Winter is coming - are people ready?

Keu

badmemory said:

What no-one has ever been able to explain to me is why it should be a good idea to feel really cold in August just because it is August and not December.  So not going to happen in this house & anyway would be a really bad idea as all my (not getting any younger) joints will sieze up.

My first thought on reading your post was "really cold" but there was almost constant rain and some buildings (like mine) feel cold when where is a lot of rain and the slightest win.  Still I managed my lowest August yet, between 1/3rd and 1/6th of previous years Gas with no heating on in any year for August.

It is a good idea to save money for when you need rather than want the heating on. I started with thermals this month, they are very effective. I would never suggest you put your health at risk and if you can afford it then it is your dime.

ArbitraryRandom

Keu - I don't know if you've seen/might be interested in the long running HertsLad thread? 

You might want to skip the first few (dozen) pages, unless you particularly like drama. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6334019/how-to-live-without-heating-save-000s/p31

SensibleSarah

I've treated myself to a new electric throw this summer, so I'm set for the winter! I'm a low user (last 12 months was just under 1,600 kWh Electric and just over 2,300 kWh Gas) but I probably took things too far with not having the heating on unless it was below freezing outside last year. Certainly not felt the need to put the heating on yet though. I usually wait until at least November and then take it on a day by day basis. I live alone in a 2-bed terrace and work from home. I also don't have a thermostat, so leaving the heating to do its own thing isn't possible. 

I no longer use gas for cooking (which I did last winter) so be interesting to see how much difference that makes to both my gas and elecric usage. 
My gas usage from 1st July - 30th Sept was a grand total of 102 kWh for, costing me about £7. Then the standing charge was nearly £30. 
I'm in the fortunate position that I could afford to pay more if I use more, but I'm also stubborn and I'd rather spend my money on other things. But I am going to be less militant about the heating this coming winter I think. 

EssexHebridean

Keu said:

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. 

Bear in mind that if you are comparing this year with last, that's possibly not an accurate comparison. Last year October was sufficiently "level" in temperature that certainly where we are, we didn't have any need of heating until - if I recall correctly mid November. 

Gerry1

Keu said:

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. 👍

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. 

Generally not considered to be money saving.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/energy-saving-myths/

ArbitraryRandom

EssexHebridean said:

Keu said:

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. 

Bear in mind that if you are comparing this year with last, that's possibly not an accurate comparison. Last year October was sufficiently "level" in temperature that certainly where we are, we didn't have any need of heating until - if I recall correctly mid November. 

Same here (North West) - I've put the heating on this last week, first time since Feb - but less because of the cold and more because the air has just felt damp (notwithstanding Babet).

If it was actually cold I'd light the stove in the lounge and the hot air would warm through, but because it's just a bit dank the central heating seemed the best option.  

EssexHebridean

ArbitraryRandom said:

EssexHebridean said:

Keu said:

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. 

Bear in mind that if you are comparing this year with last, that's possibly not an accurate comparison. Last year October was sufficiently "level" in temperature that certainly where we are, we didn't have any need of heating until - if I recall correctly mid November. 

Same here (North West) - I've put the heating on this last week, first time since Feb - but less because of the cold and more because the air has just felt damp (notwithstanding Babet).

If it was actually cold I'd light the stove in the lounge and the hot air would warm through, but because it's just a bit dank the central heating seemed the best option.  

We're in the position of being on a learning curve with GCH as until the beginning of September we lived somewhere with storage heaters - and had done for a lot of years! Ours is set to come on in the morning if the temperature is below 18, thermostat drops to 14 from 7.30, then up to 18 again for the early evening through until 9.30, when it drops to 14 again overnight. We've not had too many days when it's come on morning and evening as yet - and it kicked in for the first time at the beginning of the week before last when we had a sudden very cold night - woke up to thick frost. (And yes - that was when I discovered the rogue 2am setting that our predecessors had clearly had set for some reason!)

We also have an open fire now - albeit a small one - so it will be quite interesting to learn how well that works for letting heat permeate through the house. Might give it an experimental light one evening over the weekend to start getting to grips with it's own little peculiarities before we actually need it. 

ArbitraryRandom

EssexHebridean said:

ArbitraryRandom said:

EssexHebridean said:

Keu said:

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. 

Bear in mind that if you are comparing this year with last, that's possibly not an accurate comparison. Last year October was sufficiently "level" in temperature that certainly where we are, we didn't have any need of heating until - if I recall correctly mid November. 

Same here (North West) - I've put the heating on this last week, first time since Feb - but less because of the cold and more because the air has just felt damp (notwithstanding Babet).

If it was actually cold I'd light the stove in the lounge and the hot air would warm through, but because it's just a bit dank the central heating seemed the best option.  

We also have an open fire now - albeit a small one - so it will be quite interesting to learn how well that works for letting heat permeate through the house. Might give it an experimental light one evening over the weekend to start getting to grips with its own little peculiarities before we actually need it. 

I love my stove I had it installed about 5 years ago and I thought it would just be a luxury (and it is!), but it's become a staple of my winter heating. 

If you are used to storage heaters then I think you might find it similar - lighting the stove in the afternoon/early evening, the chimney breast in the lounge and my office upstairs then retains and radiates a low level of heat until early lunchtime the next day; meaning in a mild winter, combined with the heat from cooking in the kitchen I'm quite comfortable without waking up the boiler. 

If you think you like your fire then I'd recommend picking up a bag of anthracite/smokeless ovoids to try. Three 20kg bags (mixed with logs) will do me around a month and it makes the ash a little harder to dispose of but means you don't have to check it every half hour for a constant level of heat output

born_again

Keu said:

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. 

It only comes on when temp drops below level. but then when higher temp kicks in you are using less energy to bring it up to that temp.
Just had to crank daytime up 1C, as Mrs suffers with the cold which make her condition worse & even sat under a blanket she is complaining. So end of the day, I have to go by her, even if it costs more.

Personally I would rather be warm & comfortable. than sat shivering to save a few £. maybe not MSE, but for me life is too short to suffer more than we need to do.

As we know each house if different & there is no one way that suits all.  At least you have tried & realised it is not for you 👍

EssexHebridean

Great info there - thank you! I know our predecessors left us some bags of fuel for it so we'll be using those first (of course - wouldn't be very MSE not to would it!) but I'll bear that recommendation in mind for afterwards. They left us some logs as well but we will need to split some of those down before they can be burned as some of them are currently a bit chunky! 

MrEH also wants to get one of those gadgets that lets you make bricks out of newspaper - as he reads a broadsheet daily we never have any shortage of that. Another good tip I was given a while ago was dried citrus peel making good firelighters - not tried that yet, but definitely will.