Energy Bills

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Muttley Aug 2022 4:52pm, 26 Aug 2022 1,780 posts	0 Muttley Well yes. Mother of Muttley used to put her "winter fuel payment" towards a ticket to the Caribbean. As she said, it was given to her to keep warm ...
jda Aug 2022 5:05pm, 26 Aug 2022 13,257 posts	0 jda Muttley, definitively the heat loss depends directly on the difference between outdoor and indoor temp. The more time your house spends at a relatively high temp, the more heat is lost (and therefore needs to be replaced by your heating system).
Johnny Blaze Aug 2022 5:06pm, 26 Aug 2022 28,236 posts	0 Johnny Blaze I was doing some reading several months ago about heating strategies and from the best I can recall the answers revolved around the rate at which your house loses heat - which is also driven by how cold it is outside. The conclusion I drew is that the colder it is outside the harder your boiler has to work to keep the house warm. Generally it's colder at night, so turn the heating off at night. Not exactly rocket science but the more you heat at night the more heat your house will lose. I've not yet bitten the bullet and switched off at 4:30 PM but I may do yet.
Muttley Aug 2022 5:56pm, 26 Aug 2022 1,781 posts	0 Muttley Yes, but that doesn't answer the question. If you have the boiler on for a shorter period am and pm, it has to work harder to get the house up to temp and thereby burn more gas. Or it can be burning less during a longer period, having got the house up to temp and able to take it easy. Which option costs more (all things being equal, special tariffs like overnights excluded). I suspect it hinges on the strength of the insulation. My strategy is to have the main radiator on at a lowish setting from about daylight to 10 in the evening during winter. But I'm all electric and have solar panels so even on a dull day there's a dribble of juice. When the sun's out I switch on a spare radiator and the towel dryers as well.
jda Aug 2022 6:07pm, 26 Aug 2022 13,258 posts	0 jda If your boiler efficiency is the same at all outputs (which is not necessarily the case but may be a reasonable approximation) then all that really matters is how hot the house is, for how long. If your pattern of use is a couple of hours in the morning, then either (a) staying on all day into the evening or (b) off during the day while you're out at work, then on again for a few hours in the evening then (b) will use less power. Even if it's working hard for a couple of hours in the evening when you come back from work, it's generating less heat in total than it would have done had it been on for the full day, because your house has been (on average) colder and so has lost less heat in total. The only case where keeping the heating on for longer works best, is if your heating system is significantly more efficient at a low to moderate output and less efficient at a high output. Which may be the case for heat pumps, for example, but I don't think is the case for normal gas boilers.
um Aug 2022 6:11pm, 26 Aug 2022 6,424 posts	0 um €900 a month for a house on Samos, all utilities, wifi included, Dec through Feb. I'm very tempted ... Muttley - how much battery storage have you got? If not much, or not enough for heating, then you're right, when the panels are generating power, best to use it. Assuming it's free at that point?
JenHB Aug 2022 6:34pm, 26 Aug 2022 957 posts	0 JenHB warning - I'm assuming it was a scam but had a phone call from an 'energy advisor' asking me about my fibre glass loft insulation (they are assuming I have fibre glass) - as it was a cold call I told them I wasn't interested. Thinking that people could be more susceptible to these scams due to energy bill news today!
Hanneke Aug 2022 6:51pm, 26 Aug 2022 92,314 posts	0 Hanneke I had a scam call this morning too! He didn't want to say who he was or was calling from. He said on behalf of the council and all energy companies as my rates were going up... He hung up when I refused to engage in conversation and asked which company employed him to make this call. The number is registered to an Irish company that hires out phone numbers for cold calling, fishing and scamming!!! We have to be very alert right now, as they are going to take advantage of the most vulnerable 🤬
Hanneke Aug 2022 6:58pm, 26 Aug 2022 92,315 posts	0 Hanneke Re heating: this is very old but: my mother used to work at the Agricultural University at the department of domestic science. This resulted in us continually taking part in research: how much water a flushing loo uses vs needs to use, once we had measuring devices between all electric appliances. Surprising how much pilot lights and stand by consumes! I turn everything off since then! There was also research in the most efficient way to heat your house. Transpired 15 degrees! So I keep my house/thermostat set to that. It means it needs little to no heat at breakfast time for me to be comfy. When I come home in the evening heating gets turned up to 18, mostly cooking/oven use results in a very quick reaching of that temperature: small, open plan living space. After supper, heating goes off and gets maintained with the logburner. Mild winters have meant low oil usage...
Muttley Aug 2022 7:48pm, 26 Aug 2022 1,782 posts	0 Muttley Muttley - how much battery storage have you got? If not much, or not enough for heating, then you're right, when the panels are generating power, best to use it. Assuming it's free at that point? No batteries but a fairly hefty pv array. Leccy per unit is circa 30p at present (I guess it'll go to 50-odd soon), pv export tariff is 7.5p. The smart meter measures consumption and export but not usage of own generated power so I can't tell how much I save by running appliances or radiators during the day. Must be quite a bit though. The neighbours invested in battery storage because they have a thing about living off-grid so it's ideological for them. For me simply not worth it, the payback period just too long (and batteries begin to lose their charge after a while).