On a related note our plumber came round earlier to fit new waste and taps to the bathroom handbasin. I asked him about changing the old fashioned toilet for a more modern one. Not a straightforward job as the old loo has a side entry at the rear. While he was checking around the individual fitting he noticed that he could see daylight around the cistern overflow pipe where it goes through the wall 😮. He ssid it's possible that the original fitter had just slapped a bit of mortar around the pipe and this had crumbled away over the years. That certainly wasn't helping keeping the bathroom warm.
Gas and electric daily use
- Thread starter biggs682
- Start date
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midlandsgrimpeur
Senior Member
How is yours so low?
I have a combi boiler. Heating is on timed 4hrs a day with the thermostat at 18 degrees. That uses 1500 kw at 6p a unit, so £90 a month excl standing charge and VAT. How is your combined bill £112 a month with heating on 24/7?
Small semi-detached so one external wall less. Small rooms are easy to heat, and once warm (thermostat controlled 20-23C) you are just topping up.
- Location
- Somewhere wet & hilly in NW England.
No gas.
Electricity + oil + coal + logs = £8.93/day.
Cumbria. Large 3 bed detached bungalow, kept very warm!
Not strictly comparable but a reference point, nonetheless.
Electricity + oil + coal + logs = £8.93/day.
Cumbria. Large 3 bed detached bungalow, kept very warm!
Not strictly comparable but a reference point, nonetheless.
midlandsgrimpeur
Senior Member
Your house must retain heat well. Mine loses heat within 20mins of radiators going off. Even if left on and topping up, I reckon it would be several hundred quid on gas alone per month if I left mine on 24/7.
newts
Veteran
- Location
- Isca Dumnoniorum
I've just looked at last year's spend for our 3 bed semi with cavity & loft insulation. We average £2.15 on gas & £0.90 on electric per day. All lights are led, water is heated by gas. Thermostat is set on 18c morning & evening for a few hours, 17c at all other times. Occasionally we'll up it to 19c if we feel a chill.
presta
Legendary Member
The air loses heat within 20 minutes, the walls take hours to cool down, and the heat they're losing all comes from your wallet just the same, regardless of whether the heating's on or off. The relationship between heating hours and gas consumption is not a linear one, so whilst turning the heating off at night does save money, it's not in proportion to the hours it's off for. Turning my heat off for 7 hours (29%) of the day saves about 9-10% of the gas, not 29%. The reason for it is that the boiler heats the walls up when it comes on faster than the environment cools them down when it goes off.
- Location
- Glasgow
I've got a similar situation in my bathroom, a hole under the sink into the cavity wall, that will always let the cold in, because it's where the water pipes enter the room.
Eventually I'll change the sink, maybe the pipes can be boxed in a bit better.
I got a new fitted kitchen in the summer: the holes going right into the cavity wall or even to the exterior wall, were many!
I knew that anyway, got them all filled in, the biggest one I fixed myself because the plasterer "can't do it, due to my trowel being too big to fit behind the pipes where the hole is" ...
midlandsgrimpeur
Senior Member
can't do it, due to my trowel being too big to fit behind the pipes where the hole is" ...
Couldn't he have got a smaller trowel? I love the excuses tradespeople make when they can't be bothered to do a job.
- Location
- Glasgow
Of course he could have, he had a van full of tools
I fixed it myself by closing the hole with a bit of plasterboard I had.
I cut it to size, then made it airtight by applying a few coats of "no more cracks" around it.
I mentioned in another thread that Octopus sent me a loaner thermal camera free of charge to use for a week. I'd been on the waiting list for ages but it finally arrived. It's the sort that uses your phone screen as a display. A real eye opener and a useful bit of kit. I can see that the door seal on the kitchen door is making poor contact in one specific place along the top, and check for air locks / help balance the radiators.
Must do. I've checked my current status. On the 18th November (before it got cold) my balance was +£249.30.
On the 17th December it was +£225.37
My balance today (after the heating has been on 24/7 for a week + Christmas lights & cooking) is +£337.83.
Even allowing for having made a recent payment that is fairly decent. I'll see where I stand around 17th/18th January.
A further piece of information which is probably relevant. We like to sleep in cool rooms so there is never any heating on in any of the bedrooms.
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OP
OP
biggs682
Itching to get back on my bike's
- Location
- Northamptonshire
13 degrees in the kitchen this morning.
Smart meter reading £1.72 as I type this.
Bit of cloud cover outside so will be a while before the solar panels kick in .
Smart meter reading £1.72 as I type this.
Bit of cloud cover outside so will be a while before the solar panels kick in .
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Why are radiators typically mounted on outside walls? There must surely be a reason, although at face value it seems odd.
Plumber came round yesterday to fit new bathroom handbasin taps and waste. We were talking about heating and balancing radiators which can be time consuming to get right. Ideally It should be done using the lockshield valves as opposed to the trv, but most fitters usually leave them wide open. He has all of the radiators in his house turned on permanently, with the ones in the generally unused rooms turned down to a lower temperature, as he said, the heat will leach through internal walls as well as external to reach equilibrium.
