Have you switched your Heating on yet ?

What heating system do you use mate? Ayres u seem like a knowledgeable guy any chance you could check out my thread on chit chat and lend your advice please mate lol

most of your costs will be with washing machines on all the time etc  -you notice the bill shoot up when you have a woman living with you      ,doubt laptops will that  use much

the building i live in is a fairly new build (7 years) so their is no gas in the building whatsoever, it's all electric, when i paid edf on direct debit i had a discount just for having no gas mains lol, t's called electric storage heating,it charges me a day rate (6am-11:30pm @ 16.46pence per kWh) and a night rate (11:30pm-6am @6.01pence per kWh)

coach, its the tumble driers that are the killers.

Same here Ayers i'm in a newish flat all electric , one storage heater in the living room that i've just started using this week , not quite sure what it will cost for a month etc but they use the electric overnight then kick it all out in the day


Having never used one before i don't even understand the controls on them  In / Out / Convector .... do you ??

I have the same altho mine is economy 7 whcih is dear as fook, i can assre u this time of year costs me a packet on elec

yep economy 7 here too Bhoys , i thought it was meant to be cheaper

frightened to put the fooking heating on ,have bought a parafin heater and am using that ,better than i thought it is odourless the ones i remember from the 60s stunk the place out but this new parafin doesnt smell and the heater warms the place up well .

tumble driers are evil    ruin your clothes

I thought economy 7 was cheaper as well. The one thing I do is put a load of washing on at midnight when the cheaper rate kicks in.

Watchdog on the issue now.

mooney mine has two switches on the wall, peak and off peak, they are both switched off and only the off peak one comes on in winter, the in/out controls on top sets the temperature'comfort level as it does with the fan (the heater turns into a fan as well if the flick another switch the other way.)

Econ 7 is useless imo as the heat is basically gone from my flat at 7 pm altho my windows are shocking and do need upgraded so perhaps they are the issue before the system

Mine seems to hold in quite well but windows etc are newish , i've only got it on half way but keeps it warm during the day/evening

Mine is set at input 6 and output 1, whats yours at?

yep same switches here Ayers , i only have the off peak switched on when i want to heat the water up overnight but the storage heater has its own plug switches so don't need off peak for the heating ?

oh for the days of the stick to stop the wheel !

Input 5 output 2.5 though had it switched both at 3 but doesn't seem to work as well

My grandad had this system and my da said he swore by it, my da set it to these settings as he said 6 gets as much heat in overnight as possible and 1 releases it slowly so it should last longer during the day, he also said its important to heat it everynight as it will use less electric to heat it as it hasnt long to go till its warm again rather than heating it every other night, i supppose that makes sense but its bloody dear

was thinking of investing in a wood burning heater,plenty of free timber in woods near where i live and those pine cones burn for ages ,missus not too keen on the idea .

My mates da has one of these and they are fantastic, even on a cold winters day ive seen him open the door to cool the place down a bit, fantastic investment imo but i cant use one

Yep cheers Bhoys that sounds good advice , now it's on i'll probably leave it on all winter maybe just fiddle with the settings a bit , do you think it costs you more on 6 than say 4 though ?

yep i'd love a nice wood burner the proper ones are brilliant , even love the smell of them , like they use on the canal boats

I would imagine so yes mate altho i never really done the maths last year as i withdrew a good few quid from a few betting accounts to cover my heating costs last year so in all honesty i never really worried alot about it, this year tho is a differnet story lol, still chasing from the weekend

I have it on good authority you can keep warm with a few good wnaks.

I know the feeling mate , can't do anything right this year , won on England 2-0 last night & lost more on an Acca due to Italy 2-2

thought i'd just logged into moneysaver expert 


wood burners are the way to go - get your wood for free over the meadow

Moonbeam i layed armenia after iatly equalised at 16.0, they actually could have beat iatly

yeah i should really know better than to back lazy dogs like Italy that don't need a result !

