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I'm quite surprised, it's the middle of October and our central heating is still off! Much to my wife's despair, my goal is to make it to November before we finally flick the switch. :)
How about everyone else, has the heating been put back on for winter yet?
My heating programmer has a "+1hr" button that I've used a couple of times, but generally no, the heating is still off.
We are in a new flat with really high ceilings and it does appear to be getting colder than my older places. We stuck the heating on the other night to see how long it would take to warm the place up using the ultra thin electric radiators that are installed... turns out it takes quite a while.
I like having a cold bedroom (plus PC helps warm :P) and all for the hoodie/blanket instead of heating ;)
Not yet, no. But it's been close once or twice.
My normal point is when our thermostat shows 16 to 17 degrees, and it's hit 17.5, but so far, no lower. Note, that's OUR thermostat, and in the position it's in, so not directly relevant to anyone else. But it works for us.
Like you, I'm aiming at November. Or later, if I can get away with it. ;)
Yeah it's on, but thermostat and timer, so only comes on in cold snaps at the moment.
Came back from Italy at the weekend and the 10oC drop in temperature was quite noticeable. 30 mins in the morning and 30 mins in the evening to take the chill off.
Hopefully when I've finished insulating the loft it will make a difference and we won't need it on so much this winter.
Don't you people have thermostats?
I have a lower limit of temperature I will tolerate in the house, and a thermostat set to that temperature. In summer the heating is not needed, so it stays off. In winter it gets colder, it comes on. The thermostat is a modern programmable electronic one that is predictive and knows how long the house takes to warm up and just deals with it.
There have been some nights when the radiators have warmed up.
I admit I have been lazy and not told the thermostat that I like it a couple of degrees colder at night, I really should do that.
I usually aim for mid November as well, done fine so far - it's been quite warm compared to last year. I've had a few fires since September but they were mainly because I wanted to burn something rather than warm up. Have certainly started noticing the cold and dark mornings though.
Not in our new place, each Rad has to be turned on as and when we want it :(Quote:
Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix
Also sadly no thermostat. We bought an analogue timer last Christmas when we got tired of it being freezing when we got out of bed! Before that there was just the on and off switch!
It\'s too hot for that surely
Maybe reading this will remind me to set my timer when I get home tonight. Probably not though.
That sucks :(Quote:
Originally Posted by jimbouk
Is this a boiler/radiator system? I would have thought a plumber could retro-fit a thermostat. Some of the modern ones are bonkers, things like WiFi control from an app so you can adjust the heating without leaving the sofa.
I got this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003DTK0SM
House is way more comfortable now, and will hopefully save us some fuel as well by not making the house hotter than I want it and then waiting for the house to go cold again.
I think we could do with thermostatic radiators in at least the upstairs radiators as well, costs money but should save some money.
I'm sure one could be retrofitted; you'd have to splice a wire in the controls and find some power for it but nothing impossible. We just use human thermometers at the moment :-) I didn't realise they were that cheap though, I'll add that to my list of house things to do.
I got a quote for having a wireless roomstat and receiver retro-fitted to my boiler. For another £200 I could have bought a new boiler!Quote:
Originally Posted by jimbouk
Ditto. The timer is in action but has not *actually* triggered it yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bagnaj97
Yup, we do .... but in the summer, I just turn the heating off.Quote:
Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix
We haven't needed heating for months, so turning it off either made no difference, or saved us a bit of money if it would haved fired when we didn't need it.
But when it's on, it's set for :-
- overnight, and cool
- early AM, warm up before getting up
- cool back down, when nobody is here in the morning
- up again briefly at lunchtime when someone's home
- drop a bit while unoccupied in the afternoon
- back up again late afternoon, ready for us getting home
- about 9pm, drop back to overnight temp.
And that's Mon-Fri. For Sat & Sun, we have a similar schedule that reflects later times for getting out of bed, and that we're here all day.
Then there's an 'away' mode I can select for anything from an hour to several weeks, which allows me to set just a minimum "guard" temp to prevent freezing pipes, etc.
