Am I really eligible for this

NotArobot24

My energy company recently credited me with £150 Warm Home Discount, my concern is whether this is some sort of mistake that may be clawed back later leaving me in debt.

In the past I had money that I think everyone got during the energy crisis.

I have also had Cold Weather Payments but those are few and far between, I think just one last Winter.

However, when I looked into other things I have always been told NO, some were because of Energy Performance Certificate was too good, I live in a flat that was built not that long ago and I gather properties built after a certain date are deemed energy efficient, so mine got a C I think, which meant not eligible.

I am on the Priory Register, not sure if that in itself is a factor.

I am not a pensioner yet.

I have blue badge although not sure how they would know that as nobody asked.

I have not put heating on yet, I usually wait until December 1st then see how cold it gets, sometimes I hold out until January or February.

My concern is the usage just rockets, for example last November with no heating on I used 12m3 but in January I used 82m3.  I know this is all going to depend on how often you have it on, what temperature you set to trigger it and what temperature you set.  

I tried to match what my sister has (which I think she copied from online somewhere) so we could compare but mine used more than hers. So I ended up reducing mine

Maybe you can figure out what is wrong

06:30 to 09:00 (2.5h) @ 21 C
12:00 to 14:00 (2h) @ 21 C
17:00 to 23:00 (6.5h) @21 C  

23:00 to 06:30 overnight @ 18C

Tescodealqueen

I believe this payment was extended to people on an income related benefit by the government for this winter.
This might explain it presume the list of those eligible was produced from DWP records

KxMx

As you've had Cold Weather Payment in the past, this suggests a means tested benefit which qualifies you for the Winter Fuel Payment. 

https://www.gov.uk/the-warm-home-discount-scheme/low-income-England-Wales

The previous criteria of also having a high energy cost (based on home age & size) was removed by Labour this year. 

Ayr_Rage

What time do you wake up and go to bed?

I have my heating coming on an hour before I normally get up and at the end of the day it goes off an hour before I go to bed.

Having the heating on until 2300 seems rather late unless you are a night owl.

born_again

I find that leaving the heating on all the time is cheaper.
House is occupied 24/7 Mrs suffers with feeling cold. Sat under a heated blanket at the moment.

 07:00 to 21:45 19.5 C
 21:45 to 07:00 18.5 C

This was increased by 0.5 C a couple of weeks ago. & will get increased as weather gets cooler in 0.5C steps. Up to a max of 21C even in sub zero temps.

NotArobot24

Ayr_Rage said:

What time do you wake up and go to bed?

I have my heating coming on an hour before I normally get up and at the end of the day it goes off an hour before I go to bed.

Having the heating on until 2300 seems rather late unless you are a night owl.

TBH I sleep very little, I am on a lot of meds but can't take painkillers at night so wake up a lot and struggle to get back to sleep.  I do not need heating on at night, can actually make it hard to breath if it gets too warm.  My sister reckoned it was better to set 18C at night to make the boiler not have to work so hard, coming back from 18C rather than 12C that makes sense..  

Last winter I chickened out and reduced the temp by 1 to 2 degrees.

Qyburn

NotArobot24 said:

My sister reckoned it was better to set 18C at night to make the boiler not have to work so hard, coming back from 18C rather than 12C that makes sense..  

That's a perennial question. The house will lose more heat overnight if kept up at 18°C than it would if it was set back to 12°C. Whether that equates to more fuel used, depends on the heating system. For example a heat pump might run much more efficiently if running all the time, rather than stop/start.

Alnat1

Middle-diddle and keep it at 16C overnight?

NotArobot24

Alnat1 said:

Middle-diddle and keep it at 16C overnight?

When I bottled out I set it to 17C but normally I set it to 7C to stop it coming on and I set the boiler temperature for radiators to 20C that prevented it totally or so I thought, so I put holiday timer on and that did the trick, otherwise there were these times when boiler would come on for some reason which I could not explain.  Probably some sort of maintenance issue.

QrizB

NotArobot24 said:

Probably some sort of maintenance issue.

Some (most?) boilers have a frost protection feature that will kick in if the boiler gets cold enough.

bob2302

NotArobot24 said:

My energy company recently credited me with £150 Warm Home Discount, my concern is whether this is some sort of mistake that may be clawed back later leaving me in debt.

In the past I had money that I think everyone got during the energy crisis.

I have also had Cold Weather Payments but those are few and far between, I think just one last Winter.

However, when I looked into other things I have always been told NO, some were because of Energy Performance Certificate was too good, I live in a flat that was built not that long ago and I gather properties built after a certain date are deemed energy efficient, so mine got a C I think, which meant not eligible.

I am on the Priory Register, not sure if that in itself is a factor.

I am not a pensioner yet.

I have blue badge although not sure how they would know that as nobody asked.

I have not put heating on yet, I usually wait until December 1st then see how cold it gets, sometimes I hold out until January or February.

My concern is the usage just rockets, for example last November with no heating on I used 12m3 but in January I used 82m3.  I know this is all going to depend on how often you have it on, what temperature you set to trigger it and what temperature you set.  

I tried to match what my sister has (which I think she copied from online somewhere) so we could compare but mine used more than hers. So I ended up reducing mine

Maybe you can figure out what is wrong

06:30 to 09:00 (2.5h) @ 21 C
12:00 to 14:00 (2h) @ 21 C
17:00 to 23:00 (6.5h) @21 C  

23:00 to 06:30 overnight @ 18C

IIWY I'd dress for winter and turn down those temperatures to 18C. 21C is for people that don't care about the cost and want to dress like it's summer. 

Also turning the heating off twice a day for 3 hours is probably not a good idea. I suggest either removing those off periods or, if you go out in the day, removing the 12:00 to 14:00 on period. Turning off the heating for short periods can do more harm than good.