High energy bills

Talldave

Moving the boiler might be the ultimate solution but your idea of putting the thermostat closer to the boiler could improve things. However, the thermostat's hysteresis will be the limiting factor. You only need a really short firing cycle to prevent freezing. Hopefully a heating professional will be along shortly with a suggestion!

Jibber123

Gerry1 how do you get Gas only figures? The uswitch website asks if you use gas, I select yes, then they ask if you are on a dual fuel tariff i select no. then it asks about your current gas supplier, then it asks about an electric supplier??

Gerry1

Jibber123 wrote: »

Gerry1 how do you get Gas only figures?

If you ask for dual fuel, many sites will then allow you to 'Refine Your Results' or suchlike so that you can see Gas Only or Electricity Only with just a single click. The CEC certainly does this, as does Citizens Advice.

Jibber123

Don't worry I've found it on the page with the list of saving. Looks like i could save another £350 a year if i split my energy suppliers 1 for gas and 1 for electric & E7. How easy is it do i just ring up 2 new suppliers with the meter readings instead of 1 when i change over?

Jibber123

TallDave, I've spoken to a friend of mine who does commercial boiler works for large buildings. He said there should be 2 frost thermostats, 1 for the space where the boiler is located, if it's unheated, and a second on the return pipe to the boiler. The room stat should be set to 5C and the pipe stat to around 15C which will turn the boiler off once warm water reruns to the boiler hence protecting the entire system, (he did mention that you would need to have TRV's on all the rads and not manual ones left turned off to fully protect the system) I think i'm going to temp him with a case of beer if he'll fit it for me!

Gerry1

Jibber123 wrote: »

Don't worry I've found it on the page with the list of saving. Looks like i could save another £350 a year if i split my energy suppliers 1 for gas and 1 for electric & E7. How easy is it do i just ring up 2 new suppliers with the meter readings instead of 1 when i change over?

It should be quite straightforward, but don't believe any claimed savings. Far from saving £350, Ofgem's daft comparison rules could result in your bills going up !

Just do the sums yourself based on annual kWh costs obtained from actual meter readings.

Clear your cookies and see whether you can get cashback from the CEC or a similar site.

Smodlet

Glad you seem to be getting somewhere, Jibber123.

Thanks for the detailed explanation, Gerry1 but, honestly, not sure it is worth it to me. Once you factor the WHD in, you are limited as to suppliers and no amount of tariff switching ever saves me more than we get. We have solar panels so use the WM/TD etc. when the sun shines. I am not about to start getting up in the middle of the night just to use E7, ta ever so.

Different circumstances call for different solutions. The main thing is Jibber123 has received your and others' stellar advice on here; I hope he gets those bills down and the house warmed up soonest.

Jibber123

I'm getting a new frost stat fitted this weekend hopefully and i sill switch suppliers in Jan so hopefully next year things should start to get cheaper and warmer. Most modern appliances like dishwasher, washing machines nad tumble driers have delay start buttons, so you can load them up and set them to start at say 1am. Then when you get up they are all done. I don't think i would be using the tumble drier at night though, with all the recent fires associated with them, best to have it on when your there, and to be honest we only tend to put it on for 10 mins just to finish off the clothes when they come in off the line on a cold damp winters day

Jibber123

frost stat is fitted and has made a big difference, the boiler is not coming on at all at night now, it's meant to turn cold next week so lets see if it will make a difference then to how long it stays on for when it trips in a night

DenysF

Ths is absolutly correct and the reading smartmeters do not read the voltage. I have noticed recently that My voltage is frequently higher than the nominal voltage. Without any hard evidence the supply company will not take any action beyond sending out an engineer to take an istantaneous measurment of the voltage, anybody here will tell you that this is a useless action as they really need to install a recording voltmeter data logger. Although I appreciate more that most the difficulties of maintaing the nominal voltage especially in rural areas, my main concerm is that this is typicaly around 240 to 255 volts when the nominal voltage should be 230. there are 3 possible causes.
1 A localised solar PV array where excess power is fed back into the grid ususlly at a higher voltage .
2. An attempt by the generators to maintain the minimum voltage by keeping the quescent voltage high.
3. A deliberate attempt by the generators to sell more energy by keeping the voltage high.


For those that are unaware if the voltage is increased across a fixed resistance the the current will increase, since power = Vx A then the power consumed will also increase.


I would like to read comments from those reading this if you have noticed an increase in energy consumption after the recent errection af a large solar PV array within 3 houses from yours, particularly if you have measured your voltage.