And it radio switches, with the receiver tucked away with the boiler. And, another radio thermostat on the hot water circuit, controlling HW tank temp.
We have one. You'll love where ours is.Quote:
Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix
In the kitchen. I jest you not.
The kitchen in our house is tiny. So, fancy baking something during the winter? Hope you didn't want the rest of the house heated, because even with the thermostat over 25C it can still get warm enough in the kitchen to turn off the heating.
best heating we ever had was about 3 houses ago, we had a wireless roomstat in the living room with proper digital settings, and we could keep the house at exactly 16C. Saved so much money on fuel bills.
Basically, that's what I described above. And being radio-linked, I can move it around looking for the optimum place to put it.Quote:
Originally Posted by scaryjim
Of course, thermostatic valves on radiators also, first, help control room temps, and second, save money by not heating, or over-heating, places you want cooler.
I THINK my heating thermostat is Draytek, but it's BG-badged, so I'm going by apparently identical models.
And what dipsh.... erm, muppet, thought the kitchen was a good place for a thetmostat? Not you, I'm sure. :D
The one I have is powered by a couple of AA cells, so doesn't even need power. The hard part is getting a cable from the boiler to a sane place for checking the temperature, but some of them are wireless these days so don't even need that.Quote:
Originally Posted by jimbouk
lol, I believe you, some things you just couldn't make up :DQuote:
Originally Posted by scaryjim
Edit to add: I'm sure you can get retrofit wireless thermostats, the receiver would go in the kitchen and you could put the thermostat sender somewhere else.
Mine's 2 x AA powered too, and that's radio-linked. I suspected it might eat batteries, but in fact, I change them about every two years. The receiver is mains-powered.Quote:
Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix
Well I think having the heating on over the summer has made no difference. It certainly can't have saved much money, there may have been cold snaps when it briefly came on overnight but as far as I am concerned that is what it is there for :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
But yeah, I need to program mine better than just a steady temperature.
Obviously, I don't know your house, but here, I'd be VERY surprised if mine would have fired had it been on. I have a record of gas used, day by day, for many years, and if the heating had fired other than for a very brief period, I'd know anyway. But I also have a 'last thing at night' reading from the heating thermostat, and until about a week, maybe 10 days, ago, it hadn't dropped below 22 or 23, even at 3am or 4am.Quote:
Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix
Overnight, I tend to have a floor temp at about 10 degrees, and we wouldn't have got anywhere near in that area.
Mine went on at the beginning of the month when we had a bit of a cold snap. Room temp had got down to 15C which is too bloody cold if you ask me.
Hell no !
If you are feeling cold, go buy a furry jacket and wear thick sports socks indoors. Gas and Electricity cost a lot more thna these!
Apart from 2 days spent at home recently feeling rather under the weather no it's been off since well before the summer.
Hoping to keep it that way for a while.
I have a similar thermostat arrangement to that described by Saracen (mine is wired though) but I tend to switch the heating off completely in the summer. That went on at the beginning of the month, and the heating is now coming on first thing in the morning and also comes on in the evening. It isn't cold enough during the day (yet) to fire the boiler.
If we owned the house, perhaps. The best thing about renting is that you don't have to pay for general repairs and upkeep. The worst thing about renting is that means you don't get any say in what gets done or how it gets done. But you can always give your notice, find a better place, and move on :)Quote:
Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix
Very true, about the best thing, and a point often missed in discussions on house prices, and "getting on the property ladder". There are advantages and disadvantages to owning versus renting.Quote:
Originally Posted by scaryjim
BUT, if the best thing about renting is that you don't pay for repairs and upkeep, the worst thing isn't that you get no say. The worst thing is that you stop paying rent when you buy, ir when you top breathing.
Guess what my rent/mortgage payments are? Yup, you got it .... nil, zip, bada, bupkiss, naff-all.
And THAT is why those struggling so hard to get on the ladder are in such a bind. It's great for me. No monthly payments, and unless there's a house price collapse, a very nice chunk of cash to be released when we move and downsize. But younger people, you included, are going to find it far harder to do that and that simply ain't fair.