I layed Italy a bit @ 6's when they went 1-2 down ... then Italy equalize straight away

ah mate i no the feeling, i was at football till 8 pm, heard ireland were 1 down so quickly rushed home to lay borats counttry but when got home was 1-1

bhouys i am assuming you live in a flat and you cant have a woodburner ,but have you considered a parafin heater ? i got mine for £3 at a car bootsale ,it wont heat my house but it heats the front room up well ,when it gets really cold i plan to stick the central heating when i get up in the morning for half an hour heat the house and turn off the heating and light the parafin heater and let that run for most of the day up untill bedtime ,couldnt have the parafin heater if i had small children as it could get knocked over but mine have all grown up so no probs there !

i live in the middle of london so no woods near by, dont really fancy a trip along the central line up to Epping forest tbh

coming into the nightmare months for me . old house . sash windows. old radiators. better off burning fivers ! ..have wood burning stove and coal fire . looks lovely though ...this time of year used to get the fire on , glass of red and read chasers and hurdlers . has it gone now ?...

i feel sorry for the less well off pensioners who will struggle this winter especially with reports that this november is going to be really grim weatherwise, will be a lot of people pensioners and the poor who will face choices of eat or heat !

Foyles i have never heard tell of a parifin heater mate, i live in a flat yes but have no children, what does it run on mate. I probably am not aloud them but i would use it anyhow if it was remakbly cheaper

I've got a woodburner/multifuel stove, bought it and had it installed when I bought this place in June.
I've been lighting it every now and then for the past month or so, only because it's been so mild so far, but
it's made such a difference in the house (small semi bungalow) that I haven't put the central heating on at all so far.
Wood costs around £45 per builders sack, and I've used less than half that so far, so the signs are good... although I imagine my consumption is going to go up once the weather turns colder.
All I need now is a supply of free wood and it will be happy days!

bhouys look up parafin heaters on google or youtube ,they run on parafin or kerosene as yanks call it ,i buy mine from b&qs its £6.49 for a 4 litre bottle ,the tank on my heater takes about 3 litres and it lasts a good while ,you must have some ventilation in the room i.e have the living room door open ,or the window open a bit ,my heating and water bills were averaging £40 a week last winter with the heating on about 4 or 5 hours a day ,the heating companys are putting it up by around 8% this november so i had to do something or i would have froze my bollux off this winter !

johnizere those wooden blocks from pallets burn really well and last for ages if you can get them ,factorys and firms sometimes throw out the broken pallets ,

Thanks for the info foyle, i will do a bit of reserach on this mate and perhaps have a word with my parents over the weekend to what they think of these, in the next few weeks i will be putting a lot of money in for my electric to run my econamy 7 or investing in 1 of these so il see whatevers more logical. Having a door or window open is no problem but are they healthy to run mate, i have asthma nd i really cant be doing with fumes to potentially damage my health.

If you are going to use a paraffin heater in your home then buy a carbon monoxide alarm for each room.
Carbon monoxide cannot be seen and has no smell but it can kill you.

Storage heaters: The idea is to keep the output on 1 until you and/or the heater feel cold in the evening. At that point you increase the output to 2, 3, 6 or whatever, to use up the heat still stored behind the damper.

I'm crazy about woodburners. I've paid for an expensive cast-iron one with integral firebricks. It takes longer to get hot than a cheap Chinese steel job, but retains the heat far, far longer. I've actually kept it going for 24 hrs with no added wood - the ashes were still glowing. The trick is to use them the way Continentals do - get them hot, really hot, with full loads of wood. Then you should finally get a deep bed of glowing charcoal. At that point you can turn the inlets right down and leave it to glow. Ones which allow an overhead draft of air are the ones for this - they burn the gasses given off by the wood rather than the wood itself.

http://www.euroheat.co.uk/Wood-Burning-Stove/1552/Harmony-23-Evo-Cast-Black.html

One tip - try to avoid wet wood (which blocks the flue with creosote) or mixing wood and rubbish or wood with coal, for the same reason. Also, coal contains sulphur, while all wood in the UK, however apparently dry, contains a lot of moisture because of our damp climate. H2O (water) reacts with S2 (sulphur) to form H2SO4 (sulphuric acid, which eats away at your flue.

Twenty years of woodburners and I'm proud to say I have never yet paid for wood. Hedgerows, gardens, fallen trees, dead elms, flotsam in the river after flooding - it's all there for free, if you're lucky enough to have a dog to walk.

as regards to using one of these and asthma  you should  best check first, as we all know  these heating companys charges are going to get higher and higher 8% now and no one is really complaining about it, the british public moan a bit  a bit but get on with it ,the companys know this and squeeze harder they have got us by the balls ,good luck with what you do .

yeah good advice  foinavon i have got those at home  and 1 in my caravan .

screamingfromb i have a mate who deals in antiques and stuff and he has an old french woodburning stove made from it  cast iron i think  it weighs a ton but looks decorative, am thinking of buying it off of him if the missus sees sense !

screaming..
mines a stovax, bought it 2nd hand on ebay, fraction of it's retail price.
I'm still learning how to run it properly, and as you say, it's great when fully loaded with wood
runs really hot. My next door neighbours on bot sides have woodburners, one of them mixes coal with wood
and I mentioned that it's inadvisable to do this because of the creosote thing, but hey. what do I know?
They are secretive about where they get their wood though, and I know one of them doesn't pay for it lol.
Maybe in time he'll give a clue.
Foyelswar... I'm looking at pallets too.

no, its broke!

