How to live without heating - save £000s

Green_hopeful

I think it was breeze block on the lower two floors and some sort of tin shack as an extension on the roof. It reminded me of one of those metal sheds that you can get in catalogues. There was a window on the side wall that had next doors breeze block wall four inches from the window. We pulled our mattress onto a landing on the first floor because we could heat one floor at a time. We stayed in lots of other places in Japan that were not so cold and perhaps more traditionally built. 

HertsLad

Green_hopeful said:

I think it was breeze block on the lower two floors and some sort of tin shack as an extension on the roof. It reminded me of one of those metal sheds that you can get in catalogues. There was a window on the side wall that had next doors breeze block wall four inches from the window. We pulled our mattress onto a landing on the first floor because we could heat one floor at a time. We stayed in lots of other places in Japan that were not so cold and perhaps more traditionally built. 

I have visited Japan twice, staying in small hotels the first time, and with friends the second time. I never encountered anything like that. It wasn't winter but, even if it was, I would never take the sort of gear with me that I wear to keep warm at home, and when skiing. How did you come to be staying in such basic-sounding accommodation?

During my recent visit to Tunisia, the daytime temperature was like a UK summer but the sea and outdoor pools were too cold to use, and the hotel room was set for low level heating at night, rather than air con cooling.

Green_hopeful

We back packed round Japan in January 2020. We used Airbnb and booked a couple of nights in each place. We caught the bullet train for 1000 km all together. Sadly a glitch with Airbnb caused it to cancel all our bookings mid trip. We re booked where we could but the Tokyo one had to change so we just booked something nearby. Superficially the house was fine but just very cold. It was 1 or 2 degrees outside. Probably not cold for you but cold for us. 

We were restricted with our luggage to 7 kgs each because we went to Hong Kong with a local version of Ryanair to see family. We lasted for three weeks on 7 kg because we washed our clothes at each place. Hong Kong was funny because it was like UK summer and we only had winter clothes. 

HertsLad

Green_hopeful said:

We back packed round Japan in January 2020. We used Airbnb and booked a couple of nights in each place. We caught the bullet train for 1000 km all together. Sadly a glitch with Airbnb caused it to cancel all our bookings mid trip. We re booked where we could but the Tokyo one had to change so we just booked something nearby. Superficially the house was fine but just very cold. It was 1 or 2 degrees outside. Probably not cold for you but cold for us. 

We were restricted with our luggage to 7 kgs each because we went to Hong Kong with a local version of Ryanair to see family. We lasted for three weeks on 7 kg because we washed our clothes at each place. Hong Kong was funny because it was like UK summer and we only had winter clothes. 

Very interesting trip by the sound of it. The glitches may cause it to be more memorable, in a strange way. No, I would be as cold as anyone else if it was 1 or 2 degrees outside, without a good way to keep warm indoors. My approach is absolutely nothing to do with me having any kind of tolerance to the cold. I don't. It's purely a way to save a lot of money by keeping myself warm, whilst letting the house stay unheated.

I also travel light  but more to do with volume than weight. On holidays by air where I am staying in a hotel (except skiing) I use only the free under-seat baggage allowance for 7 nights away. The charges for taking anything more are excessive.. Nobody has ever asked to check my bag in a sizer, or weigh it. But I am confident it would fit if they did. It's surprising how much you can fit in, including a snorkel and mask, or a DSLR camera in my case. Plus a set of smart clothes and shoes for hotel dinners. Like you, I wash my clothes as I go.

Bendo

It's an interesting concept (and absolutely not one for me), but no idea why you wouldn't use something like Octopus Agile and at least heat the house overnight when you could be getting paid to use electric?

HertsLad

Bendo said:

It's an interesting concept (and absolutely not one for me), but no idea why you wouldn't use something like Octopus Agile and at least heat the house overnight when you could be getting paid to use electric?

