Is your heating ON or OFF?

Butterfly_Brain

The weather is set to get colder next week :eek:
I will have to finish putting plastic over my single glazed windows at the back - the front is double glazed. I have a rotten cold at the moment but I am still resisting putting on the heating for as long as possible - I look a real sight at the moment with my PJ's, Dressing Gown Bedsocks and wrapped in a fleece with a bright Red nose and coughing for England.

miss_empty_piggy

I know that this is probably a REALLY stupid question...but OH and I have changed our rooms over from one with a gas fire installed to one with no fire place. we have a fire surround fitted etc which we are thinking of making into a useable fireplace (coal wood etc). We have a gas point capped off directly underneath where the fire ashes would drop. I realise that we will need to get all of this sorted out to be safe etc, get it cleaned out and fire bricks put along the back....but the question I have is, is it cheaper to run a coal / wood fire than to have the gas CH on? I am thinking that it must be, but when I think about I really am only making that assumption. Does anybody out there have any advice...it would be much appreciated.

rosieben

I've had my CH on for the last few weeks.. I've moved into an old old house that stood empty for over a year and as we've had no decent sunshine this summer its taking a while to warm up; I'm having secondary glazed units fitted which will help.

I close the upstairs curtains mid-afternoon, and the downstairs curtains before dusk.

I always open windows during the mornings to freshen it up though, sometimes only for half an hour but it gives me a change of air!

mardatha

My OH is being a pure pain in the !!! re this film double glazing stuff. He wont buy it, says it will be useless and hard to put up.

ixwood

Coal isn't cheap. Doubt it'd be cheaper than gas.

Wood can be got cheaper, but there's a lot of wood burners out there now.

1sue23

ixwood wrote: »

Coal isn't cheap. Doubt it'd be cheaper than gas.

Wood can be got cheaper, but there's a lot of wood burners out there now.

I find coal cheaper I mix it with logs that I get for next to nothing off a farmer Always buy the coal in the summer when it is cheaper.

Claire70_2

Coal can be cheap in the summer if you have somewhere to store it.

I have a coal fire and we burn old wood (OH is a roofer) and we burn paper logs, you can buy a machine thingy on Ebay for around £17-00. Only thing is you need to make them during the summer so they can dry.

So open fires can be cheaper, its whether you can be faffed with the cleaning out etc, Im a morning person so I dont mind getting up early and cleaning fire out.

Check out your local tradesmen who would use wood.... Builders Merchants, Roofers, Joiners, Builders.... They are quite happy to give away waste wood.. Remember what you take isnt going in their skip so they are saving money too... so dont let them charge you

Claire

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

larmy16 wrote: »

It's not so much guilt for me as a mini protest against the energy companies. If it makes me really miserable I shall put it on.

This is exactly how I feel,to be honest though we've been managing realy well and I have no desire or need to put the heating on at all even though the November 1st deadline is approaching.
We were at my daughters last night and we were very uncomfortable sitting with the heating on,so I think we've become used to being cooler.
I'm going to hold out as long as I can as a matter of principle I suppose and I'm also enjoying the challenge.
Mind you there's only the two of us so without any young children or very old people to consider it's a lot easier.

Menolly_2

mardatha wrote: »

My OH is being a pure pain in the !!! re this film double glazing stuff. He wont buy it, says it will be useless and hard to put up.

OK, we have double glazing throughout EXCEPT in the utility room. Ours is a 1950's house and what is now the utility used to be the coal store so it is a single brick construction. The back door leads out from it (single glazed) and there is a metal Crittalls single glazed (fairly large) window. It is like Alaska in there in the winter!!!

We have finally saved enough to get the darn place insulated and to replace the door and window but in the meantime, we have used the film double glazing every year, putting it over the glazed door panel and the window.

First .......... you must make sure that the window frame is totally clean, grease-free and dry or the doublesided tape will not adhere well (this is from personal experience - a little time spent preparing the surface well reaps rewards as my Dad used to say, LOL). Make sure you press the tape hard on to the frame so it is well stuck on.

Next...............make sure that you press the film down on to the double sided tape really well (we used the little roller that you can get to press down wallpaper seams and then followed up by rubbing it with a dinner knife handle). If it is a very BIG window and there is enough room on the frame, I would be tempted to use two strips of d-s tape next to each other, for extra security although it doesn't say so in the instructions (big window = big sheet of film being stretched= more stress on d-s tape if you see what I mean).

Finally, be very careful when trimming off the excess after you have "blow dried" the film taut. You don't want the trimming knife to slip and slash across your lovely handiwork.

We found a noticeable difference in the temperature in the utility just by using the film - seriously!!

The only downside is that you can't open the windows until you remove the film (natch!).

Hope this helps.

got-it-spend-it

I'm not really suffering with it being off yet- just wearing lots of warm fleeces, warm PJs in bed and a blanket on the sofa in the evening. Will almost certainly turn it on Sunday though as we have guests and the overnight temperature is set to be 5 degrees. Will probably turn it off again once they're gone though....