I’m putting the heating on in a minute, our doors haven’t been shut for that 10 minutes at a time today, OH cannot stay in. My dad was the same, he’d have rather lived in the garden than in a house.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Heat turned up this afternoon, certainly needed it. Our gas boiler is set to come on twice a day for hot water, that’s plenty. A combi boiler would be no good for us, two bathrooms with showers running off the hot water tank, and we’ve had both children living at home at times while we’ve been here. Advised against combis unless in a very small household.
I mentioned at some point in this thread that my bills with Octopus had not gone up, but now my gas bill has increased significantly - by about a third- both the standing charge and the cost per kwh - in line with the rest of the country.
Our gas central heating is on a timer. Set to go on at 7.00am and off at midnight, as I'm up at 7.15 three days a week to get ready to play golf and my wife gets up around that time to take her medication, we're usually still up at nearly 2.00 am, as she has more medication to take at that time. The temperature holds until until around then.
The thermostat is set at 24c. But if at any time that makes it too hot or too cold, we'll alter it, then put it back when the temperature level is satisfactory again.
We don't shut internal doors apart from the toilet so no need for radiators to be on upstairs except the towel rail in the bathroom.
Our gas and leccy bills are paid by direct debit I send the readings in at the end of the month. I've just noticed I'm over £350 in credit, that's around twice what I'm paying monthly. I might need to drop the level of the DD in case my supplier goes bust! But after the next bill they might drop it themselves as I'm probably paying each month about thirty or forty pounds too much.
Our energy bills are quite high as with her MS my wife can't manage a washing line and I'm not pegging it out! So the tumble dryer "is on all day." But I do load and unload both the washer and the dryer.
I never complain about the heating bills as I wouldn't want my wife to feel cold.
Although when she sometimes says "I've turned the heating up." I reply, "Put a jumper on!" but she knows I don't mean it.
Ours is a warm house, we only use gas for heating and hot water (leccy shower)
The last two monthly gas only bills for August and September were £16 and £19. Hence the big credit balance, but much of that will get swallowed up in the winter.
Just for a bit of comparison and so you lot can feel better about your bills. the kWh price has shot up here from 2.2dkk to 2.8dkk in one year. to translate that to pounds that's about 30p per kwh. 80% of that is tax which pays for renewables.
Our quarterly bill is about £500 we do not have electric heating either. between fuel for the furnace (pellets) and electric we spend 20% of our household income on fuel.
We had 1000 litres/900€ of oil delivered on the first of October. Turned on the CH for 10 minutes to check all was OK. It was turned on properly for 2 evenings last week and has gone on again this evening but with just one radiator turned on to dry a couple of coats which got wet today and are needed tomorrow.
It only does radiators now cos water is heated by PV panels and heat exchangers.
We're all wearing jumpers and thick socks and have a 4.5 tog duvet on the bed. Bit hot at night just now but we need a bit more than just the duvet cover and a quilt. When it does get cold we put the quilt back on and maybe a fleece throw but never need more than that..
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It only does radiators now cos water is heated by PV panels and heat exchangers.
We're all wearing jumpers and thick socks and have a 4.5 tog duvet on the bed. Bit hot at night just now but we need a bit more than just the duvet cover and a quilt. When it does get cold we put the quilt back on and maybe a fleece throw but never need more than that..