Not putting the heating on – how’s it going…?

If prices stay at current levels I think it will work out at just under £5k for 12 months.

Is that your normal energy bill or due to recent rate increment?

If prices stay at current levels I think it will work out at just under £5k for 12 months.

Holy ****!

Is that your normal energy bill or due to recent rate increment?

Just due to the recent increases, 2 years ago our bill was circa 2k per year

I need to get more efficient boiler,our current one is from 1992,but even that would only reduce the bills by a relatively small amount.

House is 4 bed 1930s detached, double glazed, insulation in roof(but probably could be better),

Ground source here. So you don’t really ever turn it off. Adjust the ‘curves’ but ours is quite an old system so not too much control. Underfloor heating downstairs, big(ger) rads upstairs. Works well, pretty efficient – as we can’t get gas and we don’t want oil so not too much choice. Ripped out the Economy 7 when we moved in 15 years ago. Even then it was expensive and useless.

She of that is because the house isn’t very energy efficient. Next year we’ll take the roof off, properly insulate everywhere again, install solar between the joists and power up a big battery.

I grew up in a cold house, I’m not going back to one!

Just due to the recent increases, 2 years ago our bill was circa 2k per year

Jesus! That’s a huge increase!
I think I am going to invest in more merino long john now.
I survive by wearing several layers during the cold nights i.e. wearing base, mid, and insulated wool. Feel a bit like Michelle man LOL!

Ground source here.

How much for last month energy bill?

p/s: Oh yes my energy has doubled too..

Last bill 14m3 of gas cost us £11. In the last 5 days with heating on we’ve used 11m3, which at these mild temps would work out at roughly £50/mo. Not too bad so far. We’ve been at home all day though this week.

I’ve installed the Loop Energy app on my phone and hooked it up to my smart meter. I’ve had the heating on for about an hour on 3 out of the last 5 days and it shows I’ve used 154kWh of gas at a cost of £17.11 – this obviously includes HW use as well (it is only able to calculate using the price cap tariff based on where I live so it might be slightly inaccurate).

I have turned the dials for HW and CH down on my combi boiler. No idea if this is helping or not though. Based on the usage thus far though, with the dials turned down, I could easily see the heating alone costing over £10 per day if used as it has been previously in the winter; about £12-13 with HW included too.

Put the heating on for the first time on Wednesday and again yesterday. Only for half hour or so. Direct debit has been upped to £100 p/m for gas& electric. So so far so good.

Live in a 50s detached house, well insulated loft and double glazing (some old, some new) Barrybados has been pretty mild so far, just constant rain!

Our house is terrible. 1880s build heavy slates on roof with a flat area which is zinced. Upsatairs room are the shape you’d expect of an attic room but the roof follows the profile. Theres no access to the gap between ceiling and roof as there’s no gap or insulation. Fixing that means removing all the lathe and plaster which is a huge job. So we’re looking at £300-400 per month in gas and electric through the winter. It was noticeably cooler feeling when humidity rose, as the weather has got dreich, so heating is keeping things at 16C

I could easily see the heating alone costing over £10 per day if used as it has been previously in the winter; about £12-13 with HW included too.

Yep, our gas use yesterday was just over £13, elec use just over £5.

Turning the dial down (for CH) and the flow down, and balancing all the rads has helped quite a bit. Previously the radiators would come on very hot, the system would work hard and you’d feel baked, and it would turn off and get chilly again really quickly. We had hot water entering each radiator and flowing through it quite quickly and not cooling down much, so the return flow was hot which makes the boiler less efficient.

With the temperature lower and the flow slower it is keeping the return flow temps low which improves efficiency. The input to the rads is cooler to begin with and because the flow is slower the temperature is dropping across the rad so the outlet is cooler. It needs to be on longer and more consistently, but the house is much more evenly heated and more comfortable.

Yep, our gas use yesterday was just over £13, elec use just over £5

Blimey! Our gas use hasn’t been over £13 a month yet.

