Simple living in the country - back to basics

greenbee

When I was getting quotes when I moved house I was surprised that Nationwide came out very reasonably on price - and they want much less detail. Partly because they cover unlimited rebuild costs. They probably save enough on the admin to be able to afford it 🤣

Cheery - there's someone with a similar problem with their heating who has been posting on the DIY board, so it might be worth you having a look at the thread. 

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, thank you on both counts. I assume you mean the thermostat setting thread? Interesring discussion. We don't usually use the timer, we turn the thermostat down to about 7-10 degrees overnight, and then back up when we get up. It does often kick in a couple of times through the night to keep that temperature, and this morning when I got up the radiators were actually warm. 

I think we'll try leaving it turned up to 16 tonight while it's still so cold outside, see if that gives it a long enough run to actually get up to temperature 😂

Home made pizza is almost ready and then after that I'm having a nice hot bath 😁 Fortunately the hot water hasn't been affected by whatever is thwarting the radiators 😂

greenbee

Nope - it was this one https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6499059/new-boiler-cold-radiators/p1

Cheery_Daff

greenbee said:

Nope - it was this one https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6499059/new-boiler-cold-radiators/p1

Thanks, yes, that does sound more like it, although we don't have a new boiler or a Nest - I might post a new thread on that board actually, didn't occur to me so thank you. 

Tescodealqueen

We have our heating on a timer just on 6 overnight so it doesnt Come on. It’s set to 19.5 from 7am timed for when we get up for 90 minutes though the last week it was 14 degrees at 7am and never got to 19.5 at all only reaching about 16 to 17 . Hope the forecast 12 degrees come to fruition though not excited about the forecast rain returning

SuperSecretSquirrel

A max radiator flow temperature of 48c at the boiler sounds very low, it seems closer to 80c as a maximum is normal, and setting to 60c or so broadly recommended. We run ours below 48c (slower to heat up initially but we maintain a steady heat throughout the day and the boiler burns more efficiently so it works for us), so it's not necessarily a problem, but it does sound as though something might not be quite right there.

I see you mentioned repressurising, but not bleeding first. The quickest and easiest first diy check would be to bleed all the radiators then repressurise the system. Apologies if you've already done this and I missed it.

The fact it was warmer after keeping the temperature up overnight does suggest that the flow temperature might be struggling at your house. You have a much bigger and I think "heat leakier" house than ours, so your boiler probably needs a higher flow temperature to keep up.

Cheery_Daff

Thanks both 😊

SSS, I did bleed all the radiators, although I'm not sure I said that here. No air in any of them sadly, that would have been a nice easy fix! 

I didn't rebalance the radiators today. Had a chat with a friend of Mr Cheery's who works in the organisation that is interviewing me (completely different department). He didn't know about this specific post or area, but had some useful more general insights so that was good. 

Then we went to town, and (shhh) had breakfast at the supermarket cafe, so £10 spent between us from the treats budget, which has so far had very little as we have been using our Christmas present cafe vouchers. 

Had a pair of my boots reheeled - I was originally looking for new ones for the interview but I'd forgotten about these. They were in dire need of reheeling though, but look decently smart enough now. I also took the ebay boot with the broken heel tip so that is now replaced - £22 for all of them, not too bad and cheaper than a new pair of boots. 

Mrs ebay has sent a return label, so rather than explain the palaver with the heel and offer to just keep and resell, I'm just going to send them back as planned. She won't know (unless, of course, it was broken when she sent it, in which case I can't imagine she'll own up). Sounds like ebay will make her pay return postage, she can refund what I paid for the boots, and this is a good lesson for me not to buy boots off the Internet! 

I also picked up a kind of soft jacket in a charity shop for £4. I have a dress I can wear for the interview, but it has short sleeves and I have nothing to go over it except a cardigan and I wanted to be a little smarter. I'm not convinced this jacket feels right enough - I've not tried it with the dress and newly heeled boots - but for £4 was willing to risk it, and it's definitely smart enough for work generally (smarter than I usually am anyway 😂)

I also bought a new hot water bottle as mine sprung a (fortunately not as dramatic as Elisheba's!) leak the other day. I bought one with a cover, reduced to £3.99 - normally I make my own covers, but the last one is now embarrassingly grubby and worn, and I really should finish Mr Cheery's hat before I get sidetracked with any other sewing projects! 

Tea was a mish mash of things from the freezer. It could do with defrosting, so we are running it down. We had garlic bread, a single samosa stashed from a trip to London several months ago, 2 quorn sausages, and some sweet potatoes (not in the freezer, but in need of using up). Filled a hole even if it won't win any prizes! 😂

Right. Not quite sure what to do with myself this evening, so here is a plan.

* get the dehumidifier set up in the study for a while (thanks to Greying for reminding me!)
* replace the Chimney Sheep - I took it out when I lit the fire last week and haven't put it back
* washing up
* 30 mins interview prep


Then we'll see. Maybe a bit of flute practice, maybe a bit of hat sewing in front of the TV, maybe a bit of yoga, or maybe just curling up under a blanket 😊

rtandon27

My vote is for curling up - rest is so under-rated! 😉

Cheery_Daff

Ha, you're right of course! 

Instead, I ignored both your suggestion and my own list 😂😂 After sorting the dehumidifier (in the spare room, where I'm currently sleeping until we are sufficiently disease-free to avoid infecting/waking each other up every 5 minutes) and the chimney sheep, I decided life would be better if I was warmer, so I did a workout 😂😂 Not a jumping round one, a weights one (mostly so I didn't have to get changed...). It was 30 mins work, 30 mins rest, so in the breaks I sorted through some paperwork and created a pile for recycling 😂 And now I am a lot warmer as well, so win win 😁

Laughable letter from Swinton today, telling me they would love to offer me a cheap insurance quote. How about not increasing my house insurance by £480 instead?? That would cover the entire cost of the car insurance (presuming that hasn't increased by a similar amount!) Cheeky blighters 🙄😂

Cheery_Daff

Ah, just found the car insurance email (not with Swinton). Increased from £471 to £606 🙄 Not great, but given it's for two 15/16 year old cars, not too bad. Still £135 increase on last year though, so I'll be shopping around. In fact I'd best start doing that tomorrow or else I'll miss the best deals 🙄