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Can we split this thread into the people who genuinely can’t afford to run the heating this year (for whom I have unlimited sympathy) and the masochists?
If ventilation is poor in the house (ie it’s not a leaky old building) and you’re not running a dehumidifier I think you’ll end up regretting it when you’re bleaching the mould off the walls and ceiling in three months.
Valid point. Our utility room is currently being renovated. No heating but nigh on airtight. It gets down to just under 15c in there over night and when I was doing some insulation taping and other gap filling/sealing the humidity was skyrocketing and I could see moisture forming on the coldest parts of the room. Had the dehumidifier on in there every night just in case at the moment. We've got extracts in all wet rooms as well as fresh air vents in all other rooms so humidity in the rest of the house is ok + keeping the heating on less and not letting it drop below 17 in the hallway (currently needs to be on around 20-45 mins a day if low temps outside).
I dread to think of the state of some homes if low temps internally and a reasonably high humidity.
15kW greenstar condension boiler set to flow of 70 (return about 65 deg C so not condensing
That's a 5C drop across the boiler, it should be about 20C. Two possibilities:
- The flow is too high - try turning your pump down. This has helped us a lot
- The automatic bypass valve is set at too low a pressure or is faulty. This is there to protect the boiler if all the radiators are off, but at least in our house the central ones don't have TRVs. If it opens when it shouldn't then hot water goes straight back to the boiler and prevents condensing.
If your downstairs stays cold and the upstairs is hot, then your radiators need balancing.
My boiler is set to give about a 65C output, which means the rads are at 60C at the top (about 50-52C at the bottom, the bigger ones at least) and this is enough to produce plenty of heat.
Because I'm a bit of a geek I bought a cheap thermocouple thermometer with two probes from Amazon, and taped the ends to two clamps so the tips poked out of the tape. I then clamped them onto the boiler's flow and return pipe and left it in-situ so I can check the temps any time I want. I also already had an IR thermometer that I can use for checking rad temps and it's also handy for finding cold spots around windows/doors etc, but it was also fairly cheap.
You could check the temperature on whichever radiator valve is the exit. That should be similar to the boiler return temperature on most of your rads. If it's not, then the bypass valve is open. If it is, then there's not enough temperature drop across the rads and the flow is too fast - I think. Get yourself on heatgeek.com.
Looks like we're on course to spend about £100/mo in the winter months on gas.
Came into the office today for the first time since the autumn and my god I'm melting. After not having the heating on at home I'm used to an ambient temperature of around 16deg so 21-22deg in our office feels like I'm sitting in my mum's house where she always had the heating cranked up to 27.
Molgrips... Cheers yeah slight correction, flow is 78 return 65. So only 13 degree delta. Bit of a geek like you and have stuck k-types on my pipework and have spent an embarrassingly large ammount of time (with much amusement from my family) playing about with flow speeds and balancing rads
I don't have a bypass valve in my system - just a towel rail which can't be fully shut off
I can get the 20 deg delta (and get return to run below 55 deg C where boiler is most efficient with pump speed on low... But issue is I have a mix of stupid microbore and 15mm so even with balancing carefully, on low the heating in living room (with long run of microbore) does not get flow until the trv's kick in (or should I say kick off) in the bedrooms. Also when the diverter kicks in and HW demand adds in then just not enough oomph on low.
All fun... Its an old system and ideally needs to be ripped out and redone
After not having the heating on at home I’m used to an ambient temperature of around 16deg so 21-22deg in our office feels like I’m sitting in my mum’s house where she always had the heating cranked up to 27.
Having not had the heating on... we're now having it on with the thermostat set at 18deg for 30mins each end of the day to dry clothes and the house and to stop us freezing... and that feels super hot! Can't believe we were setting it at 21deg two winters ago... all evening... that seems mad now. Going to adjust it down to 17 now I think.
If ventilation is poor in the house (ie it’s not a leaky old building) and you’re not running a dehumidifier I think you’ll end up regretting it when you’re bleaching the mould off the walls and ceiling in three months
I have damp problems in a couple of corners of the house regardless of heating use. Hence the bleach spray under the sink.
Having said that there is now a weekly walk around the house wiping mold off windows where condensation has built up. I had that last year also but it's worse this year with lower temps.
Can we split this thread into the people who genuinely can’t afford to run the heating this year (for whom I have unlimited sympathy) and the masochists?
I could afford to put my heating on for an hour in the evening but that then leaves less money for other stuff so I choose not to until it is actually cold (which may well be in the next few days looking at the forecast). With the cost of *everything* going up I need to be sensible. I will treat myself to the occasional nice thing but don't have excess money to do so - I cut back on something else to do so (for instance I rode to work for a month instead of driving and bought some HEbTroCo jeans!) I will make it clear though - I am not in a position where I have to choose between heating or eating, that must be awful.
