Is your heating ON or OFF?

lostinrates

FarmersWife wrote: »

I think the difference is that the fuel for my woodburner is totally free and thats why it is OS

Its burning a saleable asset though, if its free....so nothing is really cost free (I nitced someone selling broken up pallets on ebay for kindling recently) My wood is partly free and partly bought in, and will be for a few year, but its also my only heat source...so if the wood burner is lit my heating IS on.

FarmersWife_2

lostinrates wrote: »

Its burning a saleable asset though, if its free....so nothing is really cost free (I nitced someone selling broken up pallets on ebay for kindling recently) My wood is partly free and partly bought in, and will be for a few year, but its also my only heat source...so if the wood burner is lit my heating IS on.

All our wood is pallets and fallen trees on the farm. What we dont use is burnt once a week on a huge bonfire on the farm. With the processing plant about 100 pallets a week come to the farm.

I dont think the thread is about who can last out the longest without keeping warm but who is saving money by not paying money to a utility company to do so. Living in a farm cottage I dont have mains gas so my heating is an electric boiler which runs the radiators and needless to say this has not been on this year yet.. except for the trial run to make sure it was working and the radiators had been bled.

So Yes my heat is completely free and is a sustainable source.

[Deleted User]

I checked my gas and electricity account yesterday as the bills are due at the end of this month and I have £230.00 in credit in the Gas and £110.00 in credit in the electric, I know I could ask for the money back but as according to my accounts its gone and once gone is a type of savings to me. I am quite pleased in a way as it means when I do need to turn on the heating I have a good 'cushion' against the bills in the very cold weather.
My gas boiler clicks on for two hours in the morning and that gives me a big tankful of hot water more than enough for me.I only put the heating on for an hour as and when needed and have found I use a whole lot less.

I went through my house with my son-in-law a couple of years ago and we had done everything that we could to save energy. I had the walls insulated and the roof has 10 inches of insulation.My small house is double glazed, and I had a new outside Front door put on, which stopped the wind whistling through the inside porch door which is also now d/glazed. I had a new energy efficiant boiler put in, and a radiator in the sitting room (previously I had a gas fire in there)I replaced it with a very small electric fire, and only actually used it once last winter when I came home late and just wanted a quick blast of heat to warm my toes up before bed.

My sitting room is not very big and I live in a mid-terraced house, so get very little heat loss at all. Last year my heavy winter bill after all the snow we had was £110 for the gas which I thought was was brilliant as I had obviously used the heating more as I had been stuck indoors because of the snowy weather. I do admit I would rather put an extra cardi on than be bothered to switch the heating on especially if I am within an hour or so of bed.I don't like the bedroom too warm as it would be too stuffy and I like to have the window open slightly for some fresh air.
I will get the email within the next couple of weeks as I read my meter and put the readings online so it will be interesting to see what my bill is. This time last year the gas was 80 odd pounds and the electric 45.I know the prices have gone up but as I have been quite frugal in using the utilities I am hoping it won't be that much more.I think apart from the price everyone is more aware of using up resourses now.
Even my grandsons come home from school and tell me how they have been taught to be more sensible in using lights etc, so perhaps its being drummed uinto them at school as well.

lostinrates

FarmersWife wrote: »

I dont think the thread is about who can last out the longest without keeping warm but who is saving money by not paying money to a utility company to do so..

I am in much the same possition as you (although as I said, some of our wood is bought in, the rest is from here). I 100% agree with you, its not about holding out for the sake of it or out of machismo, but many who use this thread DON'T have a choice. I'm not suggesting for ONE MOMENT that people shouldn't heat their house, far from it, it is right to be concerned if people are holding out when they need it and can provide it, but I am suggesting that its tough on people on the thread who have no choice when people sday I'm fine with no heating...when they do have a heat source!

I have no idea about the sustainability of pallets because I haven't looked into it, we don't get many here, just the occasional one feed deliveries come on, but agree, it seems much better use of them to burn them as heating rather than bonfire them (its interesting too, that in non arable farming we aren't allowed to burn muck any more...which is fine, most people spread it and you cannot spread pallats). But it does not mean that the pallats aren't a potential income source...(many large estate fsarms are IMO, going to be moving into a situation where wood pellet producytion makes economic sense with the new incentives for wood burning boilers commercially this year and residentially next year) not all ''wealth'' is in money but rather ''things''...whether thats the veg you sell or what we burn. e.g. our wood from our farm hedgerows might be nothing in cash terms but it exists in labour terms as a cost and in things like the two stroke for the chainsaw and the stroage sapvce. Now, obviously those are worthwhile investments to be warm, but to be accurate in accounting terms for us its worth considering time etc...because often it makes more MSE sense for us ..NOT necessarily for you...to be paying for that and earning in otherways, if our earnings in that time exceed the amount paid for that. we too have no mains gas, and no oil, ATM we just have an electric immersion tank for hot water to the taps and a woodburner...as I am often unable to fetch my own wood from the barn/woodstore, this can cause me problems, and its really not sufficient to heat the whole house, though it will hopefully keep us going, and I've just bought a second one I hope to get installed quickly.

