Supplementary heating

Road_Hog

I'm considering getting additional heating for the house and would like thoughts from others.

The reason:

Energy bills keep rising and I'd like to cut them back or at least keep them level.

The house and heating:

Gas CH, three bed semi, DG and standard 8 rad config. Just the two of us. We don't live up north, but where we are is rural to the back and can get quite cold. I've trimmed the timing of the heating back, but with the current temps that will probably not help this year. Loft is insulated fairly well and has panel borads on rafters and beams. No cavity wall insulation, decided against it, as I'm not entirely happy with the concept and for the saving I'd rather do without it, even if it was free. House is circa '65 built.

We've fixed the tariff with EDF until May 2014, so not so much of a rush. We pay £125 pm dual fuel, which is based on 25,000kWh Gas and 4,000kWh elec. We are on economy 7 (inherited) and cheap rate is somewhere betwenn 25 - 30% which I believe is about break even.

Since there are only two of us in a semi with DG and an electric cooker and electric shower, I can only deduce that our large gas bill is down to the CH. I've a couple of thoughts, I'm wondering if it would be cheaper to swap at times to some sort of other heating, mainly for downstairs, just to reduce the reliance of using the gas boiler on the whole house.

Two thoughts. A couple of storage heaters downstairs. We have room to fit them without being intrusive, one in the front and one in the back room. I know elec is an expensive way to heat a house, but I'm only thinking of a couple downstairs, as an addition. The other thought is a small wood stove, stand alone purely for room heating. I see that you can buy them quite cheaply plus the cost of the flue.

What sort of hassle is it to fit one and how much does the wood cost (I know, a length of string question) to run it and where do you buy it (wood) from, as in decent prices.

HappyMJ

Gas is cheaper than E7 storage heating. Turn off any radiators that you can. Fit TRV's onto all other radiators. Turn the heating off upstairs and allow any heat from downstairs to heat upstairs during the evening so your bedrooms aren't freezing. Use electric blankets overnight.

Wood is free if you can find it otherwise it's quite expensive.

toolmaker54

If you don't go down the storage heater route I should seriously look at coming off the E7 rate as you are paying more for your Electric Cooker and shower.
I used to be on E7 for years until I read this forum, I foolishly thought that heating my water and doing the occasional load of washing at night was saving me money but when I did the ratio split it was not, because my heating is oil filled and convector.

So now I am on online energy with British Gas for the Electric and Ebico for the gas,two of us in the house 3 bed semi DG solid wall and our fiqures last year were Electric 4653kWh and Gas 3100kWh running the gas fire and cooker.

macman

Fit zone valves or TRV's to better control the CH you already have?
Armed with your peak rate/cheap rate % split, a comp site will tell you in 2 minutes whether you are better off with E7 or not. In most properties with gas CH and DHW, it's not. And even if so, your E7 cheap rate units are still much more than gas, and not available 24/7.