Out of interest...Heating- are you in credit or debit? Have you got your heating on today?

[sunshineandkindle]

I've got -£250 on my electric ccount now which is pretty good as we managed to pay off all the winter debt of £2k over the year.
When's everyone putting there's on? Do you hold off as long as possible?

Heating?! I’ve only just shut the back doors.

£350 in credit, won’t be on for at least a month yet. If you aren’t on credit yet you need to up your dd, you should be on zero in April if you get it right

£1200 ish in credit and my ‘it’s boiling in here’ DH* will probably put the heating on in November. If I’m lucky! 🥶

*to anyone moving in with/thinking of moving in with a partner any time soon….please think long and hard about your body temperature! I was naive in my choice of husband and now am forever destined to freeze whilst he has every window open and every fan on….every month of the year!

@TheMasterplan23maybe look at uniqlo heat tech clothing for in the house? There are some great pieces.

Due to this thread checked the account and £700 credit, so have reduced the DD from 139/month to 112/month.

I’m currently about -£50 BUT we’ve spent the last couple of years paying off a £5k plus debt that we got into a few years ago, run up over several very difficult years (not really sure how they allowed it to get to that point but here we are).

The amount of credit is dependent on a number of factors, including the billing cycle. Our billing cycle used to start in November and we entered winter with zero credit. Come April we were in debt and by the time we got back to November we were around zero. The DD was correct as it covered our expected usage over 12 months.

@WasherWoman25 were your bills estimated? That is one of the typical reasons as to how an account can accrue a lot of debt. Gone are the days of meter readers regularly taking readings. It’s now expected that we read our own meters and submit the readings which is all well and good as long as you know what your are doing and can reach them! Smart meters not automatically submitting readings can also cause issues, but if the bill is estimated, it’s worth checking that your meter reading matches the bill and submit a new reading if they don’t match.

Given how costly energy now is, it’s easy to see how bills can escalate massively. Well done on clearing your debt which I dare say was challenging at times.

It also depends on who you have your energy from . I’m with BG for both and if my credit goes above £250 /300 they just automatically refund at least half back to me .

They were estimated but also down to us making a couple of payments then the DD not being paid. We were in a mess financially and any one that didn’t chase us for payment went to the bottom of the pile. It wasn’t a nice time overall and built up over a few years.

We are in a much better place now and most of the debt cleared. Was just scary how far they let it go and never moved us the prepayment meters etc (very grateful they didn’t though!).

I’m on top of a hill in Scotland, the outdoor temperature was 6 degrees when I got up this morning and the inside temp was 14 degrees. The heating comes on if the inside temperature goes below 18 degrees. It’s not about not being prepared to wear jumpers etc, it’s about the house being comfortable for kids getting out of bed, into showers etc, and for working at a desk all day.

I can’t fathom how a grown adult doesn’t understand the huge changes in temperature across the country that might necessitate a different approach to heating a home to a comfortable temperature.

@Jellycatspyjamas totally agree. It’s also lack of insight that people of different ages and with different health conditions have different heating needs as well.

Around £150 in credit. Heating came on this morning, have set the thermostat around 18 and on a timer .

@Allthingsabsolutely. I use less heating when the kids aren’t here because I have personal heating courtesy of menopause. The kids wear warm clothes but being in a cold house is neither comfortable or healthy.

We have an oil fired boiler and have plenty of oil. We tend to only fill the tank up half way and that lasts all winter. We still have plenty left from last year.

I am not a keep the house boiling sort of person. Thermostat is set at maybe 15C. It’s an old farmhouse. We do use wood burners, when it’s really cold, but tend not to turn heating on before November. I’m very much a put a jumper on everyone sort of person. 😂

No heating on yet, £200 in credit atm

I am also with BG and have only been automatically refunded if credit was over £70 (for each fuel as I have one account for each) at the end of the year. The only time that happened was when usage was cut back massively and I ended up with excess credit. Things have changed when the new billing system was introduced, including quarterly bills which will make it easier for DDs to be changed or excess credit refunded, but until recently our usage was very static year on year for electric and not much variation in gas, the DDs covered usage across the year.

We had solar installed this year and got an EV, so it’s a bit of a stab in dark as to how electric usage will pan out especially over the winter. We had accrued quite a bit of credit in the first three months and I asked for that to be refunded as well as the DD to be lowered as we were not using any electric at all. That will obviously change over winter when solar production will reduce massively. But I think I have the DD about right, but will up if necessary.

We've now hit the 16 degree mark in our house this morning so I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and put the heating on! I have 2 children and live in an old house (300 years old) so it doesn't preserve heat very well

Mine has come on itself this morning for the first time. I can’t remember what temp we have it set at but must have dropped pretty cold this morning.

Ours are electric heaters and I have no idea how to set them up so I just put them on manually ... eek

We do a monthly meter reading and pay when the bill comes in.

Heating went on yesterday morning when it was 16 degrees in the house, I have a cold and despite layers, blankets, woolen socks I was freezing and couldn't work.

It's set to 19 degrees max and shuts itself off when it's reached. Just enough to take the chill away. Fire goes on at weekends or if we are both in longer in the evenings.

£204 in credit my heating has been coming on itself in the mornings for a couple of weeks most days.

our thermostat is at 15.8 this morning, and that's with having put the heating on for 40mins last night.

am hoping we'll not have it on the next few days as although overnight is cold there's due to be more sunshine during the day!

I have an oil tank, so I just order a tank of oil as and when I need it. I save the money in a credit union account each month, so the money is there when I need to pay. I need to take inflation into account though - I may need to increase my monthly payments. Thanks for the reminder.

Oh and my heating has most definitely been on. It"s 4 degrees on this bright (but very chilly) morning. We seem to have gone straight from summer to winter.