Best I switch all six Naim boxes off unless being used.
My really old,vulnerable etc £300. Heating credit should** be here next month. I always give it to e-on to keep me in good balance. I am sure it will be whisked away,like triple lock, next year.
N
** with the current committee of fools nothing is guaranteed.
Yes
The UK government identified four ways of saving energy with regards to gas boilers, they made it law that a new gas boiler installation had to include at least one of these.
Both the installer and the home owner could be fined if it didn’t.
One of the requirements is a smart thermostat, another is weather compensation. It’s less hassle to install a smart thermostat, the installer doesn’t care how much the home owners spends on gas. (as you’ve found out). They want to quickly move onto the next customer.
I have double glazing, at least 300mm of insulation in the loft, and the house is draft free, however the typical 1980s timber wood frame wall construction uses an air cavity for ventilation. It’s actually illegal to have these walls insulated; the cavity must remain open to prevent the internal wood timbers from rotting. So this means the cavity wall ventilation is very cold air from outside permanently cooling down the walls.
Turning off the warm central heating in winter will reveal the house temperature feel cooler within a couple of hours, a couple of hours more and the house is cold. This would seem to be a problem that possibly won’t be fixed, and there must be millions of this type of house in the UK.
Then I guess your only options would be internal or external wall insulation, which of course are considerably more expensive but still effective.
I went for internal wall insulation in our solid stone walled house as it needed renovating, so there was going to be disruption from replastering anyway, and although we lost a bit of space it’s been well worth it.
Externally would be totally ineffective with the air cavity remaining to cool the inner timber frame wall, so outside is a non-starter.
Internal would be very costly. I can guess the measures that would be needed but heck that would cost a small fortune. Must be many millions of timber wood frame homes in the UK built in the 80s and 90s and i bet not many owners will be uprating the internal wall insulation in a hurry.
Also need to factor in the design that assumably requires some room warmth seepage to keep the internal wall timbers dry in a damp winter, having more insulation on the internal wall may affect this (?)
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What i will do is investigate the reflective insulation to go behind the radiators, looks simply job to do and very cost effective.
Well perhaps one thing we might change is to increase our support for the local Food Bank.
Those least able to manage high fuel prices will usually be those in poor housing, with inefficient heating and other appliances. With food inflation high and other changes this will be a tough winter for many
As an aside we have a biomass wood pellet boiler (we couldn’t access gas where we live even if we wished). Just had a fuel delivery and the cost was almost the same as this time last year. I doubt that will continue.
Bruce
We rely a lot on our multi-fuel stoves currently - I’d already noticed in the summer that kiln dried logs that have been available in ‘bargain shops’ for many years are much smaller now but the same price - ok for a decorative feature fire but getting expensive for a significant source of heat.
Dabbled with many solid fuel briquettes last year and while they are good at providing high heat or steady background heat overnight they are probably not the best option.
Also used some new compressed wood waste briquettes last year from various retailers - they seemed awful compared to Hotties and similar older varieties, and for the first time the chimney pots are very dirty unless it was increased use of solid fuel.
Planning to mainly use wood this year but need to get a few top up loads before my local bulk supplier either runs out or prices inevitably rise.
Anyone know the answer to the oft asked question, “Is it better, more efficient, to power up the boiler in the morning and the evening, heating a cold house twice a day in the winter, or keep it on on a lower setting, thereby maintaining a reasonable temperature, through the day?”
I could always run an experiment I guess and I would presume it depends on other factors such as insulation etc., however I would be interested if anyone already knows the answer!
We have our system set to raise the temperature in the morning, then keep it at a lower temperature in the day, up again in the evening and a lower temperature overnight. That stops it ever getting really cold. I think from memory the daytime setting is 16°C and 12°C overnight, with 19 in the morning and 19.5 in the evening. We also have lots of blankets!
I read an article yesterday that the small particulate emission limits on wood fires are 300 times higher per kJ than a diesel powered HGV. They may save money but they are killing people from respiratory disease.
Switched to an all green tariff , but apparently 50% of our electricity comes from gas .
Yes I was having this argument in the office yesterday… how can electricity that comes from burning gas be classed as ‘green’?
At our last house we relied a lot on our wood burner: We used a LOT of wood in year. However I calculated, if we’d have been paying ‘normal’ prices for our wood, it would have been well over £500 a year on wood! That pays for a lot of heating oil (in our case). As it happens we were friends with the local ‘tree man’ so we paid a £100 for about 24m3 of wood (stacked as logs)… plus some regular work outs with the chainsaw and axe 
My theory over the tariff is that they buy in an about of renewable energy to match what I pay them .
Twenty years ago , is what obvious that it should be nuclear and green (odd bedfellows )
But let’s not talk about politics, please…
Dependent on the weather, wind or solar give energy. When there is no wind or sufficient sunshine, something needs to be put in place which can instantly be fired up and give energy. Thats gas.
Many of the green initiatives are dependent on gas.
All energy comes at a price. Be it particles from a wood fire, gas (carbondioxide), nuclear (risk, storage), wind (impact on e.g. birds & sealife) …
Oh, even insulation can be dangerous. When there is no leakage of air, the air quality in houses lower significantly. Allergies anyone?
It can’t be. Many of the companies that purport to sell green tariffs buy greenwashing certificates.
There are some genuine green tariffs, such as from Bulb and Octopus and it pays to do a bit of research. A green tariff from Shell? Really? Er, no.
I (sadly) find it quite interesting to see the current demand and breakdown of electricity generation.
You can view it here Gridwatch
Not much wind today so unfortunately there is some coal generation.
We have a house built 5-6 years ago. The windows leak heat and the extractor has no filter or flap to stop air coming in (rectified). We have a gas combi boiler, which uses Litres of water before it is hot.
The thing I was interested in, was getting air source heating, but retro fitting is an issue. You need good insulation, draft free and possibly new pipes and radiators.
As I say the house is not that old yet there was no requirement for heat source boiler, solar panels etc.
Trying to solve the issue on older properties is a challenge but if you ensure all new builds are as good as they can be that’d be a great start.
Our son has a new house (9 months), on a large development of 3000. Gas boilers no solar panels……it’s a missed opportunity.