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Ok so who are freezing their nuts off at the moment?
When do you normally turn on the central heating (on constant)?
At what temperature?
How long do you keep the centre heating on?
Yesterday my bedroom was 9C and living room 14C ... nuts and feet were freezing.
Turn on the central heating to max for one hour to get temp up to 17C but the bedroom only managed 12C ... 🥶
I feel like living in Victorian Britain ... 😱
p/s: in previous rental properties it was all inclusive so never felt like Victorian Britain ...
Also my computer CPU never goes beyond 31C for the past three days ... idling at 26C ... crikey.
Its been a pretty mild autumn so feels colder. Saying that I went out for a ride on Sunday and now have the lurgy. I do have the heating on for that reason, but when i am better it will be too warm for heating.
Its been a pretty mild autumn so feels colder. Saying that I went out for a ride on Sunday and now have the lurgy. I do have the heating on for that reason, but when i am better it will be too warm for heating.
Gas or electric heating?
Turn on the central heating to max for one hour to get temp up to 17C but the bedroom only managed 12C … 🥶
That's not really the way to do it as you're just heating a bit of air when you really need to heat the fabric of the house up.
Sunny Cheshire has not been bad this month but you may be further north.
End of the day the only free heat you can get is solar gain and that depends on your location and aspect. Otherwise you need your heating on more.
Gas - on and off all day, as I work from home. About 20. It'll be off when I am better.
Dracs iPad still has its windows open.
Meanwhile this time last year I was riding up the lecht in wheelie bin deep snow.....
We're without rads in 2/3s of the ground floor right now and I'm amazed at how well an 8kw stove is heating an 18m X 5m room with great also showing through a wide opening into the 6m X 4m room next door.
When the reads do go back on they'll be turned down for sure (oil ch)
That’s not really the way to do it as you’re just heating a bit of air when you really need to earn the fabric of the house up.
😲
Do I set the central heating to constant then set the individual radiator to auto setting the temperature to 17C?
The thin wall of my bedroom is facing north with a ventilation duct (that I can actually see out) and none of my neighbours are around most of the time ... no heat sharing ... 🥶
We’re without rads in 2/3s of the ground floor right now and I’m amazed at how well an 8kw stove is heating an 18m X 5m room with great also showing through a wide opening into the 6m X 4m room next door.
When the reads do go back on they’ll be turned down for sure (oil ch)
I wish I have a stove at the moment ... arrghhh... when I get my own house I will have one.
So how much does the smart meter say you've used?
8pm cooking dinner. Combined gas and electric sitting at £2.77. house built in 1880 with no real insulation and no loft space.
So how much does the smart meter say you’ve used?
8pm cooking dinner. Combined gas and electric sitting at £2.77. house built in 1880 with no real insulation and no loft space.
Last month my gas bill was £1.27 .... think it was 5 unit volume whatever. Always take quick shower and hardly use central heating at all.
I have electric cooker so the bill was £20 plus ...
I haven't thought about putting the heating on yet. I did close my bedroom window on Monday night though (has been open since March).
It's 13.5C in my lounge at the moment which seems fine just sat here listening to some records.
Its a glorious 20deg Infront of the stove with the window shut.
Was -3 last night outside.
Turned storage heaters on this last week, giving them each the first charge of the season at max input and output.
Put them each on half input last night and I've felt slightly chilled all day, but not helped myself by not doing a turbo session after deciding to wuss out from facing the wind and bit of rain outdoors.
It’s 13.5C in my lounge at the moment which seems fine just sat here listening to some records.
Crikey ... that is freezing cold! 🥶
It is 16C in my lounge now but my feet are freezing cold as is my hands. All windows closed btw.
Crikey … that is freezing cold!
No, it quite literally isn't 🙂
No, it quite literally isn’t 🙂
Something must be wrong here as I am freezing ...
8pm cooking dinner. Combined gas and electric sitting at £2.77.
Blimey. I'd need a new job if my utility bills were that high!
