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Typically, we’ve only been putting the heating on in the evenings every other day (or three), for 4-5 hours. Prices are for gas and electric.
Don’t think we’ve done badly at all
That's really good. As I mentioned above we were £450 last month with immersion and two electric heaters only on overnight. House is about 15degc or less without woodburner on. We are really tight on our electric usage but it's still breaking us.
December £130 for electric
January £100 for electric
February £51 for electric
March (so far) £29 for electric
We’ve also used around 600l of oil since mid December so £450. Ouch.
Our house is never more than 17deg and is currently 14deg.
The solar array is definitely paying dividends right now. We’ve only used £2 of grid power in the past 7 days despite having used over 100kWh.
Mrs Zip has just put the heater on in the front room.
I put it on twice last week.
Wow. What's the outside temperature where you are zippy and monkey?
I put it on for an hour last night...but only to circulate the conditioner after I'd dumped all the crud out the magnetic filter. 😵
Was cold sat in the home office this morning
I've just come back from 2 weeks in a holiday let - heating was on every day. 🙄
I turned mine on in July for 30 minutes to spin the pump and make sure it still works. Going to do the same on a wet miserable day in August. I'm sure one will turn up this weekend. 😭
Wow. What’s the outside temperature where you are zippy and monkey?
18c !
14C and wet.I,m ashamed of myself for giving in.
17c here, grey amd mizzle. My neighbour is running his log burner. Im sitting in the front room in a pair of shorts and t-shirt.
We are not all as healthy as you mate.
I guess it just goes to show the massive difference between houses, my yorkshire stone house is reading a comfy 20c in the livingroom, and I've not closed the upstairs windows for a good few weeks/ months, I pull them too if it gets a bit nippy/rainey.
It probably helps that its an end terrace, south facing on the end, so the brickwork gets the sun all day long, such as the sun is, in Yorkshire!
I don't envisage using any form of active heating untill at least september, hopefully october.
Still not looking forward to winter though, last gas bill for the winter period was about £600.
Was parked up at 1600m in some valley near Mt Blanc. Outside was 4°C the other night (the surrounding mountains were powered white) and the van was a toasty 23°C. Cost about 1.20€ in diesel. Good value!
Boosted the heating for 15mins a few times over the last couple of weeks to dry towels and such. August and it looks like October.
Modern detached house in South Lanarkshire, ours has been on the last few mornings, the Hive comes on early when it dips below 18 degrees at the hall thermostat.
My heating has been on a few time in last month. Just because it is summer doesn't mean it is hot.
I have heating to to enable me to sit in a warm comfortable house. Yes it costs money but then so does pretty much everything else.
West as far as a thermal hoodie for the shed office yesterday morning here in london
Heating had kicked in at 17° when i got up this morning.
First shower with a warm towel in months!
That's so ****ed up.
When I cook food in the oven it makes my house too hot.
Y'all need to downsize or suck it up.
I had to scrape ice off the car windscreen yesterday morning!
14C and wet.I,m ashamed of myself for giving in.
What's the temp inside? As I type it's 16 out and 19 in even with the windows open
I nearly put it on this morning but decided to MTFU.
No heating here, not had any on for months. That said we did notice the radiators had come on in the hot spell we had a couple of months ago - the motorised valve had stopped working, and left the circuit open for heat and hot water. Fortunately, only had to replace the motor and not the whole unit - £25.
Cloths drying done on a couple of racks and a dehumidifier.
I had the hood down on the soft-top on the way into work this morning - bit fresh, but refreshing also! 🙂
On the heating cost front my DD with Shell has come down from £215/month to £151.00/month. Two bed semi with two people living in it.
Our heating is turned off so it won't kick in unless it drops to 5 degrees.
Not needed here in the sunny South east, having been only as low as 19 degrees during the recent lull in temps.
Neverthe ess, Octopus want to put my monthly payment up from £226 (dual) to £238 because "...despite falling prices our calculations show you will have a shortfall for Winter 23/24..." WTAF!
Neverthe ess, Octopus want to put my monthly payment up from £226 (dual) to £238 because “…despite falling prices our calculations show you will have a shortfall for Winter 23/24…” WTAF!
Are you in credit by a few hundred at this point of the year? If not they will raise your DD.
We've finally got Scottish Power's algorithm to reduce ours to £230 a month and we're about £300 in credit. that's after withdrawing £400 last summer, and another £400 in Spring as we were overpaying but the DD algorithm wouldn't let us reduce it - overpaying by nearly £100 per month. No smart meter but I send readings in every month.