13.7c in the living room now. I will only switch on heater at 7pm.
Wearing double socks, wool based layers tops and bottom with insulated wool jumper and woolly hat.
Mid layers on as well.
^^^ interested to know if that is as a result of the increased costs to heat your house, or is that what you would normally do ? i.e, has your pattern of use of heating changed this year due to economic reasons ?
^^^ interested to know if that is as a result of the increased costs to heat your house, or is that what you would normally do ? i.e, has your pattern of use of heating changed this year due to economic reasons ?
If that's aimed at me, then that's how I've always done it. Money spent on heating is money I can't spend on something I want. With prices the way they are it is even more of an incentive to put another layer on.
^^^ interested to know if that is as a result of the increased costs to heat your house, or is that what you would normally do ? i.e, has your pattern of use of heating changed this year due to economic reasons ?
If it is aimed me, I can say that's almost my normal routine. Except this time I reduce my heating to one hour per day instead of 1 hour in the morning and evening for this time of the year. By mid December I will add one more hour to the heating.
My heating bill has double by comparison to last year.
Thanks, it was a general question prompted by your post. It’s hard to know, reading the posts, how much is business as normal and how much is a change of approach in reaction to fuel costs and inflation.
I am one who feels the cold badly. I have knocked the CH down a touch but thats it. I am not going to be cold and miserable
Looks like I'm around 3 quid a day in Gas and a quid a day in leccy but having been away all summer its hard to tell from the bills yet.
I have very variable heating needs / costs tho as I gain a lot of heat from the offices below me so need more heating at weekends and get huge solar gain
Given that the £66 / month electricity payments for 6 months mean that I am getting free electricity during that period (and at current prices that gives me free electricity for approx 10 or 11 months) I should probably put the heating on. What I'm actually doing is going to the pub or a local gig for a couple of pints every now and then with the money saved.
I have damp problems in a couple of corners of the house regardless of heating use. Hence the bleach spray under the sink.
Yep, solid wall Victorian House and even with CH on, the bathroom's external wall grows mould all winter - just bleach it off every couple of weeks..
we’re now having it on with the thermostat set at 18deg for 30mins each end of the day
Does that actually work? The average temp in my house is 14-15 degrees with no heating use. It takes an hour to get to 17-18 degrees - that's with condensing combi set at 60 degrees (as advised by manufacturer) and TRVs set at position '3'. Now I still think that I have issues with at least 3 TRVs (2 up, 1 down) but putting CH on for 30 mins twice a day would have a negligible effect. I'm completely paranoid about the cost, but also don't want to subject the family to mediaeval conditions.
Edit: we have no thermostat smart or otherwise do everything is done manually.
Just starting to play tunes on flow and stored hot water temperatures. My baseline for gas last week was £28.50. Two rooms on during the day for WFH at 19C and warm the kitchen for lunchtime. We've stopped using the flame-effect gas fire, not very efficient.
To throw a spanner in the works one of the TRV glands is leaking and may have killed a smart head as a result. With luck it's a non-drain repair, will need to check what the TRV body has around the pin.
20 yr old detached 5 bed house over 3 floors in a cold windy high part of west of Scotland . I wfh 3 weeks out of 4. 2 adults and 2 teenagers. We have just replaced all the doors and windows with new units so hoping to keep it below last winter peaks. Heating is on Hive and house around 22 deg most of the day. Boiler replaced about 4 years ago and trv’s throughout.
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November usage numbers.
Elec 112kwh
Gas. 94kwh.
Was £68 odd with octopus. Now running wood burner every evening for 3-4 hours amd ch on for 1hr, but on a 15mins on, then 30mins off cycle x4.
Very slight dampness on my bedsheets but elec blanket lifts this of am evening
I'm a late comer to this thread and I CBA reading through 22 pages worth of knowledge so I'll ask a question that may have been asked already.
Dog owners: at what point does low internal home temperature become an issue for your dogs and what do you do about it?
Locally, temps have been dipping down to a couple of degrees below zero at night. I don't heat the top floor of my house at all but have got one electric baseboard heater set at 15°C in the (open plan) room downstairs the dog sleeps in (and is my home office during the day).
When I'm using that room, I supplement it with a gas fire when needed.
I guess I'm wondering whether the room is warm enough overnight for the dog or whether I can turn the thermostat down!
The dog is a mutt of some description - it's probably a 4 (out of 10) on the hairy/furry scale and loves snow/flakes out in the heat so not sure how to rate his temperature tolerance 😃
Dog will need to get used to be covered with a blanket whilst in bed if he gets cold. You could also investigate a nest type bed with raised sides and a reasonably snug fit.
I've turned my gas central heating on.
Room stat says 8.5°c and that seems to be the point where I can't motivate myself to do anything whilst indoors.
I've taken a meter reading to see what the consumption is over a few hours.