Blimey! Our gas use hasn’t been over £13 a month yet

I assume you are referring to just the Calor Gas in your pizza oven or something…!

I assume you are referring to just the Calor Gas in your pizza oven or something…!

ha – yep, even back in june before the recent price increases, and when we were only heating water with the boiler we were spending ~£40 per month on gas.

I assume you are referring to just the Calor Gas in your pizza oven or something…!

Nope. Whole house, heating still hasn’t needed to come on as it hasn’t dropped to less than 17deg internally. Only use has been by combi for showering. We are only 2 adults living in a sensibility sized house in the East Midlands, that is insulated well and has new windows/doors and CH system though.

Just looking at the usage history for the leccy in the Loop app and it looks like I am saving over £40 per month by turning things off at night via smart plugs and putting all the devices in “eco” mode where possible (TVs, Xbox’s etc). Data is a bit skewed as we have just had October half term and it doesn’t go back past July which was the start of summer hols and  the whole of Aug is not a good comparison for the same reason, but comparing Sept with October (which was when I fitted the plugs) there is a £35 usage drop despite everyone being in the house using TVs etc. for a week in October

Only use has been by combi for showering.

Our morning gas cost with no CH involved, just showering 4 people, is about £1, so £25 – £30 per month just on showers! You must be showering together….😜

the digi thermometer in the lounge tells me that this week we dropped lower than the 17.5min which has been there since late september, now been as low as 16.3.
might be lighting the stove this weekend.

Gas currently £2 a day for about 4-5 hours heat (early morning, late afternoon). Leccy staying static at about £5 a day, after cutting down use. House built in 95 and well insulated.

Ripped out the Economy 7 when we moved in 15 years ago. Even then it was expensive and useless.

Hope you kept the meter in place as that could pay for itself if you’re in the right trial area for off-peak use.

it looks like I am saving over £40 per month by turning things off at night via smart plugs and putting all the devices in “eco” mode where possible

That seems an insanely high figure. We’re not paying a lot more than that for everything.

Currently paying about 160/month for everything and that includes charging my car every night at 9kwh each go. Battery and solar being installed Monday so should see a significant reduction in costs being able to charge the battery on cheap for day time use.

That seems an insanely high figure. We’re not paying a lot more than that for everything.

…which seems insanely low! Don’t you have an EV? Do you sit around in darkness every night?! 😀

Hope you kept the meter in place as that could pay for itself if you’re in the right trial area for off-peak use.

We have. The meters here are a nightmare. We’re in the middle of three houses and the end one is very old and has some protections on what can be done to the outside. The three meters are on their wall. Fair to say when Western Power came and ripped the old ones off and stuck new plastic horrors on there without asking, it didn’t got down very well! I remember with all the E7 stuff on and running multiple heaters as the house was so cold we blew main the fuse. They had to put is a bigger one in. I think the bill for one QUATER was nearly 2 grand. And that’s 15 years ago. Anyway I digress.

Someone asked what our bill is? I dunno, I’ll ask ‘her who controls the cash’ to see how much it’s gone up.

Our bills are all messed up at the moment, so I can’t say exactly what we’re paying. Usage was about 6.6kWh a day all in in September, some of which had low car mileage, and it was about 15kWh per day in Oct with more driving. Our microwave is bust though which is causing a lot of extra oven usage.

Our day rate is higher than the cap but we program dishwasher and washing machine overnight so it’s hard to separate it all.

Do you sit around in darkness every night?!

Most evenings there are only a few lights on yes!

I shower every day, sometimes twice. My gas is £3pcm plus standing charge so £14
I also have a gas hob that is used pretty much daily.
My gas combi also hot fills my washing machine and dishwasher, which i then turn the hot water off after its done the initial filling so cold rinse after that.
Ok, so occasionally i forget or go out so dont turn off the hot.

Apparently the difference between the first year we had the ground source installed and what’s projected this year is about a 200% increase! And about 70% of that is in the last year.

