If things get tougher?

miggy

Charis wrote: »

Out of curiosity I read the meter. In four hours it used 8.5 hundredths of a cubic foot, so it would use 186 cu ft of gas a year. Despite roping in my DS, who is very good at maths, we could not work out the cost. Gas is measured at the meter in 'units' which turn out to be cubic feet. It is sold by cubic metres, but there is a conversion factor and a calorific equivalent to take into account. The eventual bill is for Kwh (Kilowatt hours) The unit costs have gone up during (and since?) the last bill. Some are at a higher rate than others. Do you think someone is trying to confuse us :eek: ? At the very least, the (newish) meter could measure cubic metres, saving one element of the equation.
No wonder some folk just can't be bothered with it all. I can't even find a rough guestimate of how much a cubit foot of gas costs, even when I have an idea of the price of a KWH.

My maths is extremelly ropey but as an approximation, am I right in thinking that 10 feet is around 3 metres, therefore if you multiply your units by 10 and divide by three, you will come out with a cost per cubic metre? Or something?
Come on, there must be a maths buff out there!
Edit - oh hang on, you would also have to convert all the units to cubic units wouldn't you? Think I will go and cool the overheated brain...

mardatha

LOLCharis I dont think so, I spent years of my life knitting and never want to see another needle as long as I live. Shetland, Fairisle, Icelandic, Aran, you name it, I knitted it. Over & over. ARRGHH!

Primrose

Charis - I'm hopeless at maths. Your attempted calculations remind me of the old school test which asked "If two taps fill a bath with 10 gallons of water in 3 minutes, how long will it take for one tap to fill the bath if the plug is not put in the hole?" !!!
Think it will be easier on the brain just to put on an extra sweater every morning when the cooler weather arrives !

cazkenton2003

I'm hopeless at maths too, but I can read a meter dial.

Am on pre payment meters here. No debt with electric so alls ok with that I think. Am very worried about the gas though.
I mean, all we have is gas central heating (no cookers, fires). There is £550 debt to be paid off with BG. MY meter is set at 70% credit collection.
It costs me 75p just to run a bath. So me and kids, we 2nd hand the water, as long as it's warm.

I am totally dreading putting the heating on this year. Can only rightly afford to top up the meter with £5 every few days.

So the general consensus of opinion between my friends is to leave the heating off (live above a shop so quite warm) and buy couple of oil heaters or convectors. Or just turn the rads off upstairs and me and the kids all bunk down in one room downstairs? There is no debt on the elec meter, just the gas.
And the gas is only needed for bathing. But can boil kettle for that and have a strip wash...

Please tell me it's not going to be so bad. I'm on benefits and can't afford to put £20 on the meter in one go....

moanymoany

cazkenton2003 wrote: »

I'm hopeless at maths too, but I can read a meter dial.

Am on pre payment meters here. No debt with electric so alls ok with that I think. Am very worried about the gas though.
I mean, all we have is gas central heating (no cookers, fires). There is £550 debt to be paid off with BG. MY meter is set at 70% credit collection.
It costs me 75p just to run a bath. So me and kids, we 2nd hand the water, as long as it's warm.

I am totally dreading putting the heating on this year. Can only rightly afford to top up the meter with £5 every few days.

So the general consensus of opinion between my friends is to leave the heating off (live above a shop so quite warm) and buy couple of oil heaters or convectors. Or just turn the rads off upstairs and me and the kids all bunk down in one room downstairs? There is no debt on the elec meter, just the gas.
And the gas is only needed for bathing. But can boil kettle for that and have a strip wash...

Please tell me it's not going to be so bad. I'm on benefits and can't afford to put £20 on the meter in one go....

Would it be possible to keep your heating at a low level e.g. 65 degrees, then you can top up with cardies etc. This is what I plan to do this winter.

I think we have got used to being warm everywhere in the house in winter. Wearing more clothes makes sense, tee shirts make good vests under jumpers. Leggings under trousers, cardigans over jumpers - all thin layers so they are comfortable to wear. It's all about what we are used to.

I remember as a child wearing quite a bizarre array of clothes. I lived in the north midlands and in the 50's and 60's it was bitterly cold in the winter. As a child - up to 12 years - winter wear was - liberty bodice, vest, underskirt, jumper, woolly cardigan, so on top plenty of layers. Now, here's the bizarre thing, girls wore skirts and knee socks! Poor freezing legs. Boys wore short trousers - what was that all about?

ceridwen

Dont know about oil heaters or convectors.

