Great Rural MoneySaving Hunt

Frugaldom

Bonsibabe, having lived north of Aberdeen, I can sympathise with the costs of heating your house, especially if warmth is essential for health/medical reasons. If it was me, I think I'd try Freecycle or similar for oil-filled radiators with thermostats. If you set them onto timer switches so they are only boosting during cheap rate electricity then it may work out cheaper than your current system. This is what I resort to in winter as we've no heaters in our kitchen or hall. You should also check out the getting ready for winter thread. I've adopted several of the winter weather beating suggestions from there and they have certainly worked for us. I've never had a council house but private landlords can be even worse when it comes to getting repairs or any other work done.

In saying all of that, I have never lived in a house (in Scotland) where I have been able to maintain normal 'room temperature', we've had to get used to 16 degrees as our top temp as anything higher just isn't affordable. I realise how difficult it is for folks in the south to understand this as, having lived in Suffolk for 3 years, I am fully aware of the huge differences.

rhiwfield

Bonsibabe: "Thats a laugh as we live in the north of scotland, practically on the water, so there's not much heat outside for it to transfer inside! This system was put in as an experiment and they are now no longer using the company as the council have decided not to install this heating in any other houses"

There is warmth in the air outside, even at 0C. The ashp works by "stealing" some of this warmth and transferring it to the house. It is most effective at warm temperatures but will work also at low temperatures.

Bonsibabe "We do have cavity wall insulation, (dodgy) double glazing and no insulation in the loft"

No insulation in the loft means that you are wasting at least 25% of heat generated to warm the outside. Dodgy double glazing? Add further protection by using window film and lined curtains, as well as draughtproofing strips.

Now, the sums following will no doubt be shot down by a heating engineer but just think. You are paying £200 a month electricity, say £150 of which is needed to heat the house. Probably 30% of heat generated is being lost to the outside straight away. Thats £45 a month wasted.:eek:

Installing loft insulation is fast and has immediate benefits. Before trying to get the council to rip out your current heating system why not go for an easier "win" of getting their help to insulate the loft as well as doing all the low cost winter heat saving measures in Nykmedias link.

Davesnave

nykmedia wrote: »

In saying all of that, I have never lived in a house (in Scotland) where I have been able to maintain normal 'room temperature', we've had to get used to 16 degrees as our top temp as anything higher just isn't affordable. I realise how difficult it is for folks in the south to understand this as, having lived in Suffolk for 3 years, I am fully aware of the huge differences.

In the depths of last winter, we were paying £400 a month to feel uncomfortably cold in our rental, down in sunny Bath!

ATM I am making up for that by collecting firewood for the log burner at our new place and not switching on the Aga, though the oil is there when we need it. As lotus eater says, it takes a lot of physical effort to keep a woodburner going, and you also need a huge storage space to condition newly cut wood. I just hope I can cut enough for next winter. A lot of the trees I have are a bit dangerous to use a chain saw on, at least until they are down, so it's a hand saw job much of the time.

Frugaldom

Davesnave wrote: »

In the depths of last winter, we were paying £400 a month to feel uncomfortably cold in our rental, down in sunny Bath!

:eek::eek::eek: £400 a month just for heating? :eek::eek::eek:

Davesnave

nykmedia wrote: »

:eek::eek::eek: £400 a month just for heating? :eek::eek::eek:

Heating, cooking, everything, but we got it down a lot after the first 6 weeks, which were bitter. The location and house size suited us perfectly & it was only a short term solution.

We knew it would be bad, with no insulation or double glazing, but we didn't realise how bad! The landlord's aged Mum lived there before we moved in. Clearly, he cared as much about her as he did us.:rolleyes:

harryhound

bonsibabe wrote: »

Thats a laugh as we live in the north of scotland, practically on the water, so there's not much heat outside for it to transfer inside! This system was put in as an experiment and they are now no longer using the company as the council have decided not to install this heating in any other houses.

We do have cavity wall insulation, (dodgy) double glazing and no insulation in the loft. The previous occupants had insulated the whole loft, including the eaves, but the council in their ultimate wisdom ripped it all out before we moved in and with hubby being out of work just now, we can't afford to replace it.

We are waiting for a guy from the council to come out about it, so will just have to wait and see what they say about things. We are hopeing that they will decide to sort out the insulation and then hopefully give us a decent heating system that doesnt cost the blooming earth!

This is complete madness!
As it is up in Scotland, I'm not sure of the local administrative laws, but in England as a tenant, I would be onto my councillor and then the ombudsman DEMANDING compensation.
Tax payer's money has been thrown away on a rubbish heating system installed in a totally unsuitable building.
Heat pumps are a trickle technology, they depend on the house retaining enough enough heat to smooth out changes in the external temperature between day and night. They do not work like 1960's gas central heating with massive hot (70 degrees) radiators that heat up in minutes.
Step one has to be eliminating all the drafts.
Step two has to be insulating the loft with up to a foot of insulation, the walls with at least cavity fill and ideally 4 inches of fibre and those foam concrete inner leaves to the cavity wall. The floor of course should be solid, ideally with 4 inches of insulation under it.
Only then is the building fit for a heat pump.
There is no point in economising on 300 quid of loft insulation and spending and extra 3,000 quid on the 7,000 quid heat pump to try to bridge the gap.

Someone in the council should be held to account for criminal waste of the tax payer's and the tenants' money.

bonsibabe

Thanks harryhound! I never posted with the intention to sound demanding or to wind anyone up. I suppose my frustration came out in my posts and they were never intented to offend anyone, just the opposite. I posted with the intention of showing how un-economical these ASHP systems are.

As yet no-one from the council has bothered to come to see us about it but hubby is at his grans funeral today and I just came back from my uncles funeral the other day (both miles from home and involving 2 nights away from home), so we haven't really had the time to phone up about it.

But on Monday we will be straight on the phone asking when someone is coming round, as we are not looking forward to the next leccy bill!

Like I said earlier, if my posts have offended anyone then I sincerely apologise as it was not my intention. I am wary of posting anything now, with the adverse reaction i got and being told that i was being demanding of the council, maybe i was but that is because my whole family is being placed in a position of haveing to choose between paying the electric bill or eating and it is an unfair position to be put in because some bureaucrat made a "mistake".

So this will be my last posting on here.

Megansmum

Bonsi - don't stop posting, your information has been interesting and informative. This is a chat board where everyone is entitled to an opinion and no one persons opinion is right or wrong - it is just that - an opinion.

Being a tenant myself I can fully understand your frustration. Given your situation I would feel the same, and certainly feeding my family would come before anything. Good luck when you phone them - I hope you get someone who knows their a**e from their elbow!!

Davesnave

Bonsi, if I read harry's posting correctly, he is supporting your posts and agreeing with you that something should be done about your system.

bonsibabe

Thanks megansmum and davesnave. I know harry is supporting my posts but earlier on I felt like I had offended some people. After the last couple of weeks we have had, I've been feeling a bit down and had decided to stop posting.