Still I expect that’ll go down when we’ve done all the work needed on the roof/insulation. Should pay itself back into about 200 years 😉

Well my CH went on for the first time yesterday. 1 degree outside, and digi thermometer in living room was showing 13.8 degrees. Lots of condensation on patio doors, and all windows tbf.

Realised this morning I needed to bleed 7/8 radiators, and the CH plumber who re-piped one of the rads had also turned all the return valves to ‘only just open’. Should return valves be fully open?

Edit: my living room is at back of house and faces NE so until spring it does not get to see sunlight as any sun is blocked by other houses. I’ve also realised that despite what the bathroom company said, we very much do need an extractor in there!!!

the CH plumber who re-piped one of the rads had also turned all the return valves to ‘only just open’. Should return valves be fully open?

Nope. Only if they need to be. He’s balanced them.

My gas combi also hot fills my washing machine and dishwasher, which i then turn the hot water off after its done the initial filling so cold rinse after that.

Why? Modern washing machines and dishwashers are designed for cold fill only and at their most efficient that way.

My modern washing machine is quite happy being filled from my solar thermal (and has been for over 10 years). It just means the machine doesn’t need to heat the water with its own element. So it’s a hell of a lot more efficient as most of the energy consumed by a washing machine is used to heat the water, even on a 30° wash. Even in december half the heat gain from mains water temperature is made by the solar thermal. In Summer I play with the valves to blend hot and cold to 30-40° because neither the machine nor the clothes would appreciate water over 60°C

More efficient, how exactly?
Yes, if you have a 18ft run from combi to washing machine, mines 18in.
Yes, if you let it hot rinse, i dont.
Yes if your heating a 130ltr indirect tank and using that, im not.
I use a 40c wash. I don’t know if the electric heating element fires at all.
Ditto dishwasher, hot feed from combi with the dw spurred off the hot watet tap in the kitchen.
Which i hot feed by running the hot taps for 30scecs so the pipe is full of dhw. Use 40c wash as well and i know the electric element fires in the dw, its common sense and any thermal mass calcs will show 5kg of plates cups cutlery plus a cold stainless box will suck alot of the heat straight out of the filling water, which i guess the heater adds to over the next 10 mins.
I have spend decades heating millions of litres of water so do have a little experience in the subject.

That seems an insanely high figure. We’re not paying a lot more than that for everything.

Actually having looked a bit more closely it’s about a £25 saving but below is a pic of October’s electricity usage…🙄😮

Didn’t sound that implausible to me tbh at todays energy prices! Think I worked it out that it was only an extra 160W left on 24/7. I once left a soldering iron on in the garage for best part of a week 😂 It’s on a smart plug now that times out after an hour. They’re a great idea!

Still not had the CH on although we had the log fire on yesterday (for about the fifth time this year). I am going to have to cave soon though as its been as low as 13deg in the house (currently 15deg today) and all the bedroom windows are starting to get lots of condensation on them and I can imagine if we tried to last all winter without the CH we’d end up with damp/mould issues instead.

Getting fed up of damp towels and a general musty smell throughout the house. Even making up another reed diffuser can’t disguise it. The bathroom has become a torture chamber, which is fine if you like that sort of thing I suppose.

Resolve is weakening, should I simply wtfu oh wise ones?

Bathroom has not got the damp issues it had since fitting a radiator which runs hot water through the towel rails as well. Also fitted a more powerful extractor with a humidity sensor.
Towels are now dry, even after a night ride shower, which in winter they struggled to be.
Pity the rest isn’t as easy a fix.

Airflow is the always good. If you can hang a towel over say a chair in a room on the down wind side of the house. Open a window then the venturi effect will suck air out.

Are you really so short of money you need to damage your health and house?Put the heating on CG,your current situation sounds a bit unhinged to me.

Getting fed up of damp towels

Stop washing, then you won’t be making the towels damp. Sorted.