Halve your heating costs

RAS

One point from a workshop I attended this weekend.

Paul Mobb recommends the power of the wrist.

1.Get a screw driver and turn the thermostat on the hot water tank down to 55 degrees rather than the 70 it is set at presently. Hot enough to run a bath/shower without adding cold water.

2. When you are at home, operate the heating at 18 degrees in the day time and at 14 degrees at night

Those two actions will save you about half your heating costs.

I would add get energy saving lamps as weel. Each one will save you about £7 per year, so put them where you have the lights on the longest time. My first ones lasted eight years as well.

dc

I would consider 55 degrees a little low for prevention of the more dangerous bacteria.

From memory 65 was the recommended safe temp to kill bugs, though 60 seems OK from these figures, killing Legionella in mins as opposed to many hours at 55.

http://www.iphe.org.uk/databyte/legionella.pdf

A fully lagged tank will keep water hot for hours, so nowhere near half cost on the hot water side..

RAS

dc

How likely is it that your water supply is going to have bugs in it before you heat it?

And most of the time it will be sitting there for hours anyway.

All i can tell you is that this guy has been experimenting seriously for the last 5 years and he saves half his fuel bill this way.

thescouselander

RAS wrote: »

One point from a workshop I attended this weekend.

Paul Mobb recommends the power of the wrist.


2. When you are at home, operate the heating at 18 degrees in the day time and at 14 degrees at night


I would add get energy saving lamps as weel. Each one will save you about £7 per year, so put them where you have the lights on the longest time. My first ones lasted eight years as well.

So, i should have my heating turned up while I'm at work and I should freeze when I get home a night. I dont really see the logic here.

Also I'm a bit sceptical about being able to save £7 per year for each energy saving lightbulb. I only spend £16 per year on all lighting in the house (and I dont even use energy saving bulbs.).

RAS

thescouselander wrote: »

So, i should have my heating turned up while I'm at work and I should freeze when I get home a night. I dont really see the logic here.

This is assuming that you are at home in the day. If you all go out, then turn it down whilst you are out and set it to fire up to 16 degrees half an hour before you come home. Turn it down half an hour before you go to bed.

thescouselander wrote: »

Also I'm a bit sceptical about being able to save £7 per year for each energy saving lightbulb. I only spend £16 per year on all lighting in the house (and I dont even use energy saving bulbs.).

That works out at 4-6 hours lighting hours per day. Which you can do if you only ever use one light at a time in the house. Most people have more than one, if only because someone needs to cook whilst the other is in the bath etc. The less you use lighting, the less you will save, but if you have one light on for 4 hours a day, you can save £7 a year by replacing it. Which is why I suggest replacing the lamps that you use most. I would not and have not replaced the ones in my attic because I only use them a few hours a year.

penrhyn

How much does this bloke charge for his workshops then, sounds like he has a masters degree in wrist action?:rotfl:

tomstickland

Also I'm a bit sceptical about being able to save £7 per year for each energy saving lightbulb. I only spend £16 per year on all lighting in the house (and I dont even use energy saving bulbs.).

Whatever way if an energy saving bulb can be the equivalent of 100W and only require 25W it's going to be cheaper to run.

It'll save more enegery if you turn the heating off when not in the house.

moonrakerz

thescouselander wrote: »

Also I'm a bit sceptical about being able to save £7 per year for each energy saving lightbulb. I only spend £16 per year on all lighting in the house (and I dont even use energy saving bulbs.).

I really don't see how you spend £16 a year on light, unless you get to bed at dusk and get up at dawn.
Just two 100W lights for 4 hrs a day = 5.6kW/week = 291 kW/yr @ 10p = £29 !

Same two lights as energy savers. £2 (max !) to buy them, consumption = 58kW = £5.80 !

[Deleted User]

The point that people always ignore when they crow about changing to compact fluorescents is that they only save money when they're switched on. To save £7 a year, a CF would have to run for over 3h17m a day 365 days a year, or over 6 hours a day for the 6 months when the evenings are dark. Out of the 16 bulbs in my house, just the two that are on for long hours are fluorescents. That way I get 90% of the saving for 13% of the cost.

black-saturn

Thanks for the tip about the boiler. I'll turn mine down as I've never seen the point in adding cold water when you've paid to heat it up.

cattie

I must confess I learned long ago to keep the water temperature on my boiler at just slightly above the perfect temperature for a nice hot shower. It always struck me as ludicrous that people paid to have boiling hot water, only to have to add cold water to make it a nice comfortable temperature for baths or showers.