Last month my gas bill was £1.27
Mine was £5.17 but I like a long, hot shower every morning and the occasional bath 🙂
No heating yet this year, but maybe my computer counts (judging by my electricity bill).
Mine was £5.17 but I like a long, hot shower every morning and the occasional bath 🙂
No bath me just quick shower of not more than 20 mins ... 😳
I have just turned on the central heating to auto and timed (radiators set to max).
Will try to auto, timed and set at certain temperature for the radiators tomorrow.
This flat is very nice and compact but blimey it is freezing cold ...
The coldest in my UK life !!!
No heating yet this year, but maybe my computer counts (judging by my electricity bill).
Where do you get all your heat from?
Surely all the heat would be gone if no heating was on?
It's always 21C in my house.
It’s always 21C in my house.
Solar power?
How?
Gas central heating, radiators, digital thermostat thingy. If the house goes below 21 it switches on (think that's how it works, I just set it to 21.). Stuff living any other way, it's no the 1970s. 😆
with 2 little girls (and a wife) freezing house is not an option. no gas burnt yet. I probably only had the C/H on for about a dozen days last winter....7.5m3 of wood through the stoves though. 18C in the girls bedroom, 21C down here by the stoves
Not a very practical solution admittedly but we live in the middle of a Victorian block, neighbours on all sides, walls are reasonably thick. There didn't use to be any heating but one very cold winter about 8 years back I bought a couple of storage heaters. They haven't been on since! And on the hottest days this summer, 40 odd degrees outside, it was still a comfortable temperature inside.
A mate lived on the too floor though and it was unbearable at either extreme.
18C in the girls bedroom,
I'd get the child services on to you, far too cold. 😆
It’s 13.5C in my lounge at the moment which seems fine just sat here listening to some records.
with 4 jumpers on no doubt. 😆
Don't skimp on yer heating folks it's no worth it. 😆
I can mind it being cold pre central heating in the 80s, stuff that!
Gas central heating, radiators, digital thermostat thingy. If the house goes below 21 it switches on (think that’s how it works, I just set it to 21.). Stuff living any other way, it’s no the 1970s. 😆
What's the gas bill like if I may ask?
I can't spend on constant heating ...
Canny mind, it's about 80/90 quid a month for gas and leccy, 2 bedroom flat.
Last month my gas bill was £1.27 …. think it was 5 unit volume whatever. Always take quick shower and hardly use central heating at all.
I have electric cooker so the bill was £20 plus …
Christ almighty. My fuel bill (gas and electric) for the last 12 months was somewhere between £1000 and £1500.
Hive and gas CH in a 4 bed modern detached in west of Scotland. It’s 22 at the moment, goes down to min of 16 at night, set to variable temps between 16 and 23 through a 24 hour day, Smart meter says £6.81 gas and electric today so far, outside temp is 2.5. Annual energy bill about £1900. We don’t like to be cold in the house..
nuts and feet were freezing.
Get some tiger balm Lad !
Smart meter says £6.81 gas and electric today so far
Holy ****!
^^^ bit more than a normal weekday as I’m WFH at moment and the washer dryer has been on a few times, and dishwasher in on at mo too.
Dracs iPad still has its windows open.
Pfft! iPads don’t use Windows.
CH is almost always on timed and is set to 16C - neither of us like an overly warm house and particularly don't like it warm when sleeping.
We are in a rural location so we have oil fired central heating as we are way off-grid for gas. Rough costs for the kerosene is £600 per year. We've also a solid fuel stove and will use around £300 of wood and coal through the winter. The house is old stone build so no modern building specs! We are S facing so a sunny winter's day warms the house whereas in dull weather that doesn't happen - quite a difference when you get back before the CH has kicked in in the afternoon.
OP, from memory weren't you SE Asia based at one point?
Canny mind, it’s about 80/90 quid a month for gas and leccy, 2 bedroom flat.
Okay sounds reasonable as I have budgeted £40 per month max (£80 for both gas and leccy) throughout the year. Any saving from the summer should go to winter heating ... I guess.
OP, from memory weren’t you SE Asia based at one point?
