Is your heating ON or OFF?

Aria30_2

Hi,

Our electricity bills last year were quite horrendous due to having overnight storage heaters and then having to "top up" the heat with either oil radiators or fan heaters.:eek:

Just before winter 2008 we installed a multi fuel stove in the living room and well, we haven't looked back. :j We have not had ANY heaters of any kind on in the entire house - and we live in a reasonably good sized 3 bed farmhouse. Its stone built to holds the heat lovely!
I do all my clothes drying in front of the fire now, so no need to use the tumbler dryer either!
It is the best improvement we've done by miles.
We haven't had this quarters electricity bill yet, but it's got to be a significant improvement, taking into account the cost of the fire and installation. We buy the wood in bulk and split it ourselves too.

bumble-bee_3

They read my gas metre today so it will be interesting to see how much we've saved there as we have been much more careful with it than last year. My electric bill arrived today though and its very high :eek: Rather than heat the whole house we have been using a electic fan heater to heat the lounge, i'm wondering if it would have been cheaper to use the central heating, I suppose if there are big savings on the gas it won't be as bad as it seems.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

We got our energy review on Saturday after our gas meter was replaced last week.For our duel fuel account we are £239.68p in credit.I am so happy.
The thing is,it was so easy.They wanted to reduce my direct debit to under a half of what I was paying but I rang them and told them to leave it alone so I will know next winters bill will be covered.

Unity

Just a tip for those with multi-fuel/woodburning stoves. I started a thread some months ago asking for the best places to source wood and got some very good replies including scavenging permits from the Forestry Commission and contacting local tree-surgeons.

I have found by far the best recommendation I received was to place and advert on http://www.freecycle.org/ in fact we have not had to buy any wood at all this winter!:TWe have received everything from cherry tree logs to pine bed bases and if it looks like we are running low, repeating the ad - brings new replies.
Hope this helps to make your wood burners even more economical :beer:.

Best wishes,
Unity

zarazara

re scrap wood and old trees. remember the wood needs to be seasoned before its used as it will affect the chimney and /or chimney liner and its very expensive to have a chimney re-lined, £800 to £1000.
So its best to collect the wood, store it somewhere dry for 12 months then burn it. also dont burn painted or treated timber as that released carcinogens into the atmosphere.

maypole

My latest gas bill is more than double the last one and I thought we were being so careful, never have it on through the day, only for a short time in the morning and then from teatime 4.30pm until about 9 ish and that is just since it got really cold. The bill is so complicated you can't tell if it's right or not!

irishwexford

I have taken meter readings on both gas and electricity for the past few weeks and have now managed to get my gas consumption down. Turned the boiler down and keep gas fire on low also keeping the lounge door shut. Reading the meter each Monday challanges me to reduce it. I already have reduced my electricity consumption greatly by not using the fan oven, we bought a halogen oven which we use for all our roasting. I have a monitor which shows us how much electricity we are using and this does make us go around switching lights off and nothing is left on standby now. I post my readings on Imeasure each Monday and they work out how much we have spent on elec and gas for the week. Reading your meters each week does help to cut down.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

irishwexford wrote: »

Reading your meters each week does help to cut down.

That's just what do.I also submit my meter readings on the same day of each month and I can see exactly how much I've used as with Scottish Power the cost of your usage comes straight up.

richardc1983

bumble-bee wrote: »

They read my gas metre today so it will be interesting to see how much we've saved there as we have been much more careful with it than last year. My electric bill arrived today though and its very high :eek: Rather than heat the whole house we have been using a electic fan heater to heat the lounge, i'm wondering if it would have been cheaper to use the central heating, I suppose if there are big savings on the gas it won't be as bad as it seems.

You have made a big mistake. Its miles cheaper to heat with gas than electric so fire that boiler up and turn all the other radiators off and just have the lounge radiator on. Gas is very cheap compared to electric. Fan heaters just guzzle electric.

And it is safe to turn off all radiators as long as u leave one on.

nesssie1702

I submitted electric readings a fortnight ago and we got our bill in and I found that I owed Scottish Power just over £40. The bill period was March 2008 - Jan 2009 and along with the breakdown was another letter informing me that they wanted to put my direct debit up by £12 a month! I don't think so!!

We were paying £37 a month and they wanted to hoik it up to £49. So, a 25 minute wait on the phone I eventually spoke to someone and said that they could put it up to £43.

Unfortunately, we've been paying the price of the high oil from the summer as a fill of the oil tank set us back over £550 then. Got it done again just after Christmas and the same amount was £350 - bit of a difference.