Avoid using GAS and ELECTRIC !

richardc1983

sistercas wrote: »

Dh and myself are having a debate:
he thinks its cheaper to heat the water and keep it on all day 6a.m to 8pm ( his argument is it will cost more to heat from cold each time rather than just topping up)
I think it would be cheaper to heat for 2 hrs in the morning and 2hrs in the evening
who is right?

IN my parents house they actually find it slightly cheaper (only slightly) to have the heating on all day with the boiler temperature turned down quite low for instance hot water flowing through the radiators at 45C maintains the house at a nice 21C all day long, whereas if they have the heating coming on in a morning for 3 hours then on an evening for 4 hours it was using more gas as the boiler had to be set at a higher flow temperature (70C) in order for the temperature of the house to be pulled upto about 21c. They also tried having the flow temp at 45C and the heating on for 3 hours on a morning then 4 hours on a night but the house was never warm enough as the water flowing through the radiators wasnt hot enough to bring the temperature of the house up to comfortable temp and it never got higher than 18C on a night which was not warm enough for my parents. They find it better this way as the house is always comfortable and costs the same as having it on twice a day with a higher flow temp.

Can anyone explain this? I think its to do with the fact that if the flow temp is lower and the heating on for longer then it can slowly bring the temp of the house up during the day and maintain it whereas if you have the flow temp set higher and the heating on less your using more gas anyway as it has to work harder with hotter water flowing through the radiators to increase the temperature of the house.

However some of you are saying that it costs more to leave it on all the time, are you not taking into account that you could leave it on all day as long as you compensate by having your flow temperature reduced to a lot less so the radiators are not really hot and are only just warm.

[Deleted User]

we changed alternate leds in the kitchen to 3w and it has made a subtle difference. It is bright enough and a nice light. Changing all of them was a big mistake so we went half and half. We don`t use the centre light which is full of leds and we have 3 other lights that I put in. 2 table lamps which are as small as possible to accomodate biobulbs, one is on regularly in the evening now and fortunately that is in a nice white round glass shade on a brushed stainless steel stand. The other is a normal table lamp, which I move around if I want more light and we have a nice standard lamp uplighter. My kitchen is big but all this worked very well last winter

My one gripe is that it is so hard to find lamps to fit these bulbs

richardc1983

moggins wrote: »

A wood burner? Or one of those halogen heaters which are supposed to be cheaper to run.

a collection of candles maybe, would look lovely and cosey

richardc1983

full-time-mum wrote: »

The men who replaced our windows a few years ago did that to me and it annoyed the hell out of me - its one thing to use my electricity to power drills etc for the job in hand but I think that you could argue that them charging their phones was theft - rather than make an issue, I kept finding reasons to use the plug (ironing, hoovering) and then not plugging it in.

I charge my phone in the car as often as possible.

Hardly think that is going to use a penny in electric during a full charge, they use hardly anything now if they were running electrical heaters off it or taking the pi$$ then fair enough!

sistercas

Magentasue wrote: »

Why two hours? We are a family of six and managed daily baths and showers on less than half that.

just a ball park figure. you're right an hour morning and evening should be ok

richardc1983

I am on a coin prepayment meter (£1 coins) so always conscious of electric use.

We have energy savers in all the hallway and kitchen lights, and most table lamps apart from the bedside ones (only used for ten minutes a day), bathroom one as need a bright light in there due to no windows and the small red fireglow one in the living room (for cosy look). I also switch everything off at the mains, and have just rewirded the television extension leads with all the gadjets dvd players etc on to an extension with switched sockets so that i can turn off things properly when not in use, i dont leave anything oin standby but the set top box for virgin is warm when turned off so Im going to start switching off at the socket.

my kitchen appliances are turned off at the wall apart from washer and dishwasher which are manual on off switches on the front anyway but my microwave is one of those with a digital clock that lights up so i know that uses electric.

The only things that I cant turn off is my air conditioning system that when switched off with the remote apparently uses no electricity anyway as its the outdoor unit that controls power to the indoor units and it shuts them off completly, to turn this off completly would mean turning the trip switch off to the units. I have a door curtain over my lounge door as its a pain closing the door all the time so we have a curtain that hangs about 1inch above the ground so we just walk through that in winter. However I have a feeling my house is going to be very warm as the powerful reverse cycle air con system is too powerful in cooling mode and cools the whole flat so i think it will do the same in winter but on heating and our flat will be warm throughout and we can maintain a perfect temp of 21c.

rchddap1

Currently have the heating off so have no idea at the moment whether it would cost more to have the heating on all day or for a few hours each day. However, I am continuing to reduce the amount of time the hot water is on for and its temperature. Brought the timing down by another 5 minutes a few days ago....possibly due another change.

I'm just happy that no-one has noticed anything yet.

When winter comes I'll probably look at how to use the least gas, but still keep the house warm. No point in doing any calculations on that now as the heating wouldn't come on anyway.

brila

I was thinking about getting a solar battery charger and running several things (e.g. radio) off rechargable batteries. I have lots of batteries in the big sizes from toys that DS has grown out of.

Has anyone got any experience of these? On the Maplin website it indicated that one model would take 20 hours of good sunshine to charge 4 "D" sized batteries. This would seem a little impractical for day to day use?

richardc1983

MIRRY wrote: »

Because I was poorly last night, I left my husband to cook dinner for the kids whilst I went to bed.
This morning Ive woken up to find our dish washer left on all night....
I wonder how much this cost me in electricity ?

How would your dishwasher be on all night, once its completed its cycle it will either stay on standby where your paying to have the display light on but hardly anything probably the same as your microwave witha clock would cost.

newlywed

rchddap1 wrote: »

However, I am continuing to reduce the amount of time the hot water is on for and its temperature. Brought the timing down by another 5 minutes a few days ago....possibly due another change.

I'm just happy that no-one has noticed anything yet.

I've knocked an hour and a half off ours so far and no-one has noticed yet (and baths have been had ) Just wish I'd tried it earlier as didn't realise OH had set the water for 5 hours a day in total :rolleyes: