March to be coldest month this year?

Swipe

Scot_39 said:

Mstty said:

I have noticed usage is up on March last year and it's been consistently cold across the UK.

We had great savings over last year Oct-Feb but suspect we will use a fair bit more this March than last year.

Daily average - all electric - 50% higher so far this month than 22 - and havent actually read data - for the last 2 days.

Early Dec cold snap wiped out any Oct / Nov savings cf 2022 for me. 

Mar to date - already wiped out Feb savings cf 2022 as well.

BBC's forecast here -6 /-7 from before midnight.

Popped the loft hatch couple of inches last night - had frozen pipes when forecast lows higher than last nights and still got a cold water tank up there - pipes insulated but run exposed above loft insulation - luckily thawed OK - perhaps a bit paranoid now.

Where I grew up certainly older home lofts had full sarking boards - not just felt and tiles like current place.  A lot less drafty on a windy day or night.

I wouldn't rely on the BBC weather forecast. They forecast -5C here last night and it barely hit -2C

Nelliegrace

Not the worst Winter, the freeze went from Boxing Day 62 to March 63. I remember walking across near here.

Scot_39

Swipe said:

Scot_39 said:

Mstty said:

I have noticed usage is up on March last year and it's been consistently cold across the UK.

We had great savings over last year Oct-Feb but suspect we will use a fair bit more this March than last year.

Daily average - all electric - 50% higher so far this month than 22 - and havent actually read data - for the last 2 days.

Early Dec cold snap wiped out any Oct / Nov savings cf 2022 for me. 

Mar to date - already wiped out Feb savings cf 2022 as well.

BBC's forecast here -6 /-7 from before midnight.

Popped the loft hatch couple of inches last night - had frozen pipes when forecast lows higher than last nights and still got a cold water tank up there - pipes insulated but run exposed above loft insulation - luckily thawed OK - perhaps a bit paranoid now.

Where I grew up certainly older home lofts had full sarking boards - not just felt and tiles like current place.  A lot less drafty on a windy day or night.

I wouldn't rely on the BBC weather forecast. They forecast -5C here last night and it barely hit -2C

Yes - the nearest met monitoring only 4-5m away - it was about -4 around midnight not -6 - haven't checked actual low.

But that was 1-2C lower than the met-office forecast for the time.

As I say just bit cautious now.

jvjack

Crikey Nelliegrace Nice. I was two months old when you took that picture , My mom often talks about that winter and that i had nice shiny pram but couldn'd go out in it.

Raxiel

This February just gone, we reduced our gas consumption by 40% compared to Feb '22. Extrapolating the first 10 days of this March out to 31 days puts us just 3% under the 2022 figure. Hopefully things will warm up a bit for the last couple of weeks in the month, but If all I get is parity with last year I'll take it.

Electricity should* do well though. Clear skies and cold panels gave us the second highest PV generation our system managed since it was installed last October - 12.8kWh (the highest being 13.1 last Tuesday), At one point around lunchtime the IHD said we were exporting 3.4kW of power, despite the washing machine and TV being on.

*We had the school sickness bug in the house at the beginning of the month, and all the extra hot washes and tumble dried bedding has thrown the average off for us.

MikeJXE

Nelliegrace said:

Not the worst Winter, the freeze went from Boxing Day 62 to March 63. I remember walking across near here.

I remember that like it was yesterday was working in the building trade for John Laing in the Midlands 

We were laid off for 16 weeks and were paid for 8 of them, not so much for snow but ice for weeks on end 

Underground water pipes were frozen although the were 2 feet deep, the reason the rules were changed to 2 feet 6 inches deep. 

littleteapot

This march has certainly been a lot colder than last march based on my monthly records of night-rate electriciity consumption for storage heaters. But nowhere near as cold as some previous winters, e.g. early 2013. My records only go back to 2012 so I can't directly compare but certainly the winters of the 80's (when I was just a child) seemed colder and had more frequent snow/ice. We have it relatively mild in east anglia and only 8 miles from the sea though.

oldagetraveller1

The Met. Office app. is still showing a yellow ice and snow warning for my location. It's 11 degC!

I just look out of the window now.

Swipe

Looking relatively mild now for the rest of March apart from a couple of cooler days on Tues and Wed. Looking at last year's March usage it was also top heavy at the start of the month so hopefully shouldn't be too much over by month end.

Scot_39

chubsta said:

As I woke upon this morning to find the thermostat showing it is 8degrees indoors you may be right! A couple of weeks back I got the shorts out for the first time this year to walk the dogs and we now have a slight layer of snow outside - don't you just love the British weather!

Remember one day - in the hotel not far from Chicago, in pool,  few beers at the poolside etc.

The next night I was digging the car out of 2 foot of snow at the plant to get back to the hotel.

Lake effect snow - what a joy.

On weather news the other night - UK more likely to have a "White Easter" than a "White Christmas".