Please understand, I am not damning anybody's choices or position, no meaning to be rude, but I hold a different opinion and don't see that it has to result in altercation, just discussion of different viewpoint The most useful part of MSE to me financially is when I have looked at what I have in a different way.

FWIW, I have just lit my woodburner, not because the house is unbearably cold (I haven't checked the themomtre in the kitchen) but because it feels rather damp today.

nobodyspecial

FarmersWife wrote: »

All our wood is pallets and fallen trees on the farm. What we dont use is burnt once a week on a huge bonfire on the farm. With the processing plant about 100 pallets a week come to the farm.

I dont think the thread is about who can last out the longest without keeping warm but who is saving money by not paying money to a utility company to do so. Living in a farm cottage I dont have mains gas so my heating is an electric boiler which runs the radiators and needless to say this has not been on this year yet.. except for the trial run to make sure it was working and the radiators had been bled.

So Yes my heat is completely free and is a sustainable source.

No offence intended FW, but the title of the thread is "Is your heating on or off?" not "are you paying for heating?" I think lots of people on here are having a competition with themselves and others as to who can last the longest without putting any heat source on. Now apart from the fact that the property style, insulation levels, aspect ( free solar gain from south or west facing windows ) etc etc will have an impact on inside temperatures, some are saying things like "I'm not even thinking about putting the heating on" but if they're lighting fires etc then they DO have heating on. That's a bit of a slap in the face for the poor soul shivering in a totally unheated place, who wonders how others can cope with temperatures they can't. Perhaps people should be posting "yes I have a roaring fire tonight because it's cold but it's not costing me a bean because the coal, wood, etc was all free"

Anyway just my take, and hope I haven't upset you. It's a shame for most that only have two options, freeze or pay for heating..........I'm sure we'd all love a bit of free heat

lostinrates

earwig wrote: »

hi
just wonder how many of you have put the heating on yet i was going to wait untill november but my 7 year old dd woke me up at 430 this morring saying she was cold i swear i saw steam coming from her mouth so i got up and put it on the house was cold though and my ds has woken up a few time durring the night to (his only two) i now wonder if it was because he was cold to

nobody special: I decided to check the very first post (quoted above).

I think the question is straightfoward...heating on or off. No value judgement, no competition just a healthy question.

I personally agree with you about the solidarity of the thread...I really think its great when people are toasty and warm, but this thread helped me a lot last year and will I hope again this year...both being happy for warm people and having others to grin and bear it with when couldn't get warm. I don't think any solidarity is lost by people being warm, but do think that heat is heat and that's fair enough to acknowledge...and whats more to celebrate.

nobodyspecial

lostinrates, you've summed up my thoughts perfectly

CH27

FarmersWife wrote: »

I think the difference is that the fuel for my woodburner is totally free and thats why it is OS

It's still a source of heat though.

Annie021063

Still off for us, new (bargain) throw came today which feels very snuggly, Might trawl the charity shops and attempt to knit squares to make a big throw too.

lostinrates

Annie021063 wrote: »

Still off for us, new (bargain) throw came today which feels very snuggly, Might trawl the charity shops and attempt to knit squares to make a big throw too.

I'm envious of people who can knit, I've tried and tried and just can't. My mother says I'm too tense to knit..it gets tighter and tighter and ends up like holey felt:o:o. I can embroider when I can be bothered too...but that doesn't keep you very warm with its result!! I used to make lace at school, which was also a very lovely hobby, I was thinking of trying to make lace trims for sheets and pillow cases at some point in the future...but its been a long time!

I have a blanket on the sofa ATM, and under neath the cushions waiting to be used soon, I have a sleeping bag, I used a duvet last year. I also have a spare electric blanket (gift from mother) to use down stairs when immobile and cold. I'm hoping not to need it much!


So far this year the damp really has been an issue: with such a dull summer I don't think old houses got much of a chance to ''dry out'', even though the ground outside did, it was rock hard and parched because of the wind...so maybe its my imagination about damp in the house. I've decided to keep an eye open on ebay for a local dehumidifier, I think it would really improve things here.