Shocked at gas usage

Manuel

We have a gas hob in the new house. We never used gas before.
After 6 weeks, our 47 KG cylinder (the tall one) has run out!
That cost me ~80 Euro, which means it's now going to cost ~100 Euro to replace. At this rate, my hob is going to use up 50/60 Euro of gas a month. That's nearly as much as I spent on electricity for the whole house in my last place!

Does this sound like average usage for a family of 5 (i.e. 3 nippers)??

(I'm assuming what happened this morning IS that the gas ran out. Basically the flame spluttered noisily and then went out. So I lit it again, it spluttered noisliy for a couple of seconds and went out again. I tried different rings. Looks like no gas to me! I went outside and tried to lift the cylinder, which seemed as heavy as ever, but it did sound fairly hollow when I knocked on it.)

This is a real shock. 700/800 Euro a year to use the hob!

Lex Luthor

glad you broiught this up. I was thinking of replacing my electric hob with a gas one fed from a cylinder out the back when it eventually packs in. If this is how much they cost, I'll be thinking again

delly

Strange, my brother has a 5 ring gas hob and uses the same type as yourself. If i recall correctly it was well over a year before he had to replace the first one.

sakigrant

I have a gas hob - 5 burners. Put in a large cylinder in February, still seems to be a lot of gas in it. We do a lot of cooking as well so seems strange that yours has run out. Leak anywhere??

davidoco

If you can at all disconnect the barrell and roll it on it's base, you will hear the remaining gas sloshing around or hear nothing which means it's empty.

You might have a leak outside (as you would smell it inside). When you get a refill brush a mix of washing up liquid and water along the pipe and the connections to see if you can spot any bubbles.

An 11kg small barrell lasts about six months for the average user using it for hob only.

air

I'd be very surprised if Gas is more expensive than electricity for cooking unless there is a HUGE difference between the retail and wholesale price of gas.
Look at it this way, say the ESB burns some gas, turns the energy into heat and then electricity which is transported to your house where the electrical energy is then turned into heat.
This whole process is going to be about 25% efficient at best when you take into account the losses in the power station, transmission network and the dodgy heat transfer between your hob and pot. So your looking at 4 units of gas energy burned at the power station for one unit of gas energy into your pot. Add on top of that the maintenance and capital repayment on the power station and transmission network.

Now compare this with the cost of delivering the gas to your house as opposed to the power station (surely no more than double), and the heat transfer between the gas flame and your pot - pretty good.

Maybe I'm way off here, but I doubt it.

Manuel

Okay, false alarm. Hob is working again, flame is spluttering, but not going out.

I was on my way out the door to work this morning, when it seemed the gas was gone, so I went and ordered a new cylinder. But after the school run herself went back to it, and it's ok now. A neighbour advised that grease/oil etc can actually clog up the gas feed on the rings, so it looks like it was just a bit of regular maintenance required.

I have myself a back-up cylinder now for the day that it eventually runs out (we had two empties), which of course I should have done BEFORE THE PRICE HIKE!!!

Thanks for the replies. Made me realise there was shurely shome mishtake ...
/M.

Qwerty?

We have a 5 ring hob, and only use a small cylinder every six months or so.

Dilbert75

Four-ring hob and each small Calor cylinder lasts for months and months.

Lex, I'd recommend gas hob over electric any time. Just be careful that, if you've small kids, consider getting a hob with the knobs at the side instead of the front.