Winter is coming - are people ready?

Bendo

My 2 year fix ends next month.  House built in 2007,  some of the window hinges have failed so they don't make a proper seal when closed.   Finally getting that fixed.

Also going to rewire my hive stat as our heating setup uses a boilermate thermal store. Much testing has shown it is much cheaper to run by only heating it in the morning rather than let it manage itself and heat itself whenever it feels like. Easy enough with the timer in the summer, but it needs to be heated for central heating. Fortunately when I bought hive I got the one that does hot water as well so just need to rewire it to do that and have it automatically boost the hot water then heating is on.

ArbitraryRandom

Spoonie_Turtle said:

...but it's a balance between not being needlessly wasteful with energy whilst everyone being reasonably comfortable.  So aside from keeping an eye on the heat pump usage stats, and making sure all the curtains are closed when they need to be, I may just be in ostrich mode for a few months.

I would agree with and repeat this sentiment - Energy shouldn't be wasted, but 'winning' isn't making the number go ever lower, it's making sure your use is appropriate for your needs. 

One of the most concerning things about last year (for me) was the number of people who COULD afford the heating bill (if not happily) cutting back to the point they were cold/risking their health for fear of what it might be... and fear/anxiety rarely leads to sensible decision making.  

cod3

My two year fix ends today    Can't complain as I've had a good run.  Efforts to save energy this winter (although maybe not money due to the initial outlay)  include buying a room sized rug for the livingroom as I think the wooden flooring makes the room cold.  Draughtproofing.  Have also ordered a dehumidifier plus monitors.  The temperature is not cold this week, but I am frozen to the bone so suspect it's the humidity (west of Scotland).  Will stay on the variable rate from tomorrow and see if there are any reasonable fixes in October.

Qyburn

We're running one of the wood burners for a couple of hours many evenings, and have been doing so for a few weeks. But yesterday morning when I was first up the temperature outside was only 5 Deg.C. A few days like that in a row and we'll be thinking of putting the central heating on. 

Last Autumn we over did it on fuel saving and the house was starting to feel clammy.

EssexHebridean

michaels said:

EssexHebridean said:

I've never been able to understand that logic either badmemory - rather different in the set up we had previously where there was no thermostat and we had to plan a day ahead of heating was needed - but with central heating it really is surely as simply as having your own mental baseline temperature and then let the thermostat ensure that you don't go below that?

WE used to leave the heating on all year and just have it come on when cold, problem was it would come on on a cool 'summer' morning and then the house would end up too hot later in the day as it warms up well via solar gain so is better starting at 15c at 7am than at 21c and ending up much too hot.

I wouldn't have a thermostat set at 21 degrees in any event - so not an issue I'd face. Mind you, so far I've also not seen the temperature in our living rom (where the thermostat lives) drop below 21 degrees even without any form of heating - we're viewing this as a good omen! 

ArbitraryRandom said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

...but it's a balance between not being needlessly wasteful with energy whilst everyone being reasonably comfortable.  So aside from keeping an eye on the heat pump usage stats, and making sure all the curtains are closed when they need to be, I may just be in ostrich mode for a few months.

I would agree with and repeat this sentiment - Energy shouldn't be wasted, but 'winning' isn't making the number go ever lower, it's making sure your use is appropriate for your needs. 

One of the most concerning things about last year (for me) was the number of people who COULD afford the heating bill (if not happily) cutting back to the point they were cold/risking their health for fear of what it might be... and fear/anxiety rarely leads to sensible decision making.  

Completely agree with this. the worst thing about last winter in particular was the amount of fearmongering that was carried on by the media - in a lot of cases I suspect that was why people were frightened to use heating or - worse - were "fooled" into turning off GCH and using electric heaters instead - because the media gave them the impression that it would save them a fortune, whereas in fact mostly the opposite is true. This was an area where the media really could have been a force for good - educating, answering questions and busting myths - instead they mostly chose clickbait and attention grabbing headlines, thin on fact.

Scot_39

The fixes in Oct are likely to be no more reasonable in Oct than they are now.

I am not sure its worth the wait.

Fixes aren't tied to Ofgem cap adjustments - they are tied to a view of the full period they apply to - mainly 12m at the moment.

And we already know the likes of Cornwall Insights are predicting prices are increasing again from Jan.