This question is asked every year and my answer is still the same. Yes!

It is on call all year. If the temperature falls below comfortable it will just come on, night or day!

you must have money to burn aunty

screaming from beneaththewaves 16 Oct 13 22:45 Joined: 30 Jan 05 | Topic/replies: 6,398 | Blogger: screaming from beneaththewaves's blog
Storage heaters: The idea is to keep the output on 1 until you and/or the heater feel cold in the evening. At that point you increase the output to 2, 3, 6 or whatever, to use up the heat still stored behind the damper.


thanks sfbtw, makes sense that

The thing about economy7 is that it _is_ cheaper if you use it properly.  For you benefits goons who get up way after the cut-off time then you're always paying the higher rate.  If you use delay on your washing machine and dishwasher to use it over night and make sure you set your pool heater, pool pump and garden pond heaters to come on over night you can really get the bill down.  I'm only paying £225 a month for electric now and it used to be £350 or more and it's a really big house with a big pool.

1st December  - not before

FOYLESWAR: Sounds fun. I've never used one of those decorative Continental stoves, so I can't say how efficient they are, but if it's cast iron, that's one important factor covered which a lot fail on.

Johnizere: Everyone's circumstances are different, so it's a question of understanding how your stove design works in line with the air flow in your room. I have the small top pane in the living room window and the kitchen window open all year round to provide a cross-flow of air to avoid damp problems, and that really helps my particular wood burner to thrive. I also removed the the previous OAP owner's filthy draft excluders stuck around the entrance door for the same reason.

If you do that, you can block up the vent which modern building regulations insist the installer must drill in the wall for all but the smallest stoves now. These vents are a right pain. They're necessary if you obey the Government line that your house should be a hermetically sealed and insulated, leaving you in a damp, still, unhealthy fug. If you restore your house to its natural state, where cracks and lack of insulation allow air to circulate, it's just as warm, as the air is no longer damp from people's breath condensing (all damp conducts heat away), while being healthier for the fabric of the building and the people living in it.

When I went up to the attic in this house, I found 6" of sodden loft insulation. It had stopped heat rising into the attic, moisture had condensed on the bituminous felt which lines the roof and the moisture had dripped down onto the wool and soaked it. The rafters were damp, starting to rot and covered in mould. It took 2 days to remove 38 bin liners of filthy, soaking wet wool, but the the bedrooms are warmer now in winter (and, of course, cooler in summer).

some of you should take the lead from this tight arsed bloke...

Strip-washing and snuggie blankets: How rising bills and Heartbeat inspired me to live without paying a penny for heating or hot water

.

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/how-i-live-without-paying-a-penny-for-heating-or-hot-water-110918230.html

mines on full whack oct--march
Small 1 bedroom flat

I have to treat it now as a luxury I can afford

I live up north an hate the cold

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2462970/Homeowner-fed-rip-water-rates-mains-supply-switched-cheaper-use-bottled-MINERAL-WATER.html

Same fella

ffs sultan that geezer reminds me of a tight arsed bloke i know ...about 15 years ago i was at his house and his young son aged about 10 was struggling like feck  to open a bottle of lemonade,i said here i will open it for you ,and i struggled but could not open it finaly i said feck me seems like someone has done that up with a spanner ,no said the boy its my dad he tightens the lid with nutcrackers to stop us kids drinking the lemonade too quick

Next week his going to cut down on food by eating grass, " if its good enough for sheep an cows its good enough for me"

anyone have there grans hot water bottle in will

Foyles nice one

its a shame we dont live on a volcanic island like Iceland who get all their heating and electricity for free, even faceache have moved there

Shetland islanders pay the most for there energy,an they can drink the oil

Someone I knew who lived in a flat swore by his calor gas heater.
They deliver the gas as well.

i used to use calor gas but that is getting expensive ,cheaper than the energy firms tho!

Next week his going to cut down on food by eating grass, " if its good enough for sheep an cows its good enough for me"

If you don't watch out you'll get a pat on the back!

screaming from beneaththewaves    

I hope you've put some vents in that loft now.

