Heating tips

A[L]C

A[L]C

A[L]C

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
7,514
Location
Maidenhead
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
 
Check they're not just upping your Direct Debit. A friend got a similar letter and thought it was just an increase in the cost of energy. Turned out to be a crafty attempt by the power company to collect more money.
 
£107 p/month is a helluva lot. Have they been massively under estimating the previous readings and are now having to play catch up?
 
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
 
jeez man that's HUGE, I have a 3 bedroom HOUSE and only pay £37/month for gas and £35 month for leccy and that's with 2 kids and 4 computers and an xbox and a wii all banging on..lol. My CH is on from 3pm until 11pm everyday :S
 
A[L]C;13240954 said:
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
Click to expand...

Check your boiler isnt turned up to the maximum setting, turn off any radiators in rooms that arent used as much (halls bathrooms etc) change the set times to come on later and go off earlier etc etc
 
£107 is not that bad considering it appears you have the heating on 24 by 7 at 22c.

You should turn the raditor valves down to 3 or 4, bedrooms should be around 2 to 3 and turn them off in any rooms you don't use. Try and drop the thermostat to 21c you shouldn't really notice the 1c drop.

We use a timer/thermostat on our system so you can set certain temperatures at different times, you could set it to slowly drop the temperture down overnight to 15c and bring the temperature back up in the morning. It might be worth considering one of these as it allows full control of the system during the week and at weekends.
 
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?
 
Sorry didnt read the first post properly, didnt realise the wife and kids were home all day. How old is the house? You could get free wall and roof insulation since you have child under 16.
 
I pay £29 a month Direct Debit a month for Gas. This is a 1980's 2 bed terrace. We also got a really old 1980's boiler. Central heating only really gets turned on when it gets really cold. My Tip wear more cloths, only heat the room your in if you can
 
Dangerous Dave said:
£107 is not that bad considering it appears you have the heating on 24 by 7 at 22c.

You should turn the raditor valves down to 3 or 4, bedrooms should be around 2 to 3 and turn them off in any rooms you don't use. Try and drop the thermostat to 21c you shouldn't really notice the 1c drop.
Click to expand...
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 :confused: . 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.
 
i'd consider checking moneysupermarket.com

the good thing about electricity/gas for home users, you aren't tied into a contract, you can just opt out whenever you want to switch to another supplier

all the 'supplier' does is bill you, they basically buy gas/electricity in shares, and sell them on to you for more
 
St0rmer66 said:
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 :confused: . 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.
Click to expand...

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?
 
I set our temperature to 19 degrees which is more than hot enough, although the wife complains...lol.put a jumper on pet! :)
Sitting room raditor is set to 4
Living room(where thermostat is) is set to 3
Bedrooms all 3 are set at 3
I have our heating to come on in the morning from 0630 until 0800, then back on from 3pm until 11pm
 
The Deuce said:
I set our temperature to 19 degrees which is more than hot enough, although the wife complains...lol.put a jumper on pet! :)
Sitting room raditor is set to 4
Living room(where thermostat is) is set to 3
Bedrooms all 3 are set at 3
I have our heating to come on in the morning from 0630 until 0800, then back on from 3pm until 11pm
Click to expand...


First thing to do is change the 11pm to 9pm you really wont notice any difference unless you got o bed at 2am.

I would also contact the council (if you rent) and ask them about improved insulation in your area they may do it for free.
 
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