2022 Frugal Living Challenge

Sweetlittledaydreams

newlywed said:

Still 20 C in our flat today, with windows open and no heating on. Long may that last! 

And no it’s not a well insulated flat, it’s ground floor, concrete floors and is freezing in winter, but we live in the south of England, and rarely get more than a dusting of snow.

Wow I'm slightly in awe of your 20c, I've just looked and it's 14c in my lounge. That said, I'm hoping to swim an ice mile either this winter or next, so maybe my room temperatures count as training 😄 

newlywed

Sweetlittledaydreams said:

newlywed said:

Still 20 C in our flat today, with windows open and no heating on. Long may that last! 

And no it’s not a well insulated flat, it’s ground floor, concrete floors and is freezing in winter, but we live in the south of England, and rarely get more than a dusting of snow.

Wow I'm slightly in awe of your 20c, I've just looked and it's 14c in my lounge. That said, I'm hoping to swim an ice mile either this winter or next, so maybe my room temperatures count as training 😄 

The lowest it’s got overnight so far is 15.8 C

Soontobeoap

We have been so lucky with the weather/temperatures. Having got this far i am really determined to make it to November before we need heating. Hopefully by us all saving gas and electricity we will also save the need for the power cuts that are being suggested. 😊

London_1

Sunny this afternoon so the curtains were open to get as much in my sitting room as possible and door to kitchen and hall closed, and the room tempreture was 24c and it kept like this all the afternoon.I had my airer by the front windows with some washing on just to finish it off, and it was almost dry when I brought it in off the line at 2.00 pm and its nice and dry now so all my washing from my holiday is done and dry and its cost nothing.

 I had a couple of tee shirts on hangers on the curtain pole catching the sunshine as well and they too are dry,
small economies but well worth the effort. 

I used my flask of boiling water from this mornings kettle for my hot drinks so nothing gets wasted and as its a large flask any water thats left will wash my evening washing up in the sink. I try to be as zero waste in my little house as possible ,be it water or fuel. Only a wall light on behind me when watching tv in the evenings, and no CH as yet being used Living in the south of England has its merits as it is warmer for longer down in Kent.

JackieO xx

otb666

my poor FIL is having his sleep broken up by all the appliances his neighbours are now running in early hours He is 90 and I do feel sorry for him.

Jellytotts

My parents house sat for us recently, in just under 3 days they used £20 worth of gas on central heating. (I don’t begrudge them this at all).  We came home to a house so warm we had windows and doors open until it was dark and haven’t had to use the heating since.  Not even lit the fire. Luckily they can afford to heat their home as they like but no way could we have the heating in as much, financially or comfort wise, we’ve cooled our acceptable temperature down over the years.

[Deleted User]

We are on the County Durham / Cumbrian border, and our overnight temps are hovering around 5 degrees.

We are 1250 feet up so the worst inclement weather hits us first and hard. Still no heating on though; but we have an open fire and a wood burner.
@zafiro1984 if you don’t mind me asking did you buy your Esse from new? I am considering one but the new price is an awful lot xx

cw18

Primrose said:

There may be an opportunity for some households to participate in a trial being run by the National Grid over the coming weeks , to receive monetary refunds for a trial running domestic appliances like dishwashers and washing machines overnight, to reduce daytime demand and to help national blackouts if we have a spell of really cold weather.  .  Householders could be paid up to £240 broken down into nightly payments depending on how often they run such devices overnight.

I heard about that a couple of weeks ago.   Apparently only open to people with smart meters - so it rules out myself, my OH and my daughter.

I heard that they'd actually have to move a minimum percentage of their normal 'daytime use' into the specified hours - so the supplers are going to need to already have a picture of when you use your energy.    And it's partly because I don't want them to be able to monitor at that level that I'm resistant to having smart meters.

I also don't see the need to replace perfectly good meters, when it costs money (and environmental damage) to produce the replacement.   I'm now adding to this that we've just had one put in for my Mum (the meter wasn't in a great place for someone with even minor mobility issues to get to to read) and it doesn't look like it's working!   We were initially told we'd see data from it 'by tomorrow', and when I phoned after 2 days was told it can take 'up to 10 days'.   When I phoned around that point for something else and asked again, I was told 'up to a month'.   In the meantime my Mum's had emails from them saying they're not getting any data from it - but how is she supposed to sort it????

So we've had a perfectly good 'dumb' meter taken out, and a new Smart meter put in - only it's not connecting to the suppliers end so it's not a Smart meter at all, and all my Mother has is a new 'dumb' meter that someone will still have to crouch down in front of in an under stairs cupboard in order to get a reading every month

joedenise

@cw18 - We felt the same but decided to go with the smart meters because our meters are in such ridiculous places!  The electric meter is about 6" from the ceiling and the gas meter is almost on the floor - I used to have to lay on the floor to read it and it was getting harder especially as I'm now reached the ripe old age of 70!  We had the same problem with our smart meter as your parent and after about 6 weeks they sent us a new In Home Display - the first one was faulty!  Sounds as though your parents might be as well.  Definitely asking for another one has got to be worth a try.

Having said that if the IHD has batteries it could be worth turning it off, removing the batteries and leaving it for about an hour and then reinserting the batteries and plugging it back in.  That's what worked on our current one when it stopped showing how much G&E we were using.

Good luck getting it sorted.

cw18

joedenise said:

We had the same problem with our smart meter as your parent and after about 6 weeks they sent us a new In Home Display - the first one was faulty!  Sounds as though your parents might be as well.  Definitely asking for another one has got to be worth a try.

It's not just the IHD showing nothing - but if it were it wouldn't be a problem as she's not really bothered about having that plugged in and running (the switch was only done so no-one had to read the meter for the bills).

The meter hasn't even received the unit price or standing charge - and the supplier aren't getting readings from the meter.   So it's the actual meter that isn't working.   Or it simply can't because the house is in a fairly remote place.   We'd asked prior to booking, and were told it should be fine but the installation chap would run tests.   He claimed to have contacted his office, and said they were able to see it - but that he'd had to put an aerial onto it.   Yet the suppliers are saying they've getting nothing from it.............