Once it's vented properly you can safely replace the insulation.

I know someone who tried vents. They found it impossible to get sufficient airflow to avoid condensation. Soffit vents, vents in the liner, they didn't work. Breathable roofing felt might be the answer, but the fact is this old house has old-fashioned bituminous felt and there's no way I'm going to pay to rebuild the roof, then pay for insulation, then spend every winter nervously peering into the attic looking for condensation.

I find old houses work fine as long as you let them work the way they were intended to when they were built. This means opening up any boarded up fireplaces and leaving windows slightly ajar for ventilation. In the case of the attic, heat is meant to rise into it in winter to protect the timbers from condensation, while the roof protects them from rainfall. You don't go drilling holes in it. In summer the heat again rises into it, leaving the bedrooms beautifully cool, while the attic is like an oven, drying out any damp which might have gathered there during the winter.

Insulation, in my experience, ruins this cycle and causes endless aggravation.

Worth a watch if you want a very good laugh and some tips on how to deal with the cold weather


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8sskCXVmBs

brilliantley funny jamesd reminds me of  the estate i lived on in south london   in the 70s every fecker was at it stopping the wheel, the snow never settled on any roofs in the winter  of the flats i lived ,if a helicopter  went over they would have thought it snowed everywhere except on that estate !

I know someone who tried vents. They found it impossible to get sufficient airflow to avoid condensation.

Well he didn't ventilate it enough then.

Breathable felt hasn't been around that long, yet millions of houses were built with the old stuff and ventilation works for them.

Maybe. But does it really work, or do a lot of them simply think a wet attic is normal, or just never check? If you have central heating and a thermostat, you'd never know whether there was in fact wet insulation up there making your house colder.

It's a lot simpler and cheaper for me, without central heating, just to do without loft insulation. Once I'd paid for the material, plus the installation of vents in the soffits and in the roof, I'd never get the cost back, even if I did manage to avoid the worry of damp forming.

In addition, I'd lose the benefit of comfortable sleep during the summer. Now the loft insulation has gone, heat rises into the attic, as it should, rather than being trapped in the bedroom.

One point: if you grew up in the 1960s or 1970s, energy is still dirt-cheap in comparison. There was a reason our whole house was heated by a single coal fire in the living room - gas and electricity were ruinously expensive in comparison to wages at the time (as was food).

no heating - can't afford it - i've got four quilts and a hot water bottle. I'm going to hide in my bed and watch tv until it heats up.

Heating your room for 8 pence a day

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/im-heating-room-8p-day-102931828.html?vp=1

heating is for southern women, ****s, tories and nonces

CAN YOU IMAGINEING RE OPENING THE COAL MINES ,I WONDER HOW MANY WOULD WANT A JOB DOWN THERE

IVE BEEN DOWN A  WORKING ONE IN THE 60S WHEN THEY SHOWN US ROUND TO SEE IF WE WANTED A JOB,I COULDNT BREATHE DOWN THERE NEVER MIND WORK AND THE DRY HEAT WAS UNBEARABLE

heating is for southern women, ****s, tories and nonces



i am none of the above, what do you northerners do to keep warm? take it in turns to stand inside the boiler cupbaord

keeping warm is for southern women, ****s, tories and nonces

we only put t shirts on when it snows. and even then really thin ones.

bloody southerners with ya fancy heating, coats, jumpers and duvets. tha dunt knor thas born. when i wer a lad, if ah sed it wer cold me fatha would set me bobble hat on fire an sed ah lad thatl warm thee up nicely by eck.

Anyone got one of these paraffin heaters?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Indoor-Paraffin-Heater-KERO-241-2-2Kw-Portable-Kerosene-Wick-Burner-/161133138656?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Hearing_Cooling_Air&ha****m25844892e0

-3,im in my boxers,full on

c/h on what when its 25c no thanks

I think people should be more relaxed about the cost of heating given the amount of money you could gamble or piss up in a day.

Received my £200 from the Government yesterday (Gawd bless Mr Osborne) which signals heating on 24 hours a day. Will review the need again first day of Cheltenham.

Do wah Diddy
20 Nov 13 12:58
Joined:
24 Jul 06
| Topic/replies: 28,612 | Blogger: Do wah Diddy's blog
CAN YOU IMAGINEING RE OPENING THE COAL MINES ,I WONDER HOW MANY WOULD WANT A JOB DOWN THERE


^ You mean there's jobs ??