Blimey... How much!!!

[cazzykins]

Have just spent 30 mins on the phone to Npower (after 20 mins on hold they hung up on me! so had to ring back) Trying to get £100 back from as we're over paying and in credit (Amazing!) Not as easy as I thought, hopefully they'l sort it out, spoke to a really nice woman too. Ah well, would be nice to get it back, would pay for a back up megaray bulb...

[linda]

fuel prices are crazy at the moment

we all need one of these

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7796215.stm

[Bertie1974]

Absolutely crazy, the electricity charge is not too bad but the Gas is £365! I have a combi boiler that is set on timed to come on 1 hour before I get up, it goes of at 8am. Then it come back on at 5pm, off at 11pm. I don't think that usage is too excessive do you guys? I can see myself opening the chimneys up to burn solid fuels and sitting here by candle light

Sam x x

[Lowe]

If you've got central heating with a thermostat, it should never be turned off. Yup, I'm not nuts, 24 hours a day.

For example, you set the temp to 20c during the day, then let the heating warm the house up. It will then warm the house itself - bricks and the like, acting like a huge kiln. Once it's up to temp, the house will maintain its temperature and not need to fire up the boiler (thermostat will keep it turned off). If the temp does drop, the thermostat will fire the boiler up for 5 mins to 'top up' the temp.

This is the most efficient way to have your central heating. Most of the 'work' is being done heating the house up in the first place. Turning the heating off all the time just lets the house and bricks cool down again, and so it takes longer and longer to heat it back up again (costing more money).

[Lowe]

Here's a post that some of you may find useful. It was written by a friend who's a plumber on another forum I help run.

1. Bleed Your Radiators - Turn off heating system and use a radiator key to bleed the air out of all the upstairs rads, once you get water you are done. Once done re-top the heating system back to 1bar on combi systems or walk away if you have tanks in the loft (they refill the rads automatically). Run the system on full temperature for half an hour, then turn heating off and rebleed again.

2. Hot Water Cylinders - Ensure they are timed for no more than 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night, any more than that and you are wasting gas for no reason. All cylinders keep water hot for 8 hours Also make sure the cylinder stat which has settings from 30-90 is set to 60. The human body cannot cope with more than 43C so 60 is more than enough for everyones needs, any higher again you burn more gas. Electric Hot Water Cylinders should be timed to come on via economy 7, from midnight to 7am and will give you more than enough hot water for the day. If you have the boost button on all the time you are paying 4 times the economy 7 rate so turn it off!

3. Clothes on Radiators - Dont do it!! It is far better to have an airer in the room than wet clothes on the rad even on the over rad airers which will keep the heating on far longer than needed. The clothes dont dry any quicker over rads, you wont get the heat into the room because the clothes are covering the rads so it will never reach temperature and keep the boiler on, again burning the gas.

4. Curtains - Ensure they are long enough to tuck behind the radiators, if they fall in front of them or are too short all your heating is going straight out of the window.

5. Thermostatic Rad Valves - If you have them fitted then use them properly and they will save you loads of money. Most important thing to remember is to keep the doors closed so each radiator only does the room its designed for. The rads should go COLD but the room be warm enough for you to be comfortable, if the room is warm and rad is hot they are too high so go down to the next lowest number. Leave all the doors open and they wont work properly! Downstairs should be set on number 4, upstairs 2-3, each person is different so it takes about a week of adjusting to get the rooms to the comfort zone as you want them. Idea is the bedrooms stay off during the day which is peak rate gas and only come on at night when you want the bedrooms toasty.

6. Combi Boilers - Leave them running 24/7 and working via the main thermostat or thermostatic rad valves. Its costs more to reheat a house twice a day on timers than leave them all running as once the insulation is warm it will stay warm. Everytime its allowed to go cold you have to heat all the insulation again and burn tons more gas than is needed.

7. Get Boilers Serviced - All boilers should be properly serviced once a year which not only ensures they are working as efficiently as possible but also picks up any potential problems before it becomes a breakdown and major costs get involved. Sticking a probe in the flue is NOT a service so dont be conned, if there is no hoover brought in and the boiler doesnt get stripped down they arent doing a proper service.

Other helpful hints....

Turn off appliances at the main switch when not being used especially in the kitchen. Microwave clocks, standby neons etc eat electric you dont need to.

Defrost your freezer and hoover the back of the fridge/freezers regularly. The more ice inside the freezer and dust over the element on the back.....the more electric you need to run them so the more expensive they become.

Use dryerballs in the tumble dryer. These retain heat and help dry the clothes quicker so saving electric.

Ensure your loft is insulated, you should have at least 4 inches of insulation on the loft floors to stop the heat escaping through the roof, the more insulation you can get up there the better to keep your heating bills down.

Shop around, while all Suppliers have increased prices there are still some deals to be had and even a penny cheaper a unit soon adds up...

[Zen]

Thats really interesting Lowe, thanks for that, def going to check on a few bits now!

[swad1000]

I've heard this lots of times, and I've yet to see anyone prove it. To me its like keeping a kettle warm all the time, yes it takes a lot of energy to inially heat the water, but it takes even more to keep it heated 24/7.

And here what the energy saving trust have to say about it, http://www.energychoices.co.uk/energ...ur-expert.html

http://www.powerofonestreet.ie/en/Energy-Myths/

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/...water/Hot-tips

[Lowe]

Depends on your insulation in the house I guess. Sarah and I have saved significantly since moving over to a 24/7 heating but then we have a newish (10 year old) house that is pretty efficient, and Sarah is in the house pretty much all the time during the working week.

Each to their own, though £533 doesn't sound right to me.

( Oh and for the record I'm talking about heating - not hot water )

[Bertie1974]

Thanks Andy, will try some of those tips. I have an old house i.e the kind with no cavity walls to insulate but the loft is. Perhaps I will try leaving the heating on all day at a lower temp to see if the house maintains the heat. I'll try anything to lower that kind of bill.

Sam x x

[sahara]

I have my heating on 24/7 and our gas bill was half that.