Yes, right on the equatorial North Borneo. Coldest day about 25C, hottest about 39C and average 33c.
Smart meter says £6.81 gas and electric today so far
Holy ****!
That is a lot of money ... 😮
I wonder if those portable kerosene heater will be cheaper to run or those portable gas cylinder heating stove ...
CH is almost always on timed and is set to 16C – neither of us like an overly warm house and particularly don’t like it warm when sleeping.
As I found out last few days I can survive sleeping in the bedroom temperate at 9C to 14C. More than 14C I think it might get warm? No? I have 15 tog duvet and wearing long john pj ... 😅
16C in the lounge is fine but my feet and hands get cold after a while.
It’s cold. Thermostat is at 22 and I’m sitting in my no 1 Dad Onsie 😀
That makes a difference, a big difference. I grew up in a Lakeland farm house, no CH and with ice on the insides of my bedroom window in winter, hence 16C seems tropical to me.
Christ almighty. My fuel bill (gas and electric) for the last 12 months was somewhere between £1000 and £1500.
I think those are average for 2 bed household? Yes?
I've no idea to be honest.
I'm in a 2-bed 1890s terrace. The gas system (back boiler, fire, pipes, rads) is probably 40 years old and the electrics are way older. I'd be amazed if a modern house cost that much to run.
My 4 bed semi-detached, built 20 years ago, costs about £1000 a year for gas and electricity.
We used to have the thermostat simply set to 21 all year round. If the house needed heating, it got it. If it didn't, no energy was used.
Then went to a smarter system when the boiler spat its dummy out. Now use a Nest thermostat that drops the temperature to 16C when we are in bed or not here.
Hasn't made a huge difference to the bills but we sleep a lot better.
If I was on my own I'd probably have it a bit cooler but not much.
I’m in a 2-bed 1890s terrace.
Not bad for an old house. I think mine might be built post WWII.
Hasn’t made a huge difference to the bills but we sleep a lot better.
Approximately how much per year if you set it to 21 all year round? I think 18 to 20C might be better?
Something must be wrong here as I am freezing …
No, you’re not. In order to be freezing, it needs to be 0 degrees Centigrade or lower, that the point water freezes at. You may be chilled, you’re not freezing.
I think it was around 9 degrees outside today, I was out in it from 10am to 7pm, I’ll let you know when it gets really freezing, when I have to scrape ice from the screens of forty-odd cars during the day.
Stays constantly at 19-22 Celsius downstairs and 22-23.
Heating is set to come on downstairs if it drops below 18, and it goes on for an hour at 1900 when the missus watches Emmerdale and whinges it’s cold.
We use £1.50 of gas per day in winter and about £0.30 a day May-October.
House is a new build and very well insulated and to be honest gets extremely warm in Summer. Think it got to 39 Celsius upstairs when it was 25 Celsius outside In summer.
18c is the magic number for me. I get sleepy if it’s any higher
If it were up to to me I'd have the thermo set to 16 but with a wife who doesn't like less than 20 I'm screwed.
Some impressively low fuel costs on here. My place is a 3 bed semi, moderately large, 30s build with no cavity. While I've been here I've put modern double glazing in and between 150mm and 300mm of insulation in the loft, also pulled down some bits of sloping ceiling to gain access and kingspan above, and fitted a modern Combi boiler. Before the stoves went in I set the thermostat to 19C morning and evening, 15C the rest of the time. My electric bill is something like £830 annually and my gas bill was almost as much, which eOn used to tell me was slightly below others in the area. The stoves have changed that and save me £500-550 off my annual has bill. If my wife was more confident with the stove we could save a little more as the heating does get brought on for a few hours on cold days and that's fine, once she and the kids have 3 layers (thermal, shirt, sweater) I don't expect them to put up with feeling cold, and the house could drop to 15C fairly quickly without heating. Once in home from work the stoves get lit and so far have coped with everything but then last winter was mild. If we had a proper cold spell, well below zero for a while, I'd probably need to flick the c/h on to warm the bedrooms. I'd love some more insulation.... If there are ever decent grants for external wall insulation then I'd do it.
