Is your heating ON or OFF?

shegar

Its also very cold here like the rest of the country, ive been down the beach with the dogs it was what you call a "Brazing fresh walk"........:eek:.

Some people say they wont put the heating on because they dont like lining the pockets of energy companies, well look at it like this you do get something for your money and its what you call HEAT.....:)

bluebag

dogstarheaven,

From my past calculations with gas at 35p per therm, I think it is about 17p per hour on high and 10p per hour on low.

Gas fires are only about 60% efficient, so if you have an efficient boiler it may be cheaper to run your central heating and turn the radiators off in the rooms you are not using.

My central heating on at 22C costs about 27p per hour to run,( A rated boiler) and that's a massive three bedroom terraced. It would cost a lot less if I could evict the kids and turn the radiators down in all the upstairs rooms.:)

Please bear in mind my maths is very back of the envelope calculations type stuff.
It may be worth asking some questions on the heating board, they have a few engineers on there that are very knowlegeable. Cardew in particular comes to mind.

I would get on the phone every day to the DWP, they do make mistakes, when my daughter was ill and claiming income support they lost all her claim and I had to threaten to take them to court to get them to up their game, so don't just accept things at face value.. get on to them and tell them how you are living.

The CAB can be helpful and there are other charities and welfare agencies that can help, you should be able to afford some heating, it's classed as one of the basic necceseties.
Hope that helps.

Fruball

dogstarheaven - I am very concerned about you and your family. I know you don't want to get into debt, but it sounds like you will receive money once the claim goes thru so why not pop the heating on even if its just an hour a day, just to take the chill out of the house?

I really think its awful that in this day and age, people are forced to be freezing because of the evil we call 'money'

Hippeechiq - My heating is on 24hrs a day but on low (thermostat not showing accurate temp so no idea exactly how cool/warm it is in here) but rather than keep the house 'warm', we keep it 'not cold'.

I have an ancient backboiler, god bless her she's been going for years with no trouble , which also heats the water tank which is also on 24 hours

It costs me £3 a day roughly to heat a large 2 bed end terrace house and hot water all day and night.

I have tried various combinations and checked the cost (altho not for years and years) and found that it was no more expensive to have it on 24hrs on low, than coming on for a few hours morning and evening, and when we wanted a bath etc.

This way, the house never gets really cold, and the water tank never cools down so less effort for the boiler to heat it back up again.

I do turn the thermostat right down at night (also it does click in sometimes) and turn it up when i get up in the morning - on days i am working i turn it down to night temp and up once i get home.

Hope that helps

pollys

It's freezing here in West Yorkshire. Just spoke to DD in Leeds and it is "snowing like mad" thankfully she is in halls with bills paid and is nice and warm. Got the CH on but it is still cold. Just looked out its started to snow here, Brrrrrr

Pollys xxx

Rosanna79

Heating ON 24 hours at present with current weather on low. Radiators turned off in bedroom and front sitting room- live in back and put on electric fire as necessary in front room- keep my musical instruments in there so cool is preferable. Can't sleep in a heated bedroom, nose gets so stuffy would be awake all night. Use more bedding to compensate which works well and OH is agreeable. First year of retirement so unsure how bill will pan out despite over 60s fuel allowance. Desperate to conserve personal funds rather than pay these greedy. grasping energy companies their inflated prices. However I've always hated freezing cold houses - so depressing and having particularly painful osteoarthritis in my hands can't afford to get too cold or I end up crying with the pain which gets so bad in very cold weather. So we're trying to strike a happy medium.

Have seen some fingerless 'anti arthritis' gloves in easylife magazine. Not sure if they work or are worth the money. Has anyone used these? I do a lot of craft work to keep my hands moving and wearing a double fleece indoors. Feel very sorry for those having to endure freezing homes... it can't be right in the 21st century. Also if you don't heat yoor home how do you prevent frozen / burst pipes?

Thinking of all in need at this time.

mrsr

Heat has been on low all day .Got home from work this morning after freesing all night i just couldn't get warm ,OH and Ds have been here all day so needed some heat for them as well, i went to bed and cuddled up to my doglogs didnt take to long to warm up. Preparing for anouther night of sitting in cold all night,if i choose not to have heat on at home i can move around to keep warm and i know that on switch is there to filck on if i want to.The thoughts i have no control is not nice ,taking a blanket and thought about a hot water bottle as well.There may well be a revolt tonight we are all fed up with being cold.

Rebekah24

Had mine on today reluctantly, its been snowing all day

Hopefully can get it off during the week when oh isnt here. The anxiety of the cost is worse than being cold!!

shazza71_2

Yep, mine is on constant at the mo, had snow since wednesday and we now have about 10 inches, heating is gonna have to stay on for a long while...

sharon

lbr102

Well after not making it out yesterday because I left it so late that the snow on the car had frozen badly, I went out today instead....only the windscreen was not only frozen solid on the outside but also the inside as well! It's a four year old Honda not an old car so I didn't expect to be scraping ice of the inside!

Hippeechiq

Thanks for the reply Frugal

I've looked at last years bill for the period November 09-May 10 to see how many units we used, and divided that by 26 to get an average weekly use, so that I have a rough idea of how much we shouldn't be using more than IYSWIM

Then I've taken a reading tonight, and will take another next Sunday, and every Sunday thereafter to see if we're keeping on track.

I'm going to try having the thermostat at around 15-17º, and have it on all the time, so that the house doesn't get completely cold several times a day and overnight like it is at the moment (it was 13º in my lounge yesterday morning when I got up) Although I will only have it at around 10-15º during the night.

That still wont keep the house warm enough for my liking, but we can't always have what we want and at least it we wont have to endure periods of the day when the house has a temperature that leaves us totally frozen regardless of how many layers we have on.