Central heating

If you don't have a central heating system. You can get free central heating totally free of cost through the Government Eco4 Scheme.
Apply now and check your eligibility from the link given below.

First time central heating

Mine is always on low. My lungs hate the cold

OLD THREAD RESURRECTED

There’s a similar current thread about keeping warm to add to

Mine is rarely if ever on and so far hasn't been on at all this winter. I live in London (outskirts) and the house is very well insulated and it never feels cold. If it felt a bit chilly the heating would go on.

Mine is always on, helped out by the gas fire in winter, I hate being cold.

Our heating uses 2 thermostats ( one upstairs one down) but is also timed to only come on for limited hours. We can over rice and blip the heating on as needed but we have not needed to do that since the winter. That seems to work most of the time - except in very cold weather ( or if the calor gas runs out which often happens in mid winter when the delivery truck is delayed) when we use log burners to supplement the heating. I was a bit cold last night and thought I might need my warm hat to sleep in!

I hang out for as long as I can but no specific date. If I'm cold and its not evening I'm turning it on. If its anytime after about 8pm I'll just go to bed early and read or surf on my iPad. First thing I do is start to wear winter clothes and add a jumper and wear socks.

Greciangirl

What is the point of switching CH on in the morning for one hour only and then switching it back on again later on.?
You then have to reheat the house again as it’s probably cooled down.

Surely it’s more cost efficient to turn the thermostat down in order to keep an ambient temperature.

Seems so to me as well.

Our thermostat is set and does the work, I don't fiddle with it. We also use 2 fireplaces, at ends of the house - helps heat.

I decided to watch the pennies last winter, and am glad I did. I managed perfectly well by wearing 2× fleeces, a woolly hat indoors, buying for £15 on eBay a pair of padded overtrousers that skiers wear in the snow, and putting a single electric blanket on the settee to watch TV in the evenings (costs very little), and using a terracotta pot oven in the kitchen. Sometimes, I was so warm that I had to take stuff off! No CH on at all until December when I would put it on for a couple of hours in the morning only.

Vr3a I don't think energy companies are allowed to refuse you a refund if you are in credit
I would ring Consumer protection first.they can give you advice re energy bills.,Citizens advice
I have never had problems getting a refund when in credit

£5000.00 is a lot to be in credit. Try ringing their customer service team??

Yes I shall be contacting them again this week. I've taken meter readings again today as that'll be the first thing they ask.

I only became aware there was a problem when I looked over all Dad's paper bills earlier this year.
The problem has arisen because British Gas had been estimating the readings but only every six months, and they are so way out I cannot begin to think where they're coming from.
They reckoned Dad was £7,000 in arrears, but they obviously weren't bothered about it as they didn't alter his normal direct debit, so I hadn't picked up any problem from his bank account.
I then submitted true readings for the next two months and got told "there appears to be a problem, we'll look into it and get back to you" but they never did.
Then during the summer we had an engineer call to discuss smart meters, so I told him and he said he'd submit the true readings as they ought to believe him!
At least that seems to have worked as that's the latest reading on the account 🙄

Greciangirl In the past, when houses were less well insulated this was true because heat was lost from the house very quickly and the internal temperature fell quite low quite fast. Nowadays, when even old houses like ours have a lot of insulation the heat loss is far slower.

Our heating is set at 18.5 and comes on for three hours in the morning, going off at 9.00am, not coming back on until 4.00pm. On most days the internal temperature in those 7 hours will only fall to 17.0, and on warmer winter days, will fall even less. We therefore use far less fuel to increase the temperature by 1.5 degrees at 4.00pm than we would use if we had the heating cycling on and off all day keeping the temperature at 18.5.

Will try to hold out putting CH on until October. I do use small heaters in lounge and bedroom when its chilly though. it's when it gets cold in the bathrooms that OH usually gives in to putting it on.

My heating has been on for the odd morning for an hour or so, wood burner some evenings too, but living in the north Highlands of Scotland in an old stone cottage believe me they get incredibly cold very quickly.🥶

My thermostat is set at 17.5 and left alone…

We live in a small vert well insulated house and tend to just use our multi log burner for heat. We have been using now in the evening for just over two weeks. Water is heated twice a day, more if needed, by a gas boiler. We do use the central heating late Dec/Jan and Feb to heat upstairs for an an hour or two in the mornings when we get

No central heating here either. All electric. Not put any of the heaters on yet, other than the towel rail in the downstairs loo. Our house is less than 30 years old and, whilst it does have poorly installed windows, it’s fairly well insulated. Currently downstairs it’s 20 degrees so no need for heating. Am in the North West.

What is the point of switching CH on in the morning for one hour only and then switching it back on again later on.?
You then have to reheat the house again as it’s probably cooled down.

Surely it’s more cost efficient to turn the thermostat down in order to keep an ambient temperature.

We got a refund from British Gas some months back... but we did ring and speak to a human and we are also down on their records as vulnerable. Of course if we tried now we may not be so lucky.

£5000.00 is a lot to be in credit. Try ringing their customer service team??

It’s very high up where I am so we catch the cold winds. I have the heating set at 19 to kick in automatically. You can always turn individual radiators down or off in rooms you don’t use much.

I like my living room to be cosy and warm and the bathroom to be a nice temperature when I step out of the shower in a morning. I’m quite nesh so I’d rather spend a bit more on heating than be miserable sat here shivering. Once the cold gets into your bones it’s hard to get warm.

www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment/how-much-youll-get

There is an extra allowance again this winter.

In the winter, when it does get cold, mine will be set to 18 C daytime and 16 C at night. That's the temperature I feel most comfortable with.

If I have guests, I'll turn it up, as I know others tend to feel the cold more than I do. I am frugal by nature (and habit) but I'm not worried about the cost - it's just that I'd rather spend on luxuries than bills.

I'll get the gas billed again soon - having saved that £10 a month standing charge since March.

I've just filled in the form for the government insulation scheme. I didn't think we were eligible but it seems our small 1970s semi should qualify us for some sort of discount. It should help lower our bills a bit.

www.gov.uk/apply-great-british-insulation-scheme

At my age and lack of mobility the last thing I worry about is the heating cost.

Our thermostat is set at 18.5 and we only have heating on for 3 hours in the morning and 6 in the evening. We do not have any heating on at night when we are sleeping.

This keeps the house comfortably warm except in exceptionally cold conditions when we sometimes put it on for a couple of hours midday.

However, although our house is old we have made every effort to put insulation where we can and double glaze where we can, sometimes with standard double glazed windows and elsewhere with internal secondary glazing.