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House is 8 years old and B rated so not so bad, but both front and back composite doors have now bowed out at the top and bottom. I've got some draft excluder weather strip to put on but is there anything better?
but is there anything better?
Aluminium doors I'm afraid! Spendy but wont change shape.
Thanks Sharkbait, I'll look into it.
On the subject of doors, I just stuck some 25mm PIR boards on the back of my cheap crappy door. Seems to have helped a bit, early completely scientific evaluation suggests that it doesn't feel as cold when you walk to the end of the hallway.
but both front and back composite doors have now bowed out at the top and bottom
I also have a tale of disappointment when it comes to a composite door as it ages. I've hung ceiling to floor curtains across the hall in front of it. Noticeable difference.
Oh yeah - get curtains for your door, definitely. You get a portiere rack that opens with the door, hang a thick curtain - easy, cheap, effective and much less ugly than Kingspan and duct tape.
Slightly enforced this week, boiler has gone into a death spiral.
sounds like someone on here….
The people I work with are exactly like that. In fact, he might even work here, let me check the directory.
The people I work with are exactly like that. In fact, he might even work here, let me check the
directorymirror.
😉
Yet seemingly, a good chunk of people on here want to make transporting those goods to store even more expensive…..
Yawn.
Ha HGV burns about half a liter of diesel per mile.
Handful of assumptions:
A family's shopping weighs about 30kg/week
The lorry holds 20 tons of stock
The lorry travels 150miles from distribution center to store.
Based on that it cost 19p in fuel. Say you buy 40 items, making diesel double the price would still add less than half a penny to each item.
It's a net saving if the price of fuel encourages you to drive one less mile per week.
Stop simping for Eddie Stobart.
Well, we're a month into living in our barn and its been damned cold outside for most of it up here. It transpires that our boiler, despite being just 18 months old, has no control mechanism other than circuit temp and a timer. Also, the "insulation" behind the walls appears to be the fact that the plasterboard has foil on the back of it. I can foresee many pallets of Kingspan in my future.
Have fitted a Bosch opentherm to ems converter to the boiler, to allow a modulating stat to drive it. Fitted 3 intelligent rad valves so far - there's 20 rads dotted about the place, all on one circuit. It's basically been a cash cow for the oil supplier. Trying to work out what will be of greatest benefit - fitting more valves or insulating the cold bits.
Borrowed a thermal camera to trace down the draughts and leaks. There are many: one wall in a room where there used to be a door into a stables was measuring 6C at 8pm last night. The patio doors don't seal properly as the locking mechs are tired. Have also got at least three windows to change the hinges on as they don't seal properly.
Well the door insulation has been really effective. Heating's only come on for a bit since I fitted it and it's quite chilly here today. Consequently the rest of the house, where the insulation is the same as before, is now quite chilly!
Definitely need a new door next winter.
Januarys scores on the doors are in .
not as painful as Decembers but still significantly more than last year .
Gas 305kwh, thats a combi boiler for heating , showers and a gas hob.
Elec 114kwh . Lights , oven , washer , drier .
£92 all in . Less the £67 from HMG , but ran a log burner almost every day
Hopefuly Febs will reduce a touch as it slowly warms up , Hows everyone else doing?
Our January bill was around £100 electric & £200 gas, less £67 gov subsidy. 4 of us in a 1980's 4 bed detached in the south, with gas central heating and no other heat source, electric use up this month due to dehumidifier & tumble dryer use.
Won't get bill yet but usage for Jan is £122 electric, £103 gas. 4 bed link semi, gas CH, water and hob. Tumbler and oven eat electricity for fun 😢 have a dehumidifier too.
Our credit has officially run out. 1st December - 31st January £800, holy f...
Got a refil of oil on Friday. 700l. We burned about 500 since moving in on 21st Dec. Clucking bell.
You do know you can tighten the locking bolts with an allen key? Just did this to my balcony door and the drauht has gone.
Apparently, the ideal is to have them tighter fitting in winter then loosen them off in the summer if they start to feel too tight when opening or closing.
January is in for me too. 343kwh electric,
1144kwh gas. For a fairly well insulated 1980 detached 3 bed.
20 quid less than last month at a smidge over 300 quid. Unsurprising since January weather has been virtually identical to December.
£650 energy bill this month, plus our first month of twins at nursery, that’s another £750, plus the fixed rate mortgage at 1.79% ends in a few months, that’ll be at least another £600 a month I think.
I’ll be bankrupt this year, and I earn a very respectable wage.
280kWh of electric and around 100l of oil in January, so around £185. We also generated 200kWh of electric from solar.
We knocked about 60kwh off last Decembers bill which in its self was about half of 2021s December bill
Total Cost was roughly the same as last year.
Hopefully next year we can knock it down again.
My bills come mid month
Nov-Dec was 302kwh electricity and 1407kwh of gas - total bill £272
Dec-Jan was 310 E and 1426 G £277
Not surprised Dec-Jan is a bit higher, even though it didn't have the longer cold snap it did have us off work and daughter back from Uni.
By comparison in Nov-Dec 2021, 443 E and 1912 gas so consumption is about 75% of the same last year - well done us! Bill was £151 though.......
Our credit has officially run out. 1st December – 31st January £800, holy f…
What temperature do you keep the house at?
I'm going to have to help my elderly father out with what he is signing up to.
A small, top floor, two bed modern retirement flat with brand new windows and (installed by me) 300mm of loft insulation.
All electric and brand new Quantumn storage heaters x2.
