Please help FTB: Gas bill killing me!

CharlieBilly

That amount isnt too bad I pay just over £100 last month

WestonDave

Re loft insulation - the space board stuff will do the job, but its relatively expensive compared to normal roll insulation. You can as Victor said create extra space by adding to the top of the joists (although its probably better to run the new timber at right angles to the old for strength and stability reasons), then fill this with roll insulation, and then reboard over the top. However taking up the old boards is going to take a lot of time, and the 170mm timber you will need on top of typical 100mm joists (as you don't have cavity walls I'm assuming the old style joists not the new 70mm ones!) won't be that cheap either.

The quicker option is to get enough space board to do the minimum area you can for storage plus another set of loft boards to go over the top. You ideally need two layers of space board to get you up to full insulation equivalent - watch out for 2 for 1 offers as Focus did a few years back. Once you've done this for the area you can actually use for storage, you can then fill the edges with roll insulation - there's always parts where the slope of the roof makes storage impractical so there's no point doing expensive boarding etc in these parts.

re bleeding the bathroom radiator all the time - either you've got a leak somewhere that is letting in air (which typically will accumulate in the highest radiator point in the system which is often the bathroom one) or it might be worth turning the boiler heat level down so the circulating water isn't as hot - if its too hot it tends to expand too much out of the cylinder into the expansion tank, which can then result in air being drawn in or oxygen boiling out of the water to fill it with air. Having the system heating to a slightly lower temperature may mean you need it to run longer to heat the house, but the burner will be running less so it will not use any more gas overall. You also need to make sure you bleed the system when its off - doing it when its hot doesn't help!

farazfastian

Thanks guys for such valuable advises but i'm not sure if i can do all that myself and yes i do keep all the doors shut, and the curtains closed.
I'm thinking to postpone this until end of summer as i can't spend money on this now have to do garden before summer. But I'm definitly planning to do all below before winter this year:


- Thermostat (£30)

- Digital Timer (£50)

- Loft Insolation / Boarding / Water Tank Insulations (£300)

- Window Film (not sure which one) (£50)

- Radiator Pads (£50)

- Thermal blackout Curtains (will they cause problems in summer?)

Above all probably labour of up to £200? so in total something up to £600-700.

One other thing i didn't get as I wanted to try keeping the heating on all the time with low temperature so that house stay warm but when i did that boiler wasn't getting off it was keep running for hours. This is the case when temperature dial on the boiler set to 75%, if i take that to less than that, then boiler goes off but we feel really cold. Is it normal? or this will improve once i'll have thermostate installed?

Thanks Again!

nickj_2

check with your gas supplier if they do a good deal on loft insualtion /cavity wall

ladylouise62

Definitely sort out insulation - I couldn't believe the difference when I got my loft done!

I've been struggling money-wise recently, so looked back to when I was young and there was no central heating, and realised that we were used to the cold. So, I have kept the heating off for a lot of the time and found that I quickly got used to it again by ensuring that I wrapped up properly (layers!!!) - I also found that I could leave washing up for a few days and so heat the water every few days or so to bathe and wash up etc. I also got a blanket from a charity shop (or you could even get a really cheap quilt from a supermarket), and hung it over the door that I needed to open frequently to keep the heat in. If the weather drops past freezing then I can freely turn the heating up in the knowledge that my bills still won't get too high.
I'm not suggesting that you need to go quite as extreme as me, but if money really is an issue then you can get used to a colder house.