Thing I did notice recently is the combi boiler had taken itself off eco mode, and was firing up to keep a bit of water hot ready for use. Think it's done this before when we've had a brief power cut/dip. Anyway, soon pressed that Eco button once I heard the boiler come to life with no demand from me!
as per earlier posts, our Hive pops the heating on temperature dependent, regardless of the time of year. It was rarely on here in west of Scotland through May and June, but has been on a few times in the past month. Quite nice to wander into a warm ensuite for morning shower !
We are on a standard Scottish Power tariff and pay a bit over £300 a month and as usual are a couple of months in credit at the moment which will reduce as we come into winter. Having just last week picked up an EV, which will be charged at home probs once a week, at a cost of £27 for a charge, I'll be intrigued to see how long it takes SP to clock it and increase the monthly DD !
Are you in credit by a few hundred at this point of the year? If not they will raise your DD.
Yes, about £300.
Weird then - have you started growing any medicinal plants in the attic!? 🙂
our Hive pops the heating on temperature dependent, regardless of the time of year.
Our non-smart thermostat does the same. Mrs S commented the other day that the radiators were on in the morning. It had been down to about 3C overnight so no real surprise.
House hasn't got cold enough despite outside being grim and cold thanks to the significant insulation done over winter. Mostly the last 10% of the insulation detailing that usually gets missed.
Neverthe ess, Octopus want to put my monthly payment up from £226 (dual) to £238 because “…despite falling prices our calculations show you will have a shortfall for Winter 23/24…” WTAF!
Login to the website, they have a nice graphical representation of what your usage and account balance will be for the next 12 months. The longer you have been with them, the more accurate that is.
We are deliberately £700+ in credit and it is forecast to be +£400 by March still. This is because we have been on a silly cheap fixed rate for the last two years which runs out first week of September and we know that we are at least +40% on costs - but buy having headroom in money there we can delay upping our direct debit just yet.
Fingers crossed for some slightly cheaper rates soon....
our Hive pops the heating on temperature dependent, regardless of the time of year.
One of the best things we ever did was install an outside temperature sensor as well as internal thermostat. It is not a 'smart' thermostat per-se, but it has 'learned' how the outside temperature affects indoors, and with a fully modulating boiler it just reduces use.
We also turn off the heating at the boiler until we really do need it.
Fingers crossed for some slightly cheaper rates soon….
There is prediction by cornwall insight that gas and elec prices will drop by 5% on oct 1st. I read an article on it yesterday (cant remember where)
I now come down every morning to a ****ing oven, radiators on since 05:00 and woodburning stove on. Then she'll spend half the day moaning that people dont take the climate emergency seriously.
There is prediction by cornwall insight that gas and elec prices will drop by 5% on oct 1st. I read an article on it yesterday (cant remember where)
Indeed, Money Saving Expert site is suggesting the same. I think we will drop onto a variable for a few weeks and see how it goes.
Of course the energy companies are all happy with the (huge) increases in standing charges which will not come down if energy costs come down.
We stayed in a 3 year old house on holiday. It was properly airtight, properly insulated, short pipe runs, air source heat pump and solar panels (no battery or MVHR). It was amazing how warm it was and how much we needed to keep windows ajar as we are used to a cooler building. The owner said that they have been amazed how cheap the three cottages have been to run - and are looking to rebuild their own home to a similar standard.
I do wonder how long we will hold onto 'old' houses that are inefficient. Even our 1970's house is a real issue - some narrow cavities, existing wider cavity 'has' insulation in (a mm or two thick of dusty white foam patches inside), floors which all need insulating from below etc.
Last week has renewed my intention to either self build or buy a newer build property soon.
So, Octopus are offering a fixed deal for a year (with exit penalties) with prices of about 6% lower than cap. Anyone jumped on it?
I'm considering it.
I do wonder how long we will hold onto ‘old’ houses that are inefficient.
While they are building shoddy hen boxes crammed onto featureless estates I'll hang on to my 1920s house thanks! 🙂
Colleagues moaning the office was 'cold' this morning. They need to cycle to work and generate some heat !
We've moved into a new build, which is significantly more airtight and better insulated than our old Victorian semi.
We've spent £110 this first month, which is exactly the same as the old house, but the bulk of it is for electricity and £9.60 is for gas, which is basically hot water as the heating hasn't been on. Frustratingly of that £9.60, £9.15 is the standing charge for the pleasure of having a mains gas connection.
Will be interesting this winter as we were easily spending £300 month on gas and electricity last winter.
But the house is noticeably warmer and we keep having to crack the windows open even with all the trickle vents open.
@trail-rat what was the last 10% of detailing?