Personally I swopped from fanheater fires to halogen heaters. One can buy them very cheaply - well I have 3 "qualities" of - and the cheapest quality one was less than £10. Each "bar" worth on them uses 400 watts of power - so the best one of them with its 4 "bars" worth is 1600 watts (ie less than having a 2 kilowatt fan heater full on). They do cast out quite a decent level of heat (unlike the oil heaters or convectors I have come across). I believe there is summat in the way they work that means all the heat they cast out comes where its wanted (ie right in your direction) - rather than all round the room (including up at ceiling level - where you wont feel the benefit of it).

I'm no expert on this - its just what works for me. You might have to take more care with having children. One must not sit looking directly at the light from these heaters (that light is a useful side benefit of them - I just turn them round so they arent facing me - and I have the effect of having a gentle light on in the room as well for my money). I believe it is hazardous to the eyes to sit looking at them directly - so you know whether your kids would be "trainable" into not doing that or no - and switching them off if they leave the room. With only myself to think of - and I know I will be careful - then they are a good bet for me.

edit: So thats 22.5p per bath if there wasnt this 70% credit collection then? If my maths serves me right (which is debatable sometimes).

[Deleted User]

charis about £60 a year on ebico rates

Ceridwen is right, it is the fast rate of change that is scaring people and I also think that we, as a society will end up better for it. The transition phase is scary and is making people feel out of control

I intend to leave water out, in the kitchen, as a matter of course every evening and every morning, particularly when the weather gets colder and the water pipes cool down. I will fill the kettle and a pan or two to dip into. Any spare boiled water will be used for cereal dishes or popped into a flask. We have a condensing boiler and if I need hot water then I use the first, cool, runoff as water for the kettle

We are lucky in that my kitchen is large and very sunny and we practically live in there. What about having a look to see if you could do a house re-arrangement ie use a sunny room as a living room and top the cent h up in that room in the evening. I would turn all the other rads off except for this room and one in the bathroom. Hot water bottles in beds and that would be very like the old days. ie coal fire in one room, paraffin heater in bathroom if we were lucky and hot bottles in bed

Kadeeae

maltesers wrote: »

I find it very annoying when posts get moved. I answered 2 yesterday and didn't know where they had gone. Some threads are far too long and things have changed since 2006, sometimes it would be better to change the title to include dates.

Here, here! A link to the 'moved' post would be nice in the moved notice.

BilberryCharlotte

moanymoany wrote: »

Would it be possible to keep your heating at a low level e.g. 65 degrees, then you can top up with cardies etc. This is what I plan to do this winter.

I think we have got used to being warm everywhere in the house in winter. Wearing more clothes makes sense, tee shirts make good vests under jumpers. Leggings under trousers, cardigans over jumpers - all thin layers so they are comfortable to wear. It's all about what we are used to.

I remember as a child wearing quite a bizarre array of clothes. I lived in the north midlands and in the 50's and 60's it was bitterly cold in the winter. As a child - up to 12 years - winter wear was - liberty bodice, vest, underskirt, jumper, woolly cardigan, so on top plenty of layers. Now, here's the bizarre thing, girls wore skirts and knee socks! Poor freezing legs. Boys wore short trousers - what was that all about?

If we are all to cut back as much as possible on the heating used during the winter months, it may change the way families use their home too. About the time Moany is talking about, bedrooms were rarely heated, consequently you would often wake up to Jack Frost patterns on the inside of windows. Where we now take for granted the luxury of having bedrooms heated, and that they can be used to retreat to, families may have to go back to living in a sort of `fug` in one room.

I suppose a plus point might be that you can see what the kids are doing, but sometimes rows used to break out because someone wanted to listen to the radio, someone wanted the televison on etc, etc.

It looks like interesting times may be ahead.

katieowl_2

We don't have central heating. My kids have survived I remember it being cold enough to have frost inside the windows up until my early twenties....but since then it doesn't ever seem to get that cold?

My Daughters hate it when they stays at their centrally heated friends houses and they don't sleep because it's so hot. My eldest daughter, the first time she went to Russia (in the Winter), experienced the suffocating heat the Ruskies keep their houses at - all subsidised of course -while they pad about in bare feet and t-shirts, managed to get the window open, but couldn't SHUT it again, and it was about -20 outside, LOL she thought she was going to freeze to death!

I can heartily recommend the use of one of those Victorian Stone hot water bottles, if you can find one in good working order (with a tight fitting lid!) they stay roasting hot ALL night. You need to wrap it thoroughly so you don't burn your toes. And of course be careful you don't push it out of the bed. We keep ours on the back of the AGA during the day, and don't change the water, it just keeps reheating day after day. TOASTY :T

Regards

Kate