The Great British "not put my heating on yet" brag

molerat

QrizB said:

Chrysalis said:

To heat my flat with CH costs about £16 a day at 7p unit rates due to its efficiency and heat loss.

Wow that's quite some energy use

Agree there.  Looking back at my historical use my absolute max mid winter (think winter 2010-11 !) would be around £9.50 at that rate in my 3 bed detached in N Scotland keeping the whole house at 18-19 24/7 and background heating the conservatory with our antique original fit boiler.  We are not super insulated, just a standard 1980s timber frame.

After living here for a long time all the TRVs have pencil marks on them as I have been round leaving a digital thermometer in each room for a few days noting the min and max and adjusting.  Turn the valve up when needed but always put it back down to the comfort pencil mark which is mainly just above 1

MarzipanCrumble

Nah - half hour for water heating for washing up/shower by gas.  Too warm yet.  However got a wood burner in living room and do fire up that!

Spoonie_Turtle

MarzipanCrumble said:

Nah - half hour for water heating for washing up/shower by gas.  Too warm yet.  However got a wood burner in living room and do fire up that!

See, to me that counts as 'putting the heating on' - it's a significant source of heat and you're making use of it.

[Maybe that's just me, having never had central heating until 4 years ago.]

markin

last winter many were spending £16 a day in the cold snaps.

If a fire heats the entire house, many can, Then they are a central source of heat.

Chrysalis

I am now doing what I did last winter, if I need hot water for any reason such as a bath, I do run the CH at same time now rather than not at all, but once the water heating is off, the CH is off with it.  I will also run it especially if the temperatures get too extreme.

Chrysalis

molerat said:

QrizB said:

Chrysalis said:

To heat my flat with CH costs about £16 a day at 7p unit rates due to its efficiency and heat loss.

Wow that's quite some energy use

Agree there.  Looking back at my historical use my absolute max mid winter (think winter 2010-11 !) would be around £9.50 at that rate in my 3 bed detached in N Scotland keeping the whole house at 18-19 24/7 and background heating the conservatory with our antique original fit boiler.  We are not super insulated, just a standard 1980s timber frame.

After living here for a long time all the TRVs have pencil marks on them as I have been round leaving a digital thermometer in each room for a few days noting the min and max and adjusting.  Turn the valve up when needed but always put it back down to the comfort pencil mark which is mainly just above 1

Well not all homes and heating systems are equal, and personally I have considered floor space as not necessarily the prime factor as well.  I seen someone else's data who has really high tech monitoring of his heating system, and its an eye opener compared to mine, his temperature loss with no heating is about 20% of my temperature loss, and his heat gain is almost 10x the speed of my heat gain when the heating is on, so the net result is he can heat his home for a fraction of the cost I can.  His boiler only comes in bursts to maintain target temperature, whilst mine just stays running.

I now have a thermostat in my kitchen, and am comparing the temperature of that room with its door shut to other rooms (my kitchen has double glazing PVC window).  When I next use my CH, I wouldnt be surprised if there is as much as a 10C differential.

As we know the planned EPC changes for private rental have been scrapped and the current one is largely not enforced.  I think what might have been an intermediate solution, is a weighted rent adjustment so someone e.g. living in an EPC F rated home, would have a rebate on their rent to cover heating costs in winter.  The LL would have a choice of either paying the rebate or improving the grade of the property, so makes it a free market decision and the LL shares the cost burden with the tenant.

MultiFuelBurner

@Chrysalis that would potentially have the undesired effect of more landlords leaving the market and less rental properties. That then leads to even higher rents for tenants which would eclipse any amount that they may rebate in winter if forced to. Private landlords should not be a replacement for Government promises and social housing. 

I do however like the idea of tenants that pay on time each month after 2/3 years this being taken into consideration for mortgages as proof of what they can actually afford to pay out each month and actually borrow. Although the stretch test might be a bit tricky it could lead to more renters having the chance to buy.

The system is broken and not much light at the end of the tunnel

EssexHebridean

A fire - whether open or stove type - can certainly make a difference to the heating requirements of a house I would agree. We lit ours last night - and at the same time I ensured that the front room (where the fire is) and hallway rads were turned off, and shifted the thermostat into the hallway. By mid evening the digital thermometer told me that the living room (very back of the house, and where the thermostat would usually live) was at a temperature in the low 16°’s which would have been far to chilly for me to want to sit in - but that didn’t matter, because I wasn’t! It eventually fell to mid 15°’s by the time I went to bed. Meanwhile, the hallway maintained a nice steady 18° all evening, with upstairs being just slightly cooler, and this meant that the heating didn’t trigger at all all evening. Once the evening heating slot had passed I shifted the thermostat back to its usual home ready for this morning. Heating back to 18° this morning has used 17.65kWh of gas, which is only a fraction higher than yesterday morning’s use, so with the saving from zero gas use yesterday evening, I am calling that a win, and something we will definitely repeat. 

At the moment our fire is costing us nothing to run as we are using logs and solid fuel left for us by the people we bought the house from, but obviously we will have to plan in for a spend going forwards. 

FreeBear

MultiFuelBurner said: Private landlords should not be a replacement for Government promises and social housing.

Landlords are running a business. Why should the tax payer fund the improvements ?

MultiFuelBurner

FreeBear said:

MultiFuelBurner said: Private landlords should not be a replacement for Government promises and social housing.

Landlords are running a business. Why should the tax payer fund the improvements ?

Because many are struggling with this as a business right now as explained. Taking one paragraph out to question means me repeating myself which I won't do (read my signature)

Some Landlords are looking to the future and if you are lucky enough to have one that's great  but I would suggest many are struggling to look past the next year of running a LL business.