Heating the house overnight would be my lowest priority. I have always preferred a cool bedroom. What's your rationale? Where would the energy come from? My solar system and batteries are only just able to cope at this darkest time of year, as it is. The overnight load is little more than a fridge and freezer. They say it could be the warmest Christmas ever. It has been hovering around 10C in my house for quite a few days now. I wish it was cooler, so the fridge and freezer would use less energy.

I just looked up Octopus Agile. It says: "Agile prices can spike up to 100 p/kWh any time - although a typical household in Winter '22-'23 paid around 35 p/kWh average." Well, that 35p an hour is about what I would be paying if I was using any electricity with Eon, but I am not. Then I would also have to pay a whopping standing charge again. Presumably, I would also need a grid tie inverter and some kind of sign off by an expert. It's all a huge expense, with absolutely no benefit, as far as I can see.

JSHarris

Opposite of you, @HertsLad !

Our heating came on last night for the first time in three days.  We have it come on at night as it heating the concrete floor slab using cheap off-peak electricity, which then works as a storage heater.  We keep our house warm, currently it's at 22.1°C.  Cost to run the heating for the whole house last night was just over 27p worth of electricity.  Heating the hot water cost more, about 45p.

Bendo

HertsLad said:

Bendo said:

It's an interesting concept (and absolutely not one for me), but no idea why you wouldn't use something like Octopus Agile and at least heat the house overnight when you could be getting paid to use electric?

Heating the house overnight would be my lowest priority. I have always preferred a cool bedroom. What's your rationale? Where would the energy come from? My solar system and batteries are only just able to cope at this darkest time of year, as it is. The overnight load is little more than a fridge and freezer. They say it could be the warmest Christmas ever. It has been hovering around 10C in my house for quite a few days now. I wish it was cooler, so the fridge and freezer would use less energy.

I just looked up Octopus Agile. It says: "Agile prices can spike up to 100 p/kWh any time - although a typical household in Winter '22-'23 paid around 35 p/kWh average." Well, that 35p an hour is about what I would be paying if I was using any electricity with Eon, but I am not. Then I would also have to pay a whopping standing charge again. Presumably, I would also need a grid tie inverter and some kind of sign off by an expert. It's all a huge expense, with absolutely no benefit, as far as I can see.

Ahh fair enough, hadnt realised you were pretty much off grid.

HertsLad

JSHarris said:

Opposite of you, @HertsLad !

Our heating came on last night for the first time in three days.  We have it come on at night as it heating the concrete floor slab using cheap off-peak electricity, which then works as a storage heater.  We keep our house warm, currently it's at 22.1°C.  Cost to run the heating for the whole house last night was just over 27p worth of electricity.  Heating the hot water cost more, about 45p.

Impressive! How much per kwh is your electricity off-peak? And what's the standing charge? I guess they may charge more for 2 tier rates, as unfair as it sounds. A bit like rip-off rail cards where you have to pay quite a lot for the card and the savings may not break even.

JSHarris

HertsLad said:

JSHarris said:

Opposite of you, @HertsLad !

Our heating came on last night for the first time in three days.  We have it come on at night as it heating the concrete floor slab using cheap off-peak electricity, which then works as a storage heater.  We keep our house warm, currently it's at 22.1°C.  Cost to run the heating for the whole house last night was just over 27p worth of electricity.  Heating the hot water cost more, about 45p.

Impressive! How much per kwh is your electricity off-peak? And what's the standing charge? I guess they may charge more for 2 tier rates, as unfair as it sounds. A bit like rip-off rail cards where you have to pay quite a lot for the card and the savings may not break even.

Right now I'm paying 12.422p/kWh for the 7 hours from 23:30 to 06:30 (SVR Economy 7, Southern region).  Peak rate costs 36.54p/kWh but I barely use anything at that rate, so far this year (since 1st January) I've only used 10kWh at the peak rate.  The standing charge is 49.98p/kWh.  The peak rate and standing charge are slightly higher than for a single rate SVR, but that's more than made up by almost all my consumption being at the cheap rate.

I posted a graph showing my electricity power used for the past 24 hours in this post in another thread:  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6492852/my-house-uses-20kwh-of-electricity-a-day-why-so-much#latest