Things can only get better

Sun_Addict

Morning, happy Friday 🎄🎉😁

This time next week it will be Christmas Day, not that you all needed to know that 😆

Have got a colour on my hair this morning, mustn't forget to wash it off at 8am. I always do my own colour, can't bear the thought of sitting in the hairdressers chair for over an hour especially at the moment when they're not allowed to even offer you a coffee. Saves a lot of money too.

DD has paid her board this morning so need to do finances and shuffle around the pots to pay for the Ninja. 

The Spanish learning must be getting to me as last night I dreamt we were on holiday and I was talking to someone on the phone. In my dream something must've happened to Mr SA because I was telling the person on the phone he needed to see a doctor - in Spanish 😂 

Today's plan (apart from learning some more Spanish) is do an abs and arms workout from the WW app, take the dog out at lunchtime, treadmill run after work. Not sure what I'm having for dinner yet, might have a browse through my new PON cookbook. Cleaning is the spare room/gym.

Have had my final bill from Scottish Power and it's £97.99 which is more than I was expecting, thought it might be about £50. It's been quite expensive this changing providers in the middle of winter I hope it's going to be worth it.

Have a fabulous Friday x

RelievedSheff

Happy Friday.

You will have to let us know how you get on with the Ninja. We have a friend who has one and she swears by it.

We are due to switch energy providers in February but are hoping that we will have some credit back from our current energy provider. We have built up such a massive credit on our account that there is no way we can spend it all be February, even though we only pay £55 a month for dual fuel!

Sun_Addict

Our house seems to run away with gas/electricity. We had a new boiler and central heating system 3 years ago and everyone said we'd notice the difference bills wise, but we don't. I've been paying £140 a month for dual fuel and Scottish Power wanted to put it up to £172 a month. With Octopus it will be £119 but I've had to pay a month upfront just so I've got some credit in the account. How I would love to pay only £55. I'm hoping the new windows and door that are being fitted next month will make a difference to the heating bill. 

RelievedSheff

This house costs !!!!!! all to run. Our gas bill is less than £200 per year as it just doesn't take any heating and the modern condensing boiler is very efficient.

We had assumed when we moved into this house from the 2 bed semi we were in before that it would cost more to heat due to it being bigger and detached. It is costing less than half what we paid in the smaller semi.

It took a bit of tweaking to get the boiler to run at it's most efficient. But now that we have it sorted it is great. It needs to be set at a far lower boiler water temperature than our previous older boiler to run in condensing mode.

warby68

Sun_Addict said:

Good news I've had the assessment and will get the £150 🎉 There aren't many perks of being a carer so I'm happy to take whatever is on offer.  I was also offered a short break, but that wouldn't go down well with him at all.

After the last two days being lovely and sunny, today has been really miserable. Got soaked taking the dog on the park but she enjoyed herself and had a good run so it was worth it.

Really pleased you got the payment.
It's the recognition too - everything else is about something for the cared for person not the carer. 

Sun_Addict

Thinking about the expensive fuel bills, there are a couple of things I could do. Firstly speak to the BG engineer when they do the boiler service, see if the thermostats are set at the right temperature. It's a condensing boiler. I was also wondering about a smart thermostat like Hive or Nest, would one of those help?  

Secondly I'm pretty certain the loft insulation won't be up to scratch. I've battled with Mr SA on this point for years and he's always said there's nothing wrong with it. The loft is full of carp, not all of it ours. Apparently there is an old popcorn machine and cartons up there which has never been ours. If we could get someone to go up there and get everything out, we could get a skip and get rid. I wonder if the greenhouse chap would do it and then possibly insulate the loft for us.

Just ideas.

The dog was so muddy after her park run I had to put her straight in the bath. What a mess!

RelievedSheff

Sun_Addict said:

Thinking about the expensive fuel bills, there are a couple of things I could do. Firstly speak to the BG engineer when they do the boiler service, see if the thermostats are set at the right temperature. It's a condensing boiler. I was also wondering about a smart thermostat like Hive or Nest, would one of those help?  

Secondly I'm pretty certain the loft insulation won't be up to scratch. I've battled with Mr SA on this point for years and he's always said there's nothing wrong with it. The loft is full of carp, not all of it ours. Apparently there is an old popcorn machine and cartons up there which has never been ours. If we could get someone to go up there and get everything out, we could get a skip and get rid. I wonder if the greenhouse chap would do it and then possibly insulate the loft for us.

Just ideas.

The dog was so muddy after her park run I had to put her straight in the bath. What a mess!

I think we are going to get Hive heating installed next year. We currently have timers and thermostats which allow different temperatures to be set for different times of the day and we have different heating zones, but I do think that Hive would be useful for us as well. We also could do with some of the smart TRV's for downstairs at least.

To get the boiler to drop into condensing mode you need the return flow water to be below 55 degrees. For our system this means that the boiler temperature is set to 62 degrees. It does vary from system to system though. Our boiler has an "e" marking on the temperature dial which is supposed to show the most economical temperature but for our system this was a bit too high so we had to drop it even further.

Having the water temperature lower does mean that is can take longer for the heating to heat the house through but because the boiler has dropped into condensing mode it does mean that it is using less gas. It is all a balancing act and it has taken some tinkering to get our system set up right.

The paperwork that we got with the boiler does say though that in prolonged periods of cold weather that you may need to turn the boiler temperature up. We have not had to do this yet but we have not really had any long periods of cold weather while we have lived here. It was very mild last winter and has been so far this winter!

ETA: I think we must be the only people who never put anything in our loft 

Sun_Addict

Thank you for that information. Our boiler has two temperature settings one for the radiators and one for the water, both are set lower than 55 degrees. 

My house is old with big rooms which won’t help with energy efficiency. Since we had the new boiler and central heating we haven’t had to use the gas fire in the living room which is a plus.

I’ve booked BG to come out and set up the Hive thing for next month. 

Some sad news today in that someone I work with has passed away from COVID. Went in hospital for something totally different but caught it from a patient on the same ward. 

beanielou

Sadly one of my neighbours has now caught COVID in the blooming hospital.
One of my friends has just got a Ninji thingy.

enthusiasticsaver

Getting thicker insulation in your loft will help with energy bills. My DH relaid ours a few years ago as our old insulation wasn't thick enough and not up to current regulations. Older houses are more difficult to heat though.