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

These are the same supermarkets exploiting massive inflation and claiming huge costs but cheerfully passing the same costs on to their customers

Yet seemingly, a good chunk of people on here want to make transporting those goods to store even more expensive…..

theotherjonv – I turned mine down from 15 to 14 last night and that one degree seemed like two or three! I did notice that when I woke up in the night the boiler wasn’t fired up so that’s definitely better.
went from 19c in the evening down to 18 and that was definitely warm enough with some logs burning on the fire as well.

These are the same supermarkets exploiting massive inflation and claiming huge costs but cheerfully passing the same costs on to their customers

That’s what companies do, if the cost of your raw materials rises, you generally increase the cost of your products.

Gross margins aren’t amazing, Tesco is around 6%, which is hardly profiteering territory.

Mine’s at 18.5 24/7 because I’ve got a serious problem with draughts and condensation due to some shoddy workmanship by a previous owner.

What used to be a porch has been knocked through into the house. So now I’ve got an extremely cold section of floor and (believe to be single skin) wall.

Is the expensive insulated wallpaper worth it? I can’t internally insulate as it would overhang a window/door (which has been replaced last summer at great expense before I realised the cold wall problem) and look stupid.

We were away for 12 days over Christmas and the boiler failed so we got to monitor, via the Tado app, the temperature dropping day by day:
Day one heating goes off at 20.00, inside temp 20.5, 24hr later it dropped to 15.5, 48hr 13.5c, 72hr 13c.1 week 11c, 12 days 10c. When we got back it took 10 hrs of the boiler on full to get back up to 20c. Fortunately it was very mild outside (3-9c).
I would post the chart but ICBA to post images on this site.

This week it got down to -7 Sunday night, heating is set to 20.5c and goes of at 22.30, it click on again at 5am so the house is warm by 6.15. In the 6hr 30 it was off it dropped by 2c to 18.5. I’m surprised it dropped that little but we did top up the insulation to 300mm last summer (at the time it was a hellish job but now very glad we did).
Set back temp at night is 18c but it never comes on.

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.

sounds like someone on here….

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64261457

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 directory mirror.

😉

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…

Electric by Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

However, they then deduct the HMG support from that kWh rate eg

Electric 2 by 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)