Mind you, while buying a house now still guarantees your monthly payments stop after x years (25, if you get a mortgage like mine), certainly doesn't any longer guarantee building up a large equity block. That will entirely depend on future house price trends. Though to be fair, that wasn't guaranteed, by ANY stretch of the imagination, when I bought, though it did turn out that way. It was no part of my buying decision, though.
So no, don't agree that "no say" is the worst thing about rent. That's that it is a lifetime drain on income/resources, not a fixed term one. Believe me, having NO rent or mortgage payment is a HUGE psychological benefit, especially in these very uncertain, insecure times.
true, but that's a benefit that would take a long time to realise, and I'd still be liable for a lot of large, and potentially unexpected, costs. I was chatting to a friend last night who had to replace both the boiler and the roof in the first couple of years after buying a house.
Besides, you're only guaranteed to stop paying that mortgage if you don't move, or if you realise enough equity to take a smaller mortgage over a shorter term if you do move. I know for a fact that I will be moving away from Manchester, and probably in not too many years. While I'm renting that's going to be dead easy.
Plus actually renting is in some ways less problematic if you have uncertain employment, thanks to the provision of housing benefit - the government won't pay your mortgage for you if you lose your job, but they will pay your rent (well, some of it, at least). So yeah, there's plenty of pros and cons to both options - I guess you just have to weigh up which ones you care about most...
Indeed. And, what the best choice is today might not be the best choice in 2 years, or 5 years.
As for replacing roof and boiler, yup, I've done the boiler, but not the roof, and that's in well over 25 years. And if you're doing that, especially the roof, in the first couple of years, I'd suggest you didn't have a full survey done before buying, or it should have highlighted both those problems, but certainly, the roof. On top, I've replaced all the doors and windows, and of course, carpets, fridge, freezer, washing machine, beds, kitchen hob, and so on.
You're right, owning a house can be expensive. But .... how much rent do you pay a month/year? Rhetorical question, so don't feel a need to answer, but consider what applying that amount, every month/year, to roofs, boilers, etc, after you've paid off the mortgage.
Round here, you'll be lucky to find anything under £1000/month, and that'll be at the low/smallish end of the market. So, £12k a year. It's not unreasonable to expect that, having paid the mortgage off, you'll have 30 years left. So, 30x£12k = £360,000, at today's prices. And I know I couldn't rent (as a renter) this house for that, so that £360k is likely to be on the low side.
But don't get me wrong. I'm not saying buying is for everyone, or even for those that will/should buy, that it's necessarily right to do it right now. Clearly, if some factor, like moving areas for work, is going to take you away, then buying isn't right .... unless you rent out while you're away, assuming you'll be coming back to the area.
Mine hasn't been on since around March time and I doubt it will be on again until November at the earliest....even though the rainy season has started in Plymouth, its still fairly warm and not feeling the need at all yet.
I still haven't, and indeed, temps here have gone up. My normal point for heating, as I said before, is when my thermostat shows current temp at about 16, and it dropped as low as 17-ish overnight. But that's been rising again, to 19, then 20, and last night, early hours, was 22. At that, I don't even wear a jumper, let alone fire the heating. And yes, we will adopt jumpers, going from light to medium-heavy (fleece) before giving in and using the heating.
My resistance has been broken. Was a good run, but it sure was chilly this morning and November 1st just felt like a good time to put the heating back into action.
Nice and warm in here now! :)
Mine will almost certainly being going on when I get back Monday having spent two weeks getting used to 30degC+ temperatures. Having said that, I am currently wearing a jumper because I'm sat in the air-con draft...
My heating has been on for about a month now. We have 2 young kids any my wife is always cold. Our thermostat is set for 21.5 deg a night and to me the house is always roasting.
Tried to tell her but she no listen.
No wonder I pay £60pm for my gas bill.
