central heating up-date

[redcarbob]

That prompted me to do a meter reading.
Pro rata usage for Nov from last two readings.
£120 a month electric, £95 a month gas.
Two of us, both wfh.

@redcarbob that sounds like heavy usage for a week like!

Ok, I’d like to highlight at this point that I was also contributing to the Friday beer and music thread at the same time . The figures I gave were for the month to date. Roughly averaging £5/6 a day for both gas and electric If I can rely on the smart meter.

 

[equaliser]

Same as this. Got bairns in our house, it's not fair on them but if it was just me there is no way I'd have turned it on

They do have better circulation though.... Toughens 'em up. My stepdaughter will prance around in a vest in November and moan about how "frozen" she is. Today's youth have got used to the easy life. Back to 3 channels, walking to school and hot water bottles!

 

[S7DiscoDown]

I've been working away Monday - Friday. So its not on. This is pretty much up until the 23rd December.

So I get in on Friday and had everything turning and burning since lol . I was actually too hot last night. Its all going off again today when I leave.

To be honest I ain't 'saving' anything as spending loads working away. Yet heating wise it's hardly on until I have 10 days off over Xmas.

 

[Boro_Interlinked]

Welcome to winter 2022. At least North East . Temps dropping to winter conditions now. Been quite lucky , overnights were usually above 8 until now . This is for today and Mon morn

 

[LowMoorBoro]

I have our set to 18 for a bit in the morning and evening. Little one has been under the weather past week so had it on a little longer. Blankets on the sofa help on a night.

 

[breakthewallsdown]

£4.08 already thismorning after having heating on for 2 hours (Got a 1 year old and 3 year old)

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

Baltic this morning but heated blankets the way forward, cheap to run.

 

[The_Lizards_Jumpers]

Set ours at 17.5. Got a 1 year old in the house so can’t really avoid having it on. Smart meter was £15 yesterday for electricity and gas together.

How ??

I have ours on regularly through the day as the thermostat is set at 21.5, and we've not really changed our electricity usage - the smart meter has never broke a tenner since I got it fitted a few weeks ago, and that's for a 5 bedroom 1920's house.

 

[atypical_boro]

How ??

I have ours on regularly through the day as the thermostat is set at 21.5, and we've not really changed our electricity usage - the smart meter has never broke a tenner since I got it fitted a few weeks ago.

We have the thermostat in the main hall so 17.5 there could make it 20+ in one of the bedrooms. I suppose it depends on house size (and quality of insulation) too and cos we have bairns we don't want it to be cold overnight especially for the baby or he'll just be awake all night (he wakes up enough as it is).

The wife uses the washing machine (and dryer) a LOT. £16 is our worst day now and I think we'll hit £20 by January (not every day but on a bad day).

 

[The_Lizards_Jumpers]

We have the thermostat in the main hall so 17.5 there could make it 20+ in one of the bedrooms. I suppose it depends on house size (and quality of insulation) too and cos we have bairns we don't want it to be cold overnight especially for the baby or he'll just be awake all night (he wakes up enough as it is).

The wife uses the washing machine (and dryer) a LOT. £16 is our worst day now and I think we'll hit £20 by January.

That still seems massive, and probably double what we're getting through.

We have a 17 month old, and so the washing machine and tumble dryer is constantly on all day, both of us work from home and so laptops and lights on in multiple rooms etc.

Either you have a really bad deal in terms of price per unit, or one of us has a fault somewhere, surely ?

 

[boroboy6872]

I`m around £10 a day for gas and leccy

3 bed semi
I work from home and the boy is on his comp all day whilst looking for a job in the NHS as he`s just moved back north from the south east

Need to do some serious insulation and heating options next year me thinks as can`t see the prices getting any better

 

[atypical_boro]

That still seems massive, and probably double what we're getting through.

We have a 17 month old, and so the washing machine and tumble dryer is constantly on all day, both of us work from home and so laptops and lights on in multiple rooms etc.

Either you have a really bad deal in terms of price per unit, or one of us has a fault somewhere, surely ?

I'm just on the standard EOn Next tariff, I don't believe they're giving out deals as such, isn't it all just standard now?

We do have quite a few radiators around the house, above average I'd say. Only other thing I can think of. How many bedrooms you got? How old is the house as if its newish it might be much better insulated.

If our worst day is £16 at the moment and yours is £10 its not quite double though. We also have a 6 year old and loads of smart speakers/tellies around the house which won't be helping and I suppose I could think about mothballing some of them.

I've got a mate whose got a very big/old house and he's breaking £20 almost every day. He can afford it like.

 

[The_Lizards_Jumpers]

I'm just on the standard EOn Next tariff, I don't believe they're giving out deals as such, isn't it all just standard now?

We do have quite a few radiators around the house, above average I'd say. Only other thing I can think of. How many bedrooms you got? How old is the house as if its newish it might be much better insulated.

If our worst day is £16 at the moment and yours is £10 its not quite double though. We also have a 6 year old and loads of smart speakers/tellies around the house which won't be helping.

I've got a mate whose got a very big/old house and he's breaking £20 almost every day. He can afford it like.

As I said above, ours is a 5 bedroom 1920's house, and I'm not sure we've broken a tenner yet. It's normally around 7 or 8 quid, (although I dont really look at it right at the end of day as the smart meter is in the study).

We only have 2 tellies, but do have smart speakers in most rooms and normally have the gas fire on whilst we watch telly on a evening too.

Just find it crazy how much different it can be for 2 similar households. We're on Octopus, although I have no idea about what deal we're on (if we're even on one)

 

[Fat_Dragon]

Also if your radiators have not been bled in a while they might be full of air so they have to work harder to reach the right temperature so will cost more. Might be worth checking.

