-so newly built housing. Mine is 250 bedarf & around 150 verbrauch.
In your case 500 kwh per 7 day, assuming 5 month of intensive heating then 10k kwh (Mwh) which is 700 EUR p.a. ~ 60 EUR per month. Not great not terrible; could be better tho..
I spent 75 EUR per month for nearly tripple the room size but we have kachelofen and only bedroom is intensovely heated.
Place Candles in your Flat, if its a Gas Leak a bright Flash will illuminate the Leak
We, and many other people I know, only warm up our place to 19 degrees. We also switch it off for the night and when we are away. We also don’t use shower for longer than 1 or 2 mins.
We still spend 4-7 cubic meter of gas per day during the winter for a larger house than the one you rent. If we kept it at 22 degrees, we’d probably spend 2-3 times volume than that. So your rate of use of gas seems logical to me.
I suggest you try and economize.
You probably should get your meter checked to be on the safe side, but you definately won’t get bankrupt.
A quick google search told me a cubic meter of gas costs about 60 – 66 cents, let’s say 70 to be on the safe side. That means you are at 28 Euros a week, or about 120 per month. Since you only need heat for half of the year, this results in about 60 Euros a month, which may be a bit high, but more or less ok (general calculations for heating are 1 Euro / month / square meter).
40 m^3 * 0.7€ / 7d = 4€/d heating cost per day
…
4€ * 31d = 124€/month
…
5 month heating season * 124€ / month = 620 €/year
…
620€/year / 12 month = 52 € / month
….that might already be included in your “warm rent”. Stay cool (warm in this case) bro.
If you are sure that’s something with the meter, get in touch with the Netzerbetreib er, the owner of the meter. If they follow your reasoning they will check and replace the meter free of charge. After a suitable period, something like a year, they will have an appropriation of your real usage and will inform your gas provider. The gas provider will correct its bills.
Most likely its just because its cold in winter. Check if you have an actual reading than you moved in and work from there
That seems excessive. I renovated an old house and currently there are 150m² heated. Right now at winter temperatures we consume about 70kW/h of gas a day(no hot water, only heating) Which are approximately 5.50€ or 10 Liters of liquefied gas which is equivalent to 2,50m³ of gas.
Looks like rest of the whole building will pay few cents at the end of month 🥲
Brotha that’s 0,04 m^3. The comma shows decimals
heyy, so just for comparison. I heated a 100m2 apartment from March to Oct for 350m3. Secondly, where did you get the 40m3 = 500kwh number? on the internet the multiplication factor is 10 to 12 but at least for my company it is near 5 or 6. I saw that with the online calculator on my gas supplier web portal.
I dont know about the calculations, but i pay 180 per month for gas plus electricity and still have to pay 300-500 at the year end settlement.
My heater burns gas like crazy.
Turn off your heater, i haven’t turned on mine this year so far. Just put on a sweater
22C is pretty high for internal temperature for most people. I can understand if you come from a particularly warm country but as a general guide, 18C is known as a fairly standard room temperature.
First of all, figure out your Zustandszahl to get a real reading on how to convert your m³ to kWh. You can get this from the gas company. Your most German neighbor will probably know it off the top of his head as well.
These numbers usually vary between 8 and 12 but they can go lower, they reflect the quality of the gas delivered to you. Use this to calculate the actual kWh.
If you still believe it is too much, you can check your gas meter for a calibration sticker [Eichplakette](https://imgur.com/GQBxqCf). It’s 17 years old, so it should have been calibrated twice since then. If you are uncertain, call the gas company to ask about what their documentation says regarding the calibration (Eichung).
Also: 22°C is above the assumed average temperature of 20°C for living spaces which are the basis of the 5000kWh for 50m² guesstimate.
Good
Is the meter for your apartment only or for the whole building?
It’s one of these weird German things that you pay for how much heat you use not how much gas is used by the furnace. If you look at your heaters you’ll notice little measuring devices – that’s what they use to calculate the heating. So perhaps one of the tenants keeps the house way warmer than everyone else, that means the furnace runs way more often but they get billed for it.
Do you have a gas boiler for hot water? If you don’t than you are not using any gas just heat!