His monthly fixed rate with Octopus has ended. He was paying £40 a month.
New tariff recommended by Octopus = £320 a month.
Standing charge alone is 88p a day...
Matt - that cannot be right unless your dad has been using massively in excess on his previous tariff.
Get access to previous bills; check against applicable rates at the time.
Smart meter readings?
He's meticulous about meter readings, and he's now on a smart meter.
I think he's got calculations wrong somehow.... Even the 88p standing charge is twice what the cap should be around...
SVR standing charge from my supplier eon next is around 45p each, 90p/day.
Indeed - but he has no gas. So 88p is a huuuuge rise from the 24p I think he said he was paying.
Got a refil of oil on Friday. 700l. We burned about 500 since moving in on 21st Dec. Clucking bell.
have you checked for an oil leak? We’ve used 500L since October, the last couple of months using 1h30 heating Morning and same again in evening, up from 1h twice a day previously. Thermostat set at 21°C. I say this as my tank leaked over the summer, only lost a small amount of oil, thankfully.
In balance, I have the immersion on a 30m burst twice a day to top the water temp up as Solar thermal rarely gets water temp beyond 50°C this time of year and use woodburner heavily; used about £200 logs since autumn.
Got a refil of oil on Friday. 700l. We burned about 500 since moving in on 21st Dec. Clucking bell.
This means nothing unless put into perspective - size/type/age of boiler, size of house, how long the heating's on each day.
That said it's up there in terms of usage. You'd know about a leak as it would smell.
Our latest bill, for the last 25 days inc the most recent cold snap we used:
Electric: 221 kWh = £86.80
Gas: 116 m3 = £138.85
New tariff recommended by Octopus = £320 a month.
Standing charge alone is 88p a day…
We're with Octopus, bill from 2 days ago...
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52664821150_bf4453bbe4_w.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52664821150_bf4453bbe4_w.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2oeNYvL ]Electric[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
However, they then deduct the HMG support from that kWh rate eg
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52664678224_28b580de10.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52664678224_28b580de10.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2oeNf2w ]Electric 2[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
So, roughly 34p per kWh
I'm balancing radiators using a cheap eBay thermocouple based thermometer. The best way to attach the probes to the in and outflow pipes of the rads is with a big blob of Blutak, by the way. My lockshield valves require extremely small adjustments to get close to the right dT which is allegedly 30% of flow temperature. I must say it's really helping, there's a very tiny sweet spot between too much flow and not enough and it's helping me find it. House still warm and return temps are still low.
However, they then deduct the HMG support from that kWh rate eg
So they've set a tariff way higher than the capped rate and use the government money to bring it down to the capped level? That doesn't seem right. Surely you have a capped unit rate and then the government money comes off that? Have I mis understood (more than likely)
So they’ve set a tariff way higher than the capped rate and use the government money to bring it down to the capped level? That doesn’t seem right. Surely you have a capped unit rate and then the government money comes off that? Have I mis understood (more than likely)
My take is they are showing you the actual market rate, before the government support, then deducting that and showing you the net - so you can see you are actually getting the 'cap' applied.
Also, if you use a vast amount, my understanding is that only so many kWh would get the support and some units would be at the raw market rate as the 'cap' only covers the average house hold.
Also, if you use a vast amount, my understanding is that only so many kWh would get the support and some units would be at the raw market rate as the ‘cap’ only covers the average house hold.
The cap sets the maximum unit rate, nothing else*, and is the same no matter how much you use.
*oh maybe standing charge too
Interesting, a colleague runs a whole load of servers in his garage for work (as we got caught our mid office move in lockdown) and he has to stay below a certain threshold else his supplier classes him as business and not domestic and changes the pricing and VAT.
So we try and keep as much as possible switched off and just phone him up to ask him to power up a rack if I need to use the kit on it, then shut it off when I'm done.
Just had an almight shock - i was running very healthy surplus before winter -well it's all gone..
Jan's figures -Electricity
Day = 657kwh @39.82
Night = 135kwh @23.81
Gas = 4287.4kwh @9.8
so 320 and 450 quid respectively.
edit - cos it was rubbish.. it works out at double the elecy usage, primarily becuase the cabin is now being lived in, but gas is through the roof (but thats the main house and my issue)..
footflaps
Full Member
Interesting, a colleague runs a whole load of servers in his garage for work (as we got caught our mid office move in lockdown) and he has to stay below a certain threshold else his supplier classes him as business and not domestic and changes the pricing and VAT.So we try and keep as much as possible switched off and just phone him up to ask him to power up a rack if I need to use the kit on it, then shut it off when I’m done
ooft, how is the Business Resilience Plan with that setup ? 🙂
simondbarnes
Full Member
Gas = 4287.4kwh @9.8Bloody hell, that’s 2.5 times what I use in a year 🙁
expected yearly usage according to bulb 22340 kWh
wth am i doing..? 🙁
wth am i doing..? 🙁
Big, leaky house? Living in shorts n tee?
I wear 7 million layers and live under a blanket in winter but obviously that's not for everyone.
expected yearly usage according to bulb 22340 kWh
wth am i doing..? 🙁
My yearly average is 13000 kWh for gas. 2300 kWh for leccy.
2 bed, decently insulated victorian semi, and a log burner for back-up.
These are my January daily wholesale prices with the cap. they deduct 17ppkwh so if you add back the 17p against each rate, none of them are near the 65.53ppkwh on footflaps bill for the same period.
https://ibb.co/NW3Z9dL