And if they think that you can be sure suppliers will be looking at same data, same pressures and think similarly and be pricing accordingly.

And those forecasts formed before some of the recent price increases - like the actual Australian LPG strike spike - which again today failed to come to any agreement so heading to arbitration.

And Oil - is drifting steadily higher as Opec+ inc Russia have cut production to support pricing - and gas may follow (it often does).

Keu

Wow, 6 pages of responses and well worth a read, thanks to all who commented, I am going to have read through those I missed.

I am holding out for December 1st 2023 before I put my heating on and made an interesting discovery on energy saving tips which I will share in a different thread.

Qyburn

Mostly. We have enough firewood and I overhauled the most heavily used stove. The generator has been tested and is ready to go. Ideally we could do with some more oil to avoid a top up in Winter when we may be inaccessible to a tanker.

Keu

rp1974 said:

Keu said:

Wow, I would never feel comfortable to have the heating on thermostat unless it was below zero outside, never mind in the summer, albeit that we had April showers for a lot of it.

Living in southwest Scotland it's best described as changable weather wise,the thermostat turns on or off,that's the whole point of a thermostat though.
No disrespect intended,I've never held with the heating "season" mentality,which my now late Grandparents had so would sit in the cold despite being well able to afford it purely because it wasn't the "season".

I consider being comfortable at home a priority and economise elsewhere if and when needs be,whilst very aware that many people can't do so.

Having micromanaged our household energy consumption for far too long,we decided lifes too short and fitted a smart thermostat which keeps comfortable temperatures all year round irrespective of it being January or July,which it has done faultlessly for the past few years.

I think the issue is that we currently do not have the luxury of being able to be comfortable, I am sure the ECO extremists would prefer we did not use energy we did not need to.  Life's too short is how I used to think when I had a large disposable income and paid a fortune in tax (but not enough to avoid or evade).  I even had a house guest from the Caribbean who always had the thermostat at max will bills to match, but now I take the MSE advice and heat the person not the property. 

I do not think it is right for the Government to endlessly underwrite our heating and as others have noted it prevented a lot of people from trying to economise.  For my part I always save money for Winter and part of that saving is not wasting money on heating in the summer.  I prefer to do it that way than have corporate energy companies holding my money, according to BBC they hold £8bn  of customers money.  They are quick to grab it and slow to give it back, they act as if they have a right to it, when customers can choose to pay by direct debit on a variable direct debit rather than a budget direct debit (for most energy companies).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66992865

""It was £800 I wanted back and I thought that was fair and they made me jump through hoops to get it - it's disgusting," he said.

"It was so, so frustrating. Energy companies saying, 'it's your money, you can get it back when you want' - it's lies."

One only has to listen to BBC Consumer shows or LBC Consumer hour to hear these accounts week in week out. 

Why should they get 28 days to return our money when they are holding £8bn of customer money?

If OFGEM was doing it's job they would have 7 days max, but an expectation of 24 hours because faster payments means that bank transfers can be done in minutes if not seconds.

Keu

born_again said:

Keu said:

badmemory said:

I would be wary of trusting the gas usage too strongly.  My heating is always on thermostat at the same temp all yr round.  It has only come on once in the last 4 months, which is absolutely unheard of.  The nearest I have come to that in the last decade is once for 2 full months.  I am prepared for large bills but frankly hoping we don't have a winter of -10 degs again.

Wow, I would never feel comfortable to have the heating on thermostat unless it was below zero outside, never mind in the summer, albeit that we had April showers for a lot of it.

I have found this the cheapest way to heat our home. we use HIVE.
As someone is at home all the time, then just having 2 settings 17C overnight 21:30 to 06:00 & 20C rest of time (suits our home) gave us a good saving, compared to several different on/off settings we had previously.

Sad thing is. It actually heated the radiators this morning... Not what I wanted, but did make for a nice warm bathroom for a shower 🤣

But every home is different. What works for me, will not work for others. 👍

You sound like my sister, she literally has the same settings but I have not been brave enough to try them.

This month I tested one of my "experiments" by not doing it and my gas use is forecast to have doubled by end of month.  So for November I will flip back to miser mode and maybe in December or January I might man up to testing use of thermostat. Having heating on at night seems a real luxury when I am asleep, but I get the idea is to not have to heat from a lower base line.