 

[atypical_boro]

As I said above, ours is a 5 bedroom 1920's house, and I'm not sure we've broken a tenner yet. It's normally around 7 or 8 quid, (although I dont really look at it right at the end of day as the smart meter is in the study).

We only have 2 tellies, but do have smart speakers in most rooms and normally have the gas fire on whilst we watch telly on a evening too.

Just find it crazy how much different it can be for 2 similar households. We're on Octopus, although I have no idea about what deal we're on (if we're even on one)

Strange, our house is probably similar size (and newer but may not be as well insulated). We've spent £7 already today, though washing machine has been on and my son did turn the garden lights on with the remote control last night and left them on!

One thing I'm now considering is that we have two dehumidifiers that are on about 8h a day each, so that's 16h in total. I didn't think they were expensive but maybe they are. We use them as we have a small damp issue in one part of the house (currently trying to get a leak fixed) which has meant we get a few of those silverfish crawling around, so we use them to get rid of those. But I'm wondering now if we should stop using them and just get the leak fixed even sooner.

 

[atypical_boro]

Also if your radiators have not been bled in a while they might be full of air so they have to work harder to reach the right temperature so will cost more. Might be worth checking.

Yes, could be another thing to consider, cheers, although they have been done in the last 2 years. I don't know if that's 'long' or not.

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

Strange, our house is probably similar size (and newer but may not be as well insulated). We've spent £7 already today, though washing machine has been on and my son did turn the garden lights on with the remote control last night and left them on!

One thing I'm now considering is that we have two dehumidifiers that are on about 8h a day each, so that's 16h in total. I didn't think they were expensive but maybe they are. We use them as we have a small damp issue in one part of the house (currently trying to get a leak fixed) which has meant we get a few of those silverfish crawling around, so we use them to get rid of those. But I'm wondering now if we should stop using them and just get the leak fixed even sooner.

Dehumidifiers can be expensive to run, girlfriend uses them to do clothes indoors in autumn/winter once a week and it costs about a quid to have it running over night as it's a fairly powerful one so having 2 on 8h a day will add up especially if they're older or less efficient models

You should be using radiator TRV's if you aren't already so that rooms that are hot stop getting heat, and you should move your thermostat to a habitable room as hallways are usually colder on the thermostat due to having multiple branches off then and the stairway but usually not a lot of heating

Also make sure your boiler doesn't have preheat hot water enabled as that costs a bomb

Also if using a smart meter make sure your ihd has been updated with the EPG unit rates on the settings menu

 

[FatFrank]

Had it on for about 3 weeks. Don't have a tumble dryer and it is impossible to dry clothes in a cold house.

There is no pride in keeping your heating off guys. It will effect your long term health and well-being a lot more than it will your energy bills.

 

[atypical_boro]

Dehumidifiers can be expensive to run, girlfriend uses them to do clothes indoors in autumn/winter once a week and it costs about a quid to have it running over night as it's a fairly powerful one so having 2 on 8h a day will add up especially if they're older or less efficient models

You should be using radiator TRV's if you aren't already so that rooms that are hot stop getting heat, and you should move your thermostat to a habitable room as hallways are usually colder on the thermostat due to having multiple branches off then and the stairway but usually not a lot of heating

Also make sure your boiler doesn't have preheat hot water enabled as that costs a bomb

Also if using a smart meter make sure your ihd has been updated with the EPG unit rates on the settings menu

Thanks, so yes we could easily be spending £2 a day on dehumidifiers which is £60 a month! They're not old but they're not top of the range ones either. I'm gonna stop using them for a while, they don't completely eliminate the silverfish issue anyway.

The issue with TRVs is they are expensive to buy already aren't they? So you have to speculate to accumulate I guess.

How do I make sure boiler doesn't have pre-heat hot water enabled? Its a newish Vaillant combi, does that matter? Thanks in advance.

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

Thanks, so yes we could easily be spending £2 a day on dehumidifiers which is £60 a month! They're not old but they're not top of the range ones either. I'm gonna stop using them for a while, they don't completely eliminate the silverfish issue anyway.

The issue with TRVs is they are expensive to buy already aren't they? So you have to speculate to accumulate I guess.

How do I make sure boiler doesn't have pre-heat hot water enabled? Its a newish Vaillant combi, does that matter? Thanks in advance.

It will be in the boiler menu, it's something like preheat hot water just have a browse around. If it's on it keeps some water hot at all times ready for use but it hardly saves any time but costs a lot to have on

Also as it is a combi boiler, make sure your water and hot water are not set too high. You can adjust the knob and then see how it impacts your hot water tap temp and radiator temp, many have eco settings on the dials. My girlfriend used to run a boiling steaming bath then add loads of cold water to get it the right temp as hot water was set to max on boiler - waste of money. Just reduce temp and then try furthest taps to make sure they're getting hot enough.

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TRV's can be had for £8-12 each but prevent you earning up spare bedrooms etc or roooms basically heating up costantly, without them you basically demand heating to each unlocked radiator. With them, that rad will close off once temp is achieved reducing the energy use of your boiler. They'll need fitting but will last for many years and change how your heating works. We didn't have them in our old house and the heating was either off or on and you either locked the rad shut or it was on, again huge waste of money for spare rooms and the like where you can set to frost or 1.

Likewise having your thermostat in hall, if that says 17.5 so boiler fires up as you've got it set to 18, it'll stay demanding heat. If you have thermostat in a habitable room like living room, when that room is at temp it will stop demanding heat and turn off