Heating tips

[A[L]C]

Hi all,

BG have sent us a letter following a meter reading, upping our monthly gas payments to £107 a month! We only have a 2 bed, ground floor flat, so I think this may be a little excessive.

Our gas is only used for heating/hot water as our cooker is electric only.

Our monthly electric bill is £77 a month

So... any tips on how to decrease our bill? At the moment we have the variable valves on the radiators which we just set to max, then put the thermostat to about 22 and turn it up if nessecary.

Would it be worth changing our combi boiler so it comes on at certain times? The wife is at home with our baby and toddler, so the house needs to be kept warm throughout the day quite a lot.

Any tips/comments would be appreciated

 

[A[L]C]

Hmmm so why would I be paying so much.

We switched from card meter to direct debit about 6 months ago. We used to pay about £60 on the card a month. When we switched to dd, they asked us how much we would like to pay. We agreed about £35 a month. Now its upped to over £100.

Mrs has just spoken to them and they said that they averaged the last 5 months useage and thats what it came to. They have agreed to drop it to £87, but im concerned we#'re gonna get a big bill at the end, hence why im asking how to reduce our useage

 

[A[L]C]

Somethings definitely not right on either is it

 

[A[L]C]

When setting the boiler... do we set it for block periods during the day ie 2 hours on 2 off, or are longer periods at a lower setting more efficient?

 

[A[L]C]

Its a council flat mate, ground floor. Double glazing all round.

 

[A[L]C]

This is the best advice so far in this thread and pretty much exactly what I would say.

Why would you put ALL of the thermnostatic radiator valves to full? Even in rooms that don't need it . That's the whole point of them.. to control how hot EACH ROOM gets. A normal room thermostat will only control the temperature of the room it is in.

Because I dont understand how it works. When you set the thermostat to 22... is that only measuring the temp in the room that the thermostat is in? ie in our hallway?

 

[A[L]C]

Might be worth investing in £5-10 worth of heating pipe insulation and reflective foil type underfloor stuff - lag any pipes you have easy access to, and fit some foil (even kitchen foil would do to start with) behind your radiators to reflect heat.

I dont have any stats for how useful either of these measures are in % terms, but they can't hurt?

Practically all of the pipes run along the walls, none of them are insulated


Thanks for the tips guys

 

[A[L]C]

I've found the problem here;



Everyone know's if you leave a women in a house alone (no-one is in the house to disagree and argue with them, so they do what they want), the natural instinct of them; is to turn the heating up to full belt, then still complain that it's cold. Bet she turns it down when you're due home, lol.

"Most" (ALL; stereotype meh, but it's true ) women would turn the heating up, and it would be so hot, Satan himself would be dropping in every now and then to warm up a bit.

lol probably