Energy Bills

[Mr_Dogg]

17 hours ago, blandy said:

I’ve always thought it’s a bit of a waste of time, unless you’re going to have every radiator on in every room and want each room to be at the same temp. I mean if you want, say bedrooms off or cooler than say living rooms during the day, then it’s a bit pointless. Also, I guess with energy prices being what they are, the best way to save money is to turn off rads in rooms until you’re going to be in them, or to have smart valves on timers or schedules, all of which kind of negate the whole balancing thing to a large degree, though if you have one or two rads that heat up way faster than the rest, throttling those back a bit is a good idea (or seeing if the others can be opened up more).

Ideally you should have a zoned house with bedroom zone set to a lower temperature.

[Mr_Dogg]

3 hours ago, stuart_75 said:

What he said. Water will always take the path of least resistance in a central heating system with the radiator farthest away from the boiler or the water having to go round lots of bends heating up the slowest. Its very much a dark art getting the system balanced.

 

 

Straight forward video on balancing radiators, will take about an hour.

Edited April 4, 2022 by Mr_Dogg

[lapal_fan]

Solution; Get an incoming water main and boiler for every room in the house. 

[sidcow]

So I've got no heating on currently and no hot water running, no appliance running.

Most of the morning there has been no blue bar showing on my smart meter.

But now a single bar has appeared.  Why would that be?  I shouldn't be using any gas at all.

Does the pilot light occasionally flare stronger at certain times or something?

[sidcow]

Daily energy cost went over £8 yesterday.  Heating was on most (but not all) of the day, washing machine on and ironing done. Sunday lunch cooked, dishwasher went on.  It does not bode well for next winter after another price rise and heating really will be on all day on the really cold days.

[Genie]

5 minutes ago, sidcow said:

So I've got no heating on currently and no hot water running, no appliance running.

Most of the morning there has been no blue bar showing on my smart meter.

But now a single bar has appeared.  Why would that be?  I shouldn't be using any gas at all.

Does the pilot light occasionally flare stronger at certain times or something?

Does the water heat up at set times?

Boilers usually have an anti-freeze function where they’ll warm themselves up if they think there’s a risk of freezing but I doubt that is the case today (unless the thermometer is on the blink).

Edited April 4, 2022 by Genie

[sidcow]

1 minute ago, Genie said:

Does the water heat up at set times?

Boilers usually have an anti-freeze function where they’ll warm themselves up if they think there’s a risk of freezing but I doubt that is the case today.

No hot water tank, it's a combi boiler.  Should be no gas used as far as I know.  I've noticed this before.

Edited April 4, 2022 by sidcow

[Genie]

I’ve resisted a smart meter due to the kind of trauma @sidcow is going through  

I know it would drive me mad.

[lapal_fan]

3 minutes ago, sidcow said:

No hot water tank, it's a combi boiler.  Should be no gas used as far as I know.  I've noticed this before.

You must have farted. 

[Milfner]

I'll be honest - I've absolutely buried my head in the sand over this.

My supplier went bust so I've switched to Scottish Power. Until now I've been paying £97 p/m which has now jumped to £151. The best fixed tariff is £350 p/m! I assume sticking with the current variable is the best course of action?

I'm lucky that my partner & I can cover the increase but it is genuinely horrifying thinking how many people are going to have choose between turning the lights on or having dinner. 

[sidcow]

1 hour ago, lapal_fan said:

You must have farted. 

This is the future of energy self reliance. It's the only reason why I've been interting tubes there, in the name of science to see if I can harvest the energy......honest.

I am hoping @Xela is the answer to the nations gas needs.

[Ingram85]

Still have no idea what’s going on with mine. It still says £129pm on the British Gas app and apparently I’m in credit for 6 months as they’ve taken the payments every time but it’s just sitting there as credit. Tried ringing them but no luck. Not a sausage what is happening with this one. 

Edited April 4, 2022 by Ingram85

[tinker]

1 hour ago, Ingram85 said:

Still have no idea what’s going on with mine. It still says £129pm on the British Gas app and apparently I’m in credit for 6 months as they’ve taken the payments every time but it’s just sitting there as credit. Tried ringing them but no luck. Not a sausage what is happening with this one. 

