Newbie - heating help needed please

willowuk2008

Hi,

We have a 2 bedroom mid terraced house (2 up, 2 down) with a (really cold!) bathroom extension and no central heating anywhere in the house. For the past 3 years we have been using Oil Filled Radiators for the bathroom (plug is not in the bathrooom! ) which we put on overnight (from about now-March) and one in the bedroom which we only put on for an hour or so before we go to bed if it is really cold. We also have a gas fire in the living room which heats all of downstairs (open plan).

My question is that my dual fuel bills are coming in at around £120 per month and we can't afford central heating at the moment. Does anyone have any ideas what we could do to bring our (mostly electricity) bill down? I am with Eon and have just moved onto the Energy Saver Online Plus tariff so am waiting to see what impact that has but are we using the cheapest portable heating?

Also - do timer plugs actually save you money or do they still charge you as the plug is switched on?

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to fully explain our predicament!.

Thanks in advance!

Snow_Dog

The most obvious thing to my mind is you need central heating, unfortunately if as you say you cannot afford it at the moment then other measures will have to suffice. (Have you checked to see if you qualify for a grant for a boiler fitting? Even if you then have to fork out for a couple of rads it may be quite cost effective).

The next thing is to retain what heat you are generating.

The first thing I would say is how well insulated is the house? If the bathroom extension does not have much insulation above it then that is a good start. If its a sloping roof and you have access to the void, have a look how much insulation is there.

What about the windows, we used to buy the really cheap, clingfilm type stuff that you tape up and then use the hair dryer to stretch, it goes totally clear and the difference that makes to single glazed windows is amazing. (costs about £5 or less I think and you probably get enough to do a few windows per box), come spring take it back down again.

Timer plugs will use a very very small amount of electricity when they are on (but the appliance switched off) if that makes sense. Probably a couple of watts. Someone will probably now go and work it out but I would be very surprised if running a timer plug 24/7 for a year would cost more than a couple of £1.

If the oil filled rad is against an outside wall then put a reflective strip on the wall, bakofoil mounted on cardboard worst case, this reflects more heat into the room.

Wall insulation, there are grants to cover this work too.

Main house roof insulation. Its relatively cheap and makes quite a big difference.

Also, a real cheap one but lots of people dont think about, how snug a fit is your loft hatch?, a good idea is door insulation strip around the edge and insulation on the back.

Good luck for the winter.

whatatwit

For your bathroom, you may want to consider a wall mounted heater, one of those that is high up and only put it on when you are in there for more than a few minutes.
I don't see the point in heating a very cold bathroom all night.
Personally, I would shut the door and put a sausage draught excluder at the bottom.

Igol

Sounds a familiar story to me. I had timers on all my electric heaters. Bedroom one came on about 20 mins before I expected to go to bed/get up and bathroom one 10mins before I'd get up with the override button I managed 9 winters with that system and a coal fire. Though on really cold winter days I can recall being on the loo with the bath towel over my head trying to keep warm. It was a long cold walk down to the bathroom in the early hours until I installed my own SFCH system last year for about £1500.
My bill for electric was always fairly static at £60 a quarter. Make sure you keep doors closed and grab whatever you can in grants for insulation.

willowuk2008

Thanks for your replies, we will be trying out Snow Dog's solutions. I think we need to insulate the loft too as there is only a tiny bit of the fibreglass stuff up there. I will also make enquiries to find out how much cavity insultation is. I will also buy some timers and put the bathroom heater to come on about 5am-8am and then from about 7pm-10pm when it gets cold. I will also get one for the bedroom heater for when it gets really cold.

Unfortunately I don't think we are eligible for any grants/benefits as we both work full time although I am currently 19 weeks pregnant but to be honest, I don't think this makes any difference.

Thanks once again for your replies, if you have any other ideas, please throw them our way!!

Optimisticpair

Thick curtains with a thermal backing will also help keep warmth in. Close them before it gets cold / dark outside. Cuddling up with a duvet or blankets round watching the tv by romantic candlelight saves lighting and heating :-D You might try a hot water bottle.

Magentasue

We moved into our house in Feb and it was like yours. We have had central heating put in and already putting it on in the evening to ward off the condensation in the cold bathroom.

We used convector and fan heaters because we had two and borrowed the others. Very expensive. We bought electric blankets which were really helpful when it was very cold - we plan on turning the bedroom radiators down and using the blankets again this winter.

Our convector heaters have timers but I would buy the plug in ones if you have to. Then set the bathroom one to come on just before you get up. Having it on all night seems wasteful unless you are often up in the night with toddlers.

Thick curtains make more difference than you'd imagine, especially on the fromt door and on big windows. The other things you could do are the normal energy saving moves - energy saving lightbulbs, especially those on for hours a day. Use a lamp instead of ceiling lights with three or four bulbs. Energy efficient appliances where you can. Washing machine at 30deg. Line dry when you can. Make full use of airing cupboard. Only heat the water you need and not at too high a temperature.

What else? Don't overdo it with electric showers. Unplug/switch off what you're not using. Only wash full loads. If you cook something in the oven, try to plan for cooking enough to fill the oven.

And nothing to lose looking into grants - I wish we had before we put central heating in. You might be right about not being elegible but worth a try.