- Location
- Somewhere wet & hilly in NW England.
Energy bill increases
- Thread starter GuyBoden
- Start date
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- Location
- Inside my skull
What did you do in the 1950/60/70s?
- Location
- Somewhere wet & hilly in NW England.
I read the 'now' in your second sentence as 'now'.
Was I wrong?
Maybe I should have made it clear that that was what I was referring to - apologies.
gbb
Legendary Member
- Location
- Peterborough
There has been a fair bit of advice lately that just heating (and living,) in one room would be financially better if paying the bills was an issue
Alex321
Veteran
- Location
- South Wales
Not really relevant to the "now it is heat just the rooms you are in".
But FWIW, we got central heating installed in the fairly early '70s. In a council house.
PapaZita
Guru
- Location
- St. Albans
We’ve recently installed a smart TRV system (Drayton Wiser). It seems pretty good, and a really easy install if you already have thermostatic radiator valves. It essentially converts a simple, single zone, central heating system, into as many independent zones as you care to buy smart valves for, each running their own temperature schedules.
So, I think we can say we’re now heating individual rooms. The bedroom warms up in the morning and evening, home working rooms during the day, and the living room in the evening. I’m sure heat does leak between adjoining rooms, but they still feel cool if you wander into them at the wrong times. I wouldn’t like to say how much we’re saving, as we installed it just before the cold snap before Christmas, and burned a lot of gas that month anyway. Previously we’d turned things down as much as we could bear. I think we’re more comfortable now, but it’s a bit too early to say if we’re really using less gas to achieve that.
So, I think we can say we’re now heating individual rooms. The bedroom warms up in the morning and evening, home working rooms during the day, and the living room in the evening. I’m sure heat does leak between adjoining rooms, but they still feel cool if you wander into them at the wrong times. I wouldn’t like to say how much we’re saving, as we installed it just before the cold snap before Christmas, and burned a lot of gas that month anyway. Previously we’d turned things down as much as we could bear. I think we’re more comfortable now, but it’s a bit too early to say if we’re really using less gas to achieve that.
Scaleyback
Veteran
- Location
- North Yorkshire
This is often the unknown with spending on energy upgrades and energy saving 'gadgets' What is the payback time and consequently does it make financial sense ? It always does if you listen to the seller/advertising blurb but it pays to be a bit cynical. 😳
PapaZita
Guru
- Location
- St. Albans
I agree. We spent about £300 on a system with four valves. I’m happy to accept that some of that was spent on comfort and convenience, rather than just a hard-nosed calculation on how much energy would be saved. One one hand, surely by not heating the unused rooms we’ll be saving some money. On the other, we’re now heating the rooms we are in to a more comfortable level, because we’re not worrying about pumping heat into the rest of the house. Time will tell. 😀
I’ve looked at these but I would need a lot more due to number of rooms and radiators ? However I could possibly fit them upstairs only , which would create two zones ?
PapaZita
Guru
- Location
- St. Albans
I don’t think fitting them just upstairs would really give two zones, as then you’d have no control over the downstairs rooms. We thought about the rooms where we wanted different temperatures at different times, and fitted the valves there. The heat then follows us around during the day. It’s just the two of us, so we only fitted a valve in one bedroom. Spare bedrooms, bathroom, hallway, etc, remain on their old TRVs, so they’ll get heat whenever one of the smart valves in another room is calling for it, but only ever up to the limit set by the old TRV. As those aren’t rooms we’re using much, they’re set low anyway. It’s about £40 for each additional valve if we decide we need more. I’m sure others will need more valves than we do, but you certainly shouldn’t assume that you’ll need to replace every TRV in your house.
The only problem I see with this is you would need to close if doors to rooms not heated etc . Not really possible to do that in our house . Living room only room closed off all others open for dog to wonder . Upstairs we could maybe do something . However I’ve opted to just keep the thermostat low at 18 max . Again I’m. It sure about that I may need to experiment. Fancied turning it up a bit more. Feel if I allow the house to cool too much it takes more energy to get back to square one ?
PapaZita
Guru
- Location
- St. Albans
This is true.
Just had my bill from octopus for 10 days in january and their standard variable rate for electricity is now 64p/kwh....glad the Government put the cap in place down to 33p/kwh, so im guessing the capped rate will be around 40p from april onwards
*
Gas is 16p/kwh but capped to 9/9p, so that will be around 12p come april onwards
*
*first figure is unit rate, 2nd figure is reduction rate per kwh
Gas is 16p/kwh but capped to 9/9p, so that will be around 12p come april onwards
*first figure is unit rate, 2nd figure is reduction rate per kwh
Last edited:
rogerzilla
Legendary Member
Most people's bills will increase by £900/year or £75/month because of the £500 cap increase and the lack of a £400 rebate.