Make sure you have a meter reading as close to the 1st of April as you can  I went 3 years with no gas bill and then all of a sudden they wanted £3000. Got knows what it would be at these rates. 

[Stevo985]

29 minutes ago, tinker said:

Make sure you have a meter reading as close to the 1st of April as you can  I went 3 years with no gas bill and then all of a sudden they wanted £3000. Got knows what it would be at these rates. 

Out of interest did you have to pay it?

I think this might be about to happen to me. Never submitted a reading for my flat. They've never asked for one, I don't know where the meters are (they're locked away in some cupboard somewhere), I've just paid my bill every month and not really thought about it. I always assumed they took readings via the landlord/management company and I just got my bill and paid it

Now that everything is going up I've figured out I could go online and submit a reading, which I've done. But the Electricity meter reading I've submitted is way WAY higher than the reading they'd "estimated" I was on. Which makes me think when they put my actual reading in I'll owe them a shit load of money. I think they've just been taking estimated readings for 5 years.

Edited April 4, 2022 by Stevo985

[blandy]

3 hours ago, sidcow said:

No hot water tank, it's a combi boiler.  Should be no gas used as far as I know.  I've noticed this before.

Mine, also a combi - I noticed with it turned off, heating and hot water (on the programmer, not completely dead) that from time to time it does a kind of flush of water down the external drain pipe - drains off all the condenesed water, so maybe it's that _ in only noticed because I was outside and could hear the drainpipe and wondered if the toilet ballcock was broken. Took me w while to find out it was the boiler.

[markavfc40]

3 hours ago, sidcow said:

Daily energy cost went over £8 yesterday.  Heating was on most (but not all) of the day, washing machine on and ironing done. Sunday lunch cooked, dishwasher went on.  It does not bode well for next winter after another price rise and heating really will be on all day on the really cold days.

£8 a day/£56 a week/around £240 a month I have a feeling we will soon be looking back on those kind of charges, especially in a cold month, as halcyon days.

[tinker]

19 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Out of interest did you have to pay it?

I think this might be about to happen to me. Never submitted a reading for my flat. They've never asked for one, I don't know where the meters are (they're locked away in some cupboard somewhere), I've just paid my bill every month and not really thought about it. I always assumed they took readings via the landlord/management company and I just got my bill and paid it

Now that everything is going up I've figured out I could go online and submit a reading, which I've done. But the Electricity meter reading I've submitted is way WAY higher than the reading they'd "estimated" I was on. Which makes me think when they put my actual reading in I'll owe them a shit load of money. I think they've just been taking estimated readings for 5 years.

There's a time limit they can go back to , think it's 1 or maybe  2 years. They tried for all of it though, I just said no follow the rules . I paid about a third of it. 

[Xela]

3 hours ago, sidcow said:

This is the future of energy self reliance. It's the only reason why I've been interting tubes there, in the name of science to see if I can harvest the energy......honest.

I am hoping @Xela is the answer to the nations gas needs.

[Xela]

4 hours ago, Milfner said:

I'll be honest - I've absolutely buried my head in the sand over this.

My supplier went bust so I've switched to Scottish Power. Until now I've been paying £97 p/m which has now jumped to £151. The best fixed tariff is £350 p/m! I assume sticking with the current variable is the best course of action?

That is absolutely crazy! What benefit is there in fixing if it is that high? 

[Xela]

1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

Out of interest did you have to pay it?

I think this might be about to happen to me. Never submitted a reading for my flat. They've never asked for one, I don't know where the meters are (they're locked away in some cupboard somewhere), I've just paid my bill every month and not really thought about it. I always assumed they took readings via the landlord/management company and I just got my bill and paid it

Now that everything is going up I've figured out I could go online and submit a reading, which I've done. But the Electricity meter reading I've submitted is way WAY higher than the reading they'd "estimated" I was on. Which makes me think when they put my actual reading in I'll owe them a shit load of money. I think they've just been taking estimated readings for 5 years.

What reading did you submit if you haven't got access to the meters? Have you just guessed? 

Didn't you get a key for the meter cupboard? Mine is outside at the back of the the apartment. My old flat, it was in the cupboard under the stairs in the communal hallway. When I moved into my first place, I was paying about £10 per month for about 2 years... then they must have come out and read the meter and I got a huge bill (over £1.5k). Had to pay it. God knows what it would have been on todays rates.