It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!!

MallyGirl

Impressive. I can only dream of some of the temperatures quoted above. We only have our bedroom radiator on frost protection and we leave the en-suite sash open during the day to avoid damp - it was 15.6 degrees when I went to bed last night. The unheated dining room is currently 11 degrees.
I was experimenting with sourdough and the only place I could find that was warm enough was to put the starter actually on the boiler. Brrr!

Sea_Shell

Having been for a 6 mile run in the cold this morning, I've just emerged from a long hot bath, with bubbles up to my chin....bliss!!

Sod the expense !!! 

fred246

I installed a wireless thermostat and we have TRVs on the radiators. I experimented with various settings and the bills dropped accordingly. The last couple of years though I have been increasing the temperatures. We have the nuts available and it's nice to be more comfortable. If the nuts were short we could go back.

ggmf

Another OVO customer here, been with them for a number of years. Our current contract expires in January 2021, having signed up to their 2 year fixed price deal, expecting that overall fuel costs would continue to rise. That was a mistake! the OVO unit costs are quite high now compared to other providers, so we should have signed up for the year contract. Our dual fuel costs average around £1,400pa, the balance on our account has built up nicely which will more than cover any 'extra' heating that may be required this winter,  and is paying interest too.

cfw1994

Sea_Shell said:

Just looked at our annual usages (total KWH - duel fuel) and their corresponding actual annual payments for the years ending...

Dec 15 - 13480 - no data
Dec 16 - 14304 - £667
Dec 17 - 14157 - £677
Dec 18 - 15814 - £720  (Beast from the East - Feb 18)
Dec 19 - 14525 - £781
Dec 20 - 14319 - £722

It's a good job we live in a draughty castle, with the temperature up to 27degrees*
.....assuming those are gas numbers (?), we use over double that
Our usage in the past 12 months compared with when we joined Octopus: our gas is up about 7%, and our electricity has more than doubled - but remember, we run an electric car, so that isn't too bad - up from around 4,500kWh to just over 9,000.

& yet.....our monthly payment is the same as before, AND we yet we are £440 up, in credit (excluding bonus referral monies).

*we don't live in a castle, but a 30-yr old modern well insulated large house, & the thermostat is generally at around 19

Sea_Shell

cfw1994 said:

Sea_Shell said:

Just looked at our annual usages (total KWH - duel fuel) and their corresponding actual annual payments for the years ending...

Dec 15 - 13480 - no data
Dec 16 - 14304 - £667
Dec 17 - 14157 - £677
Dec 18 - 15814 - £720  (Beast from the East - Feb 18)
Dec 19 - 14525 - £781
Dec 20 - 14319 - £722

It's a good job we live in a draughty castle, with the temperature up to 27degrees*
.....assuming those are gas numbers (?), we use over double that
Our usage in the past 12 months compared with when we joined Octopus: our gas is up about 7%, and our electricity has more than doubled - but remember, we run an electric car, so that isn't too bad - up from around 4,500kWh to just over 9,000.

& yet.....our monthly payment is the same as before, AND we yet we are £440 up, in credit (excluding bonus referral monies).

*we don't live in a castle, but a 30-yr old modern well insulated large house, & the thermostat is generally at around 19

Our numbers are for BOTH gas and electric combined!! 

DT2001

This is a great thread to revisit regularly. Practical and helpful advice without the warring factions that ‘inhabit’ some others.
We have a barn conversion plus studio. Elec 11k kWh, Gas 13k kWh. Downsides, electric UFH in kitchen and 2 bathrooms, thick stone walls with no insulation and wind which finds gaps. Pluses 4 kw solar panel array that covers 90% of fuel costs exc. logs, diverter when excess electric produced to water tank, air source heat pump (not as reliable as we’d hoped) for well insulated studio which has water based UFH.
looking for a plot of land to build a retirement passive standard house.

michaels

DT2001 said:

This is a great thread to revisit regularly. Practical and helpful advice without the warring factions that ‘inhabit’ some others.
We have a barn conversion plus studio. Elec 11k kWh, Gas 13k kWh. Downsides, electric UFH in kitchen and 2 bathrooms, thick stone walls with no insulation and wind which finds gaps. Pluses 4 kw solar panel array that covers 90% of fuel costs exc. logs, diverter when excess electric produced to water tank, air source heat pump (not as reliable as we’d hoped) for well insulated studio which has water based UFH.
looking for a plot of land to build a retirement passive standard house.

I would love to do that in retirement too, I think we are too protective of green land, it is hardly going to reduce farm production my an huge amount if we allowed a few more houses to be built and then could be placed sparsely with landscaping to lessen the impact rather than shoehorned into tiny plots because land is so scarce and thus valuable.

shinytop

michaels said:

DT2001 said:

This is a great thread to revisit regularly. Practical and helpful advice without the warring factions that ‘inhabit’ some others.
We have a barn conversion plus studio. Elec 11k kWh, Gas 13k kWh. Downsides, electric UFH in kitchen and 2 bathrooms, thick stone walls with no insulation and wind which finds gaps. Pluses 4 kw solar panel array that covers 90% of fuel costs exc. logs, diverter when excess electric produced to water tank, air source heat pump (not as reliable as we’d hoped) for well insulated studio which has water based UFH.
looking for a plot of land to build a retirement passive standard house.

I would love to do that in retirement too, I think we are too protective of green land, it is hardly going to reduce farm production my an huge amount if we allowed a few more houses to be built and then could be placed sparsely with landscaping to lessen the impact rather than shoehorned into tiny plots because land is so scarce and thus valuable.

I totally agree.  As long as it's nowhere near my house. 

ukdw

Audaxer said:

Sea_Shell said:

I'd say we're not frugal users, just live in a modern well insulated house, with an old style gas boiler with a hot water tank.

That's good that you have such low costs with an old style boiler. We changed to a combi boiler about 5 years ago to replace an 18 year old boiler and water tank. The new boiler is more efficient and works better for us as a couple, although the charges have gone up a bit recently to £93 per month. 

We changed from an old 30yr+ boiler to a combi boiler a few years ago at our previous house and I was amazed how much gas it saved - over 45%.  I liked the infinite hot water you get with a combi boiler too.
The only concern I had was the number of times during day that the boiler has to fire up to heat hot water for hand washing - most of which just ends up sitting in the pipes and cooling down again.