Tips on economically heating a large house?

cant_think_of_a_name_2

I recently moved into a pretty large victorian house, which is spread over 3 floors with 6 bedrooms. It has no cavity walls, and has original sash windows, with the thinnest glass I've ever seen, 5 of which are 13ft wide and 8ft high so lots of room for heat to escape! There isn't much of a loft, due to the 2nd floor, but the little bit of loft that it does have, has some insulation.

When I first moved in, in December, the house had been empty for 3 months... so needless to say, there was no need to plug my fridge in! I thought it'd be best to heat the whole house, rather than just the odd room, then all the heat flying out as soon as the door to that room is opened, so I turned all the radiators to full (6) and the boiler control onto full (5) and left left it, after the 5th day we were just about able to unwrap from our duvets!

After the initial heat up, I assumed it would be more efficient to just turn it all down, and keep the house at a constant average temp, rather than switch it off, let it cool down, then start from cold again each morning.. Though I'm not sure if that IS infact the best way of doing it!? Anyway, at this point I turned the main boiler control down to 3, left the ground floor radiators on 6, the 1st floor radiators on 3 and the 2nd floor radiators on 2, and I've left it like this since. The house kinda just stays at an 'ok' temperature, as long as you keep a jumper/scarf on!

Now I knew moving into such a big house with crap windows and no cavity wall insulation was going to cost me, but Ive just worked out how much I've spent on gas since everything was turned down, 3 weeks and 4 days ago.. that period has cost me just over £300!

Thanks to anyone who has made it this far!! Basically, it's a rented house, so there isn't much I can do about windows and stuff like that, and all the rooms are used each day so cant really turn any radiators off.. anyone got any tips at all!? My supplier is npower, charging 8.59p a unit, I have no idea if this price is expensive or not?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

ETA: My boiler is a 7 year old Greenstar highflow 440, floor standing RSF combi boiler, and it was serviced the day I moved in.

Cardew

Firstly, NPower are not charging you 8.59p a unit. That is for Tier1 gas - the first 4,552 units(kWh) a year* The Tier 2 price shoud be about 3.5p.

So if you have worked out £300 using a figure of 8.59p you are way out.

* Unfortunately NPower alone amongst Utility companies 'seasonally weight' the annual allocation of 4,562 Tier 1 units, so instead of an even 380 units per month(as all other companies) they charge for 882 Tier units in the winter months. It all works out over a 12 month period.

The boiler control only regulates the temperature of water in the central heating system. With older boilers(non-condensing) it doesn't have any effect on economy - with more modern condensing boilers lower temperatures of water can be better - but not by a huge amount.

It certainly isn't the best way(i.e. cheapest) to have the boiler on constantly. The principle is that the longer the heating is off and the lower the room temperatures - the lower the costs. However it is always a compromise between comfort and cost.

The rest is really down to trying to improve insulation within the constraints of a rented house. Plug draughts where possible, Curtains drawn - the heavier the better!

cant_think_of_a_name_2

Thanks for your reply! I feel much better already knowing I've worked it out with the wrong price! I've not had a bill from them since I moved in, the only bill I have is for the period before I moved in, when the property was empty, and used no gas, so it only shows the 8.59 price! Phew!

Big, heavy thick lined curtains are drawn in the bedrooms 24/7! I open the living room ones for a few hours a day, because I don't want the neighbours thinking I'm dead or anything, ha. I'm not really sure that I'd be able to put insulation anywhere, I suppose the cupboards in the rafters of the attic bedrooms could be insulated if I speak to the landlord nicely, would that even help? As I said, I dont have any cavity walls, they're all solid so no room for insulating there!

So, as for working out my recent usage.. I've used 3608 kWs over the last 3-4 weeks, I should be working that out as 882@8.59 and the rest @ the lower rate, correct?

HappyMJ

Now that the house fabric has been warmed up it will not cool down in one night it will take about the same time as it took to heat it up....about 5 days. So you could turn the thermostat down to minimum overnight and set the programmer on the boiler to increase the temperature about an hour before you wake up. It'll save a little bit of money.

That's a big boiler. What you also want to look at is your hot water. Even though it's called a combi it actually has a cylinder of hot water in it. You could turn the temperature of that water down to 40 or so to save money. It boils the water once a week to kill of any bacteria so don't worry if it seems cool. You should never run out of water unless you run multiple and consecutive baths continuously.

Rebob

Open the bedroom curtains in the daytime as the sun shining in will help heat them. Just remember to close them as it starts to fall dusk.

cant_think_of_a_name_2

Sun!? I dunno about you, but I live in the UK!! LOL.. seriously though, thanks, I never thought of that!

HappyMJ, Yeah, I couldn't believe the size of it.. but then, I was just as shocked at the size of the house! Unfortunately it doesn't have settings to turn the temp up/down, it just has constantly on/off, or the option of turning the heating on/off once or twice a day. The thermostat is a manual dial thing. At the moment, Ive turned the main boiler up to 4, and set it to come on for an hour before I/the babies get up, and to go off a couple of hours later, then to come on again for a few hours before bedtime.

The water temp is already turned down to minimum so the kids can't burn themselves by turning the wrong tap on!

rogerblack

cant_think_of_a_name wrote: »

I recently moved into a pretty large victorian house, which is spread over 3 floors with 6 bedrooms. It has no cavity walls, and has original sash windows, with the thinnest glass I've ever seen, 5 of which are 13ft wide and 8ft high so lots of room for heat to escape! There isn't much of a loft, due to the 2nd floor, but the little bit of loft that it does have, has some insulation.

Basically, the only way you're going to make this acceptably warm cheaply is to wear lots and lots of jumpers.

Having said this.
Secondary glazing is probably a good idea, as is draughtproofing as much as you can.

(Do not block up airbricks)
Topping up insulated areas is almost totally pointless in your situation.

Switching gas suppliers may help somewhat.
Swapping the boiler out is unlikely to help much, perhaps 5%.

Top tips.
Heated throws, or electric blankets on sofas.
Draughtproof everything.
Layers.

Cardew

cant_think_of_a_name wrote: »

Thanks for your reply! I feel much better already knowing I've worked it out with the wrong price! I've not had a bill from them since I moved in, the only bill I have is for the period before I moved in, when the property was empty, and used no gas, so it only shows the 8.59 price! Phew!


So, as for working out my recent usage.. I've used 3608 kWs over the last 3-4 weeks, I should be working that out as 882@8.59 and the rest @ the lower rate, correct?

Not knowing your Tier 2 price an estimate for 3608kWh would be in the region of £170.