It's chilly up here in NW Cumbria. Frosted up cars and frost on the grass the last 3 mornings. Roads felt a little slape on the ride in this morning too.
Detached rural house, open views to the Solway so gets a bit of wind. Downstairs has four zones for the UFH, 20°c by day, 18°c at night. I don't like it to drop too far as UFH is quite slow to heat up but holds the heat well.
Upstairs is set to 18°c, which feels a little warm to me through night at times but with two little ones it isn't going any lower.
I’ve got a newbuild 3 bed semi with upstairs and downstairs semi smart thermostats. I have the heating set to 21/22 degrees for the times I’ll usually be in each place accepting that sometimes I’ll be heating an empty house
Sometimes I whack it upto 24 if I’m cold or need stuff to dry fast on the radiators, I use a dishwasher and washing machine probably every 3 days but never the tumble dryer. Showers always under 5 mins never baths. Gas & Electric costs me about £40/month. I could save a bit but partly why I bought a new home is for the energy efficiency and warmth, life is to short to be cold or worry about putting the heating on
If it were up to to me I’d have the thermo set to 16 but with a wife who doesn’t like less than 20 I’m screwed.
my netatmo allows me to set an offset, so even though the box on the wall says its 19 deg, its actually 18.
Frost every day so far this week, don't remember this many in total last winter. Chilly rides at the moment!
I grew up in a house with one coal fire and no central heating. On cold winter days you could see your breath in the bedrooms upstairs.
As a consequence I don'l like being cold! Thermostat is set at 21.5 and the heating comes on as required only exception is if we are away, then I set it at 15 so its not totally freezing when we come home. I'm in a well insulated house that's only 8 years old so fuel costs are still okay.
Last Saturday I was out riding in shorts and short sleeved jersey. It was around 26 degrees! Last night’s ride was -3 🥶
We put the central heating on at the beginning of the month only because the people in the holiday flat we have connected to the same heating system complained it was too cold at night. We have underfloor heating with a geothermal heat pump and a very well insulated house.
I’m in a 2-bed 1890s terrace. The gas system (back boiler, fire, pipes, rads) is probably 40 years old and the electrics are way older. I’d be amazed if a modern house cost that much to run.
90s 2 bed terrace here, decent but not exceptional loft insulation, original double glazing which is way past its best tbh, and no cavity wall insulation. I'm paying about £500 pa for gas and electric. Only me here full time though, which must cut down the HW requirement a lot. I live in the SW too, and so far this autumn I don't think there's been a day where we didn't get into double figures so that must make a difference - I was a bit taken aback by the thread title tbh!
I'm very surprised your estimate of your energy costs is as vague as 1000-1500 Cougar, that suggests to me that you just don't pay attention to what you use.
I've set mine to be on for certain hours all year round. I let thermostat turn the boiler on.
17C in the morning (630-800) and 18C in the evenings (1730-2200). Also have the dehumidifier set to 70% humidity during winter. ~£60pm in a 1970s 2bed semi-detached with arse loft-insulation.
I didn't know what heating was until I left home. Just had 1 fan heater in the front-room to dry out the clothes. Ice buildup on the inside of single-paned windows and going to bed in 2 sets if clothing was regular. I much prefer the warmth. Sitting indoors 13.5C sounds utterly miserable to me.
It’s got cold in the west of Scotland this week. Our heating’s been on and off since September, more on now.
18 or 19 on the stat is about right, it’s in the hall so the coldest part of the house and 20ish everywhere else.
Set to 12 ish at night and it occasionally kicks in a bit, don’t like to be hot at night.
Sometimes just have the woodburner on and open the lounge door when it gets too hot and the rest of the house gets some heat.
Direct debit is at £200/month at the moment for gas & elec but we’re in credit and will probably have a better idea of where it should actually be at the end of the winter.
4 bed 60s house with very little insulation and upstairs is in the roof with dormers, probably nearly as inefficient house as you could find.