I caved in last night, only for a few hours to make sure the boiler is okay and bleed all the radiators. I live in a "currently being renovated" stone-walled house with high ceilings and low quality windows. There's no carpet in most of the rooms and you can see the roof tiles from inside.
Thermostat is set to come on when temp drops below 12, and the whole house rarely gets above 16 in Winter. All that heat escaping out the roof.. gutting.
Got some carpets going in at the weekend and a load of decent roof insulation ready to install hopefully before Christmas, so that'll be nice.
Sounds like time to get your finger out and the insulation in, virtuo.
Stone-walled houses with high ceilings have their attractions, but heating is, literally, part of the price you pay for that. But then, you knew that, didn't you? :D
As for me, nope, not given in yet. Well, not given in to heating. I have given in to wearing jeans and a fleece rather than shorts or lightweight trousers and t-shirt. House temp dropped to 17 degrees late last night. Much lower and it'll get used, though I will do a test-fire today or tomorrow, just to verify no unexpected issues.
Just trying to find the time and motivation to fit the insulation, got a few grands worth of foam block insulation and insulated boards to put in, just sitting there looking pretty. I did just temporarily whack the foam in between the rafters last year, but the recent winds have blown a lot of it back out.Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
Nice little project for me in the gap between now and getting the new TV/sofa delivered I suppose :)
I was aware of the pitfalls of having high ceilings and ancient walls, to be fair there is some brick, but no cavity wall (and a very cold/damp cellar underneath). I have actually dropped the ceilings in a few of the rooms I've finished. Does make a difference but don't want to do it in all of them.
It's a balance, isn't it? Big rooms, high ceilings, etc, are really nice, airy, spacious-feeling, etc BUT ....Quote:
Originally Posted by virtuo
When I bought my current house, I considered an old Victorian vicarage. One major feature was two front reception room, each 20' x 20', and separated only by a removable (folding) partition. And 12' ceilings. So, when opened up, I'd have had a 40' x20' x 12' (high) room. And I had this mental image of a large home cinema screen, and an awesome room for my hifi.
But then reality set in and I thought about heating, and .... nah! And that was before energy prices rocketed up. Well before.
Mine's coming on now in the morning and evening as it's been dipping under 17 degrees which I set on the thermostat. I do do April > November without any heating and with no duvet too. (though I might admit defeat on that and get the duvet back out of the cupboard) :D
Butuz
My parents have had a few spells with the heating on but only now is it semi-permanantly on (all the way up int' North Yorkshire!).
They seem to have this ridiculous habit of leaving the back door open on a weekend though. I was shivering my nads off last weekend only to discover the house was wide open to the elements.
Im spending most of my time in hotels at the moment so heating isnt much of an issue... this crappy travel lodge is pretty chilly though :(
One of my housemates honesty tourettes kicked in and he fessed up to flicking ours on a couple of weeks back. But in general, we've just been slowly retreating further in to the house. The ground floor is somewhat of a cold, barren, no-go area now, most of the first floor is getting noticeably colder so it looks like we will have to abandon it soon, but the second floor is still quite warm at the minute :D
It started coming on near the start of October, luckily the price plan for our gas is not bad. (Price fix Oct '14 with Npower)
Wish I could say the same for electricity - it's a ridiculous 20 pence per kilowatt, I need to look for another deal on that.
Ours has been on for months. Wife is from warmer climate so she can't stand the mild temperatures we have here. Does mean it's going to cost us a fortune in gas. Glad we have a fix until 2015! At what point will it become cheaper just to burn money?!!
Motto in this house is... too cold? Put a fourth jumper on. Grrr.
My heating stays on full all year round. I have the thermostat set at 35 degrees day and night, that way it stays nice and warm all the time. I also put the fire on full all day during the daytime between about September and June. I love being very warm and if I didn't have the heating on constantly I couldn't cope. Luckily there's only me and my teenage daughter living here and she likes to be warm too. We are both sat in front of the fire with jumpers and fleeces on, it's so lovely and warm :)
35??
Am I reading that right
It can be quite chilly if you live under a bridge ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Marcos