Heating advice, No mains Gas

Euskaltel

Hi All,

I live in a small rented cottage in a rural area. There is no mains gas and the only heating I have is Economy 7 and a small bottled gas fire. My electricity bill has now hit £90+ a month and in winterI use £60-90 of bottled gas a month. I have worked out that 2/3 of my electricity bills goes towards heating the house......so my heating bills are about £120+ a month in winter. The thing is I am not warm! I am still in a cold house. I am looking into fitting a woodburning fire but Im looking at £1000+ to buy and fit one. Can anybody offer any advice on my best option!? Other than move out.
Thanks in advance.

macman

Have you maximised your insulation? Loft, cavity walls, windows?

Euskaltel

This is something Im in the process of doing. I contaced the Energy Saving Trust today and they are sending me out some details. Problem I have is my landlords reluctance to see the problem.

toejumper

I'm the same as you live in a rural area and have no gas, we had oil fitted about 15 years ago which cost £60 a month to run our electric is £50 a month i also have duel fuel cooker which was fitted last year, which i bought 2 large red gas bottles and still using them now 1 is full and the other is nearly empty i think the price of the bottles are around £40 to replace. we are never cold and have plenty of hot water, our electric bill did drop loads after having the cooker installed. hope this helps.

chris1973

Problem I have is my landlords reluctance to see the problem.

Always the way when they dont have to live there or pay the bills, and its usually better to negotiate these things prior to committing to any tenancy agreement, especially if its already been empty and the LL is struggling to find a tenant.

Unless you intend to stay there for a long time, i'd be reluctant at spending out of my own pocket to better somebody elses property.

Some cheaper, and also effective means of helping are to put curtains across all external doors, and making sure a good thick draught excluder is fitted around the doors (and windows if not UPVC). I also got a keyhole cover to stop draughts through there, and its amazing what even a little outlay will accomplish!.

If you feel the cold, one thing that may help is an Electrically heated blanket, not the type that you have on the bed, but similar and designed to be used like a 'throw' which you can have around you / over you whilst sitting down. Whilst its not practical for day to day household use, its a good idea for those few hours whilst watching the TV or reading (which is when you are the most coldest). Consumption of these is around 100 Watts so you can run it for about 10 hours for 1 unit of Electricity, so far cheaper than whacking up a convector heater thermostat during peak rate periods or eating through the expensive gas.

A traditional electric blanket is also a good idea for the bed too, again consumption for the entire night will be around 5p - 6p at E7 rates

Also take a look at the modern range of Paraffin Invertor Heaters. These are like a fan heater which is heated with a digitally temperature controlled Paraffin fueled catalytic element. Forget the smells created by Grandads old greenhouse heater, these are modern, safe heaters, which are designed for indoor domestic use with virtually zero smell (other than a 1 second whiff when you switch it on / shut it down) It lights electronically, and has many safety features including, overheat protection, tipover and a CO2 shutdown. I get around 10KW worth of heat from each litre of Paraffin burned in it, and I buy Paraffin at 70p a litre currently, so it works out at 7p KW/H which although not as competitive as E7, its a lot better than the approaching 20p KW/H I pay for peak rate electricity, and probably more competitive than the equiv KW/H output and cost of your gas heater. At a rating of 3.2KW and being fan assisted it also heats the room from cold very quickly, switching automatically down to 800W background heat when the room hits the selected temperature.

The only problem is the cost of buying them, but you will find them second hand on Ebay and Gumtree for £40 - £50 from time to time. Also find a good cheap source of Paraffin (Allotment societies and groups are excellent) and dont overpay for the pre-packed stuff sold in Garages and B&Q.

You also have to have reasonable ventilation when using a paraffin heater, but in an old draughty building, it wont normally be any issue!.

Euskaltel

Thanks for the replies.

I am reluctant to spend money on a house that isnt my home but genuinely love living here, apart from the sub zero temperatures. Been here for the last two winters and it has been harsh to say the least.
Its ok to be sat with my cardigan, thermals and hat on but when I have people around its slightly embarrassing! Bringing a ladyfriend back isnt ideal either......have to get her to put clothes on which is the quite opposite of how I would like the night to pan out!

Im going to look into all the options you have suggested. With the design of the house though it looks like a couple of portable heaters. My economy 7 ones are costing a fortune and due to working shifts I never get the benefits of the early morning heat they provide! They are quite warm through the morning and the heat output diminishes throughout the day.

Thanks again.

macman

Changed the settings on the storage heaters to provide more heat later in the day?

chris1973

I am reluctant to spend money on a house that isnt my home but genuinely love living here

Bear in mind that any LL can give a tenant notice to quit after any minimum term, as long as it complies with the tenancy agreement, so effectively he could decide to use the property for something else or even sell it or move in a family member, and it wouldn't be your decision. I know that i'd be bitter if i'd spent a fortune doing it up and bettering the effiency rating and value less than six or twelve months before!.

I think if you DO decide to spend your own money on it, then i'd be either discussing a reduction in rent, a contribution of the lions share of the cost from the LL and a longer more favourable tenancy period for you to reap the benefits. Also remember that any large alterations you make to the property may also better the Effiency rating and therefore the attractiveness of the property, giving the LL cause to increase the rent next time its reviewed, so you could find yourself paying a higher rent in future purely because of the betterment which YOU have also paid for (Yes, some LL's are really that shallow and hard faced ).

Personally, I dont think i'd be doing anything beyond the usual tenant requirements in order to better the property and its value, other than perhaps £10 of Draught proofing around the doors and a curtain or two over the external doors. Unless of course the LL pays for it.

My economy 7 ones are costing a fortune and due to working shifts I never get the benefits of the early morning heat they provide!

I sympathise, as i'm in a similar situation. But I got permission from my LL to use the Invertor heater and between that and wearing jumpers, decent 'tog' rated bedding and an Electric Blanket, i've got my usage down to a more manageable level.

Last year I found the storage heating useless in the cold snaps around December last year, other than to keep the damp off and stop the pipes from freezing. One night the temperature of the living room was barely reaching 15c, and that was after two storage heaters had run on full for the E7 period the night before, and the damper had been fully opened on my return, from work some hours before.

I began living in the Bedroom, which being a tiny room, was the only one really comfortable from E7 heating alone. But this wasn't any way to live and relax after working, so I looked at other fuels.

Using Paraffin means I get 10KW of heat for 70p in Paraffin compared to the same 10KW costing nearly £2.00 at Npower's rip off daytime peak rate @ 19.5p KW/H - which is also going up on October 1st!. I know Electricity is a little more efficient than other fuels, but not enough to significantly close that void!. I can also buy and store (in an outbuilding I may add) enough paraffin to remove any risk of price increases for the next few months, something I cannot do by buying electricity in advance and so am at the mercy of their every changing rates and greed.