Direct debit is at £200/month at the moment for gas & elec ...
Crikey that is a lot to pay per month.
A chunk of the income will go to heating the house ... 😮😑
CC comes on at 6am until 9.30am then back on at 4pm until 8.30pm. Thats it, no more. In the old house, the stove would fill in the gaps when it was seriously cold,but in the 4 yrs in the new house it has either not been cold enough and/or better insulation.
About £240/month for all gas and electric. 15 year old 4 bedroom house. Thermostat sits at 21C but isn't on 24/7.
I suspect the average temperatures where I am are amongst the coldest for anyone in the UK.
Crikey that is a lot to pay per month.
A chunk of the income will go to heating the house … 😮😑
I suspect once it settles down we’ll be at about £150/month. Scottish power last year put our DD down to about £70 and then the new smart meter didn’t send any readings for nearly a year so we ended up with a big bill when I finally sent a manual reading. Put it up to 200 and now we’re back in credit. Will sort it in the spring.
My 4 bed semi-detached, built 20 years ago, costs about £1000 a year for gas and electricity.
That's pretty good for the frozen North, 4 bed detached here in the sunny south and ours is about £850pa with thermo set at 20c for no more than 10hrs a day.
I'm feeling better about my bill again now after seeing some here.
I’m feeling better about my bill again now after seeing some here.
I am trying to get my bill as low as possible as I am already paying more than my previous rental (all inclusive). My current energy bill will be extra extra that I have to pay now ... 😧
Now I hope for mild winter ...
I've actually just checked and from 2016 til now we've averaged £1150 / year gas & elec.
I’ve actually just checked and from 2016 til now we’ve averaged £1150 / year gas & elec.
Not too bad considering the size of the house.
My target is a combine total of £500/year for both gas & electricity ... 😨
^^^^ why ?
Unless you are in a fuel poverty situation, and apologies if you are, why compromise on creature comfort?
Very warm 1st of November.
^^^^ why ?
Unless you are in a fuel poverty situation, and apologies if you are, why compromise on creature comfort?
Just want to save some £££ if I can.
Even when all were inclusive in previous rental I did not go all out on heating etc.
Very warm 1st of November.
Yes, warmer today 😀
Very warm 1st of November.
where ? not here.
Or here just north of Chewkw world, it’s cold, wet and miserable.
where ? not here.
16 degrees in Epsom and I've had to put my shorts on.
Not sure why as the room temp shows around 16.9C but I am feeling cold in my hands and feet. 🥶 🤔
Why...
Screwing the climate by heating your house to 20 plus degrees so you wander around in your pants rather than putting on clothes
More money to be available for new bike pstts
More money available to put into ppp, plus the tax benefit means stopping work years earlier
Not wearing out boiler parts by having heating on is still valid, less so but still an indirect cost
Noise. Clanky rads, clicking pipes and the whooomph when the boiler fired disturbs my sleep
This thread made me check mine and do a meter reading. We're on £102 dd pcm at them moment in a 4 bed Edwardian house with good insulation,wooden double glazing and recent extension. Has underfloor heating int he new bit adn try to let the thermostats at 19-20 determine when the boiler fires apart from shut down overnight.
I try to be organised with switching as the buggers never give you a good deal for loyalty - currently paying
Electricity 15.63p
Gas 3.64p
according to the tariff comparison rate
Electricity 15.63p
Gas 3.64p
according to the tariff comparison rate
It looks like my tariff is slightly lower so I will stick with them for now.
Positively tropical up Old Winchester Hill today compared to yesterday, even had bare arms and lower legs.
Long may warm November continue!
okay so I've just checked and I've been with Bulb since March paying £86pcm, I have just swapped to Green and am waiting for my final bill and refund but it looks like I'm about £250 in credit. You might think that's about right as heating bills are bigger in the winter but since i heat the place 95% by wood stove my gas bills basically don't change. the electric must go up bit as the tumble drier is on more and such. So I was heading for an annual combined bill with Bulb of around £900. Green should save me a chunk though I hope.