I suspect that mine will have to go on for a bit sometime during the coming week.
530Kw elec used in 6 weeks = £205 inc standing charge. Both of us WFH 4-5 days/week + jar's usual consumption
93Kw gas used in same period = £22 inc standing charge. Approx 1-2hrs of 16c CH/day for the first 5 weeks, but now ramping that up to 5-8hrs.
So that's £227 for 6 weeks, with a bias towards more gas use in the last week.
Re drying clothes, I was going to get one of those heated ones a few weeks ago but they were sold out... So I've been par-drying heavy items, eg jeans, hoodies, sheets in the tumble drier then putting them and all other items on airers beside a radiator, with an old sheet over the top to contain the heat. Much quicker all round.
Big issue in S6 (Sheffield), burst water main caused shrapnel to puncture a gas line and now there's water in the gas pipes, 1200 homes affected. Were told to wait in all day yesterday for someone to (not) turn up, likewise today but we just went out and still no one. Bit of a nightmare with no heating or hot water, not sure when it'll be fixed. Saving on gas central heating although does mean we're using electric heaters at 6x the cost and that's only heating one room, rather than the whole house as the central heating would.
With more relation to the thread... we're still on a fixed tariff until June 23 but worked out our bill will go up by over £1000 a year afterwards (currently £850 for two of us) in a victorian terrace with no insulation.
3 hours of central heating equalled around 3m³ (30kw) of gas used, around £3. Temperature made it to 12°c.
A trip to the pub costs me £12 over 2 hours. Makes my central heating seem cheap.
I've worked out why my flow and return temperatures behave so weirdly. The pump is fitted backwards. Having checked the manual, the colder of the two pipes coming out of my boiler is the flow and the hot one is the return.
The boiler was trying to modulate based on the return temperature, which it was unable to do because it didn't respond quickly enough.
*waits for I’ve taken my boiler apart during a cold snap and now we have no heating thread*
The pump is fitted backwards
Blimey, that doesn't seem great!
Heating still off here. Due to be -7 tomorrow night but then warming up a bit. Gas bill for this quarter around £44.
^ You must have some firm of heating?
I guess you’ve “won” 🤷♂️Heating still off here. Due to be -7 tomorrow night but then warming up a bit.
Blimey, that doesn’t seem great!
No. The boiler will never have been condensing. 15 bloody years of bills, how many thousands of quid caused by a shit plumber. And there a hundred or so houses in this development probably all the same. No rads balanced either and no set-up done. How much CO2 wasted due to shit developers.
waits for I’ve taken my boiler apart during a cold snap and now we have no heating thread
Tomorrow lunchtime probably 🙂
^ You must have some firm of heating?
I've got a hot waterbottle and several layers of clothing.
Tomorrow lunchtime probably 🙂
🤣
3 nights of minus 10c
Yeah our heatings on.
-4c outside in the Toon.
Flat temperature dropped to 11c after sun down at around 3.30pm.
Manually switched on central heating at 7pm for 2 hours as it was just too cold. Auto timer is set from 6.30am to 7.30am & 7.30pm to 8.30pm but the heat loss rather fast today.
Now living room is 14.4c and bedroom temperature is at 8.7c because there is no insulation between the bedroom and the wall outside. Might sleep in the living room tonight.
It is going to be a freezing winter.
Dog owners: at what point does low internal home temperature become an issue for your dogs and what do you do about it?
Just seen this....
My two spaniels sleep outside in the stable until it gets to -3 overnight, then they come into the utility room.
Their bed outside is a double thickness of memory foam topper and they get covered with fleece blankets as well.
They love sleeping outside.
Seems to average about -5 in many parts of the country. It you havent got your heating on then youre risking your health- which then impacts on the rest of the population via the health service etc.
Its effing freezing in Edinburgh - and my turned down heating is hardly coping.
I'd be interested to know what sort of temp people's houses are getting down to without heating. Ours packed up so was off for a couple of days last week untill I bodged it and seemed like it didn't make a huge difference, only down to 14C or so just from cooking and the hot water.
I’d be interested to know what sort of temp people’s houses are getting down to without heating
Mine sits about 14 between heating
In daily use.
When I turn it to frost mode for the Xmas hols when we hit the inlaws we can come back to 8 degrees or lower.
Insulation only keeps heat in when there is heat to keep in .
I live in a van.... Worked out last week how the thermostat setting works.
Diesel heater now kicks in at 5°C....more to protect the lipo battery and stop the water system from freezing... Was supposedly minus ten last night.
I try to keep it at around 14c but these two days it dropped to 11c and 12c.
We're not heating our house like least year. It's currently 18.5 which... I've put my slippers on, prefer not to but feet cold. Not been moving much this evening. It's programmed to heat at 14, we turn it up to 18 or 19 but the program turns it back to 14 every couple of hours.