To want to restrict how much we have the heating on

[reallyagain]

After a winter working from home last year we were hit with a horrendous heating bill (several thousand on top of already paying quite a high amount per month). So this year with gas prices being so high I’m really conscious of being careful. DH wants it on much more than I do and it’s causing endless rows. He’s turned it on 4 separate times today and is sulking when I comment. We share heating bills - I suggested he pays more to have it on more but he refuses.

How much do you have the heating on if you work from home?

@NotMyCat
Your apartment may be about the same size as mine which is a two bed flat on two floors.
I found that EDF charge quite a bit more if you pay by cash or cheque than paying by DD so it says on their website. I'm glad that they're only charging what I Nd others were paying with Utility Point and Ofgem is picking up the slack.
I might get that shrink film to put across (not ON) some windows. Amazon sell it and it's cheap and easy to fit. There are customer photos and good reviews.

Ask for your meters to be checked, just to make sure your readings are correct

If you wear lots of layers plus a scarf and use throws indoors, then you won't feel the benefit when you go out. There are only so many more layers you could put on.

Grenlei
I've not switched the heating on yet. I usually keep it off til December.

Wow- where do you live? Currently 5 degrees here, and have had frost a few nights recently.

The trouble is that wfh involves sitting down most of the day, and then you get cold. I am battling with Dh about the heating, and even when he is wearing layers plus a thick jumper and big socks and furry slippers, his hands and nose are freezing. I have to accept that the heating has to be on more than I’d like.

So I'm with everyone else thinking that your energy bill is INSANE. I have a 4-bed end of terrace and I pay £120/month for gas+electric which includes charging my electric car.

Last I checked the split was roughly in favour of electric: around £70 electric and £50 gas. I am by no means frugal- the heating comes on at 21 degrees at 5 in the morning and stays at that point all day until 8pm when it drops to 19, and down to 10 degrees at 11pm.

There are a few things that need checking- first of all your old radiators. How old? Secondly, have you had a power flush of your system? Have you insulated (lagged) your central heating pipes that are outside the heat envelope of your home (under the floor or outside the house if they travel that way?). How insulated?

That is an insane heating bill. If I am presuming that your electric use is not over represented then at most £100/month is electric. So £560/month on gas.

Gas unit price is 0.04 (or was last year). So you were using approx 14,000kwh of gas per month. If your boiler is big, say a 45kw boiler, then that is equal to your boiler being on full blast, absolutely full tilt for 10 hours per day every single day of the year including summer. Presumably your usage profile is like everyone else so it's more like not at all in summer, a little in autumn and spring and a lot in winter. Which is the equivalent of 20 odd hours full tilt every day during winter.

Your house must have been a FURNACE.

If it wasn't- if it was just something like a fairly standard 20-22 degrees, then there is something seriously wrong with your heating or gas setup. If you had a bill of thousands on top of £660/month then there is something seriously fucked up. I'm not quite sure how you could even actually consume that much gas.

[quote LoisLane66]@NotMyCat
Your apartment may be about the same size as mine which is a two bed flat on two floors.
I found that EDF charge quite a bit more if you pay by cash or cheque than paying by DD so it says on their website. I'm glad that they're only charging what I Nd others were paying with Utility Point and Ofgem is picking up the slack.
I might get that shrink film to put across (not ON) some windows. Amazon sell it and it's cheap and easy to fit. There are customer photos and good reviews.[/quote]
I've swapped from bulb to a fixed deal with sainsburys which was cheaper recently
It's 75sqm or so, open plan as well

I mean forget the issue with your DH- a three bed Victorian house just doesn't cost that much to heat. If you get stung by these new energy price rises and you start paying 10 or 12p/unit of gas you'll be fucked- like £2k/month on energy

@reallyagain

Vivienne do you mind me asking how much you spend on gas/electric per month? Last winter we were averaging £660pm. Can't really cut back elsewhere to pay for that! It's a 3 bed house albeit Victorian

OP this is extortionate! Is the house insulated at all????

DottyHarmer
The trouble is that wfh involves sitting down most of the day, and then you get cold. I am battling with Dh about the heating, and even when he is wearing layers plus a thick jumper and big socks and furry slippers, his hands and nose are freezing. I have to accept that the heating has to be on more than I’d like.

I agree- I work from home too, heating has to be on, but I don;t heat rooms that are not being used. I switch off radiators in unused and spare bedrooms, other living spaces. I have 16 radiators in my home, but during daytime use only 4. I close doors and only heat the spaces that I need.

Thats an extraordinarily high bill.
Apologies if someone has already said this, but are you up to date with bleeding the radiators? I thought that I was, because I had done them two or three years ago, but when I was having some plumbing work done the workman did them properly and the difference it made to them heating up was phenomenal! I had to turn down the thermostat. (Quite new boiler, thirty year old radiators).
Another suggestion is to go around all your windows and doors and feel where the draughts are coming in, and block them with filler and draught excluders.

Obviously triple glazing and proper insulation are the optimal solution but it takes a very long time to see a return on that level of investment. So I suggest looking at these smaller tweaks as a way of reducing your bills (while continuing to work on your husband's attitude of course).

Layering up really isn’t enough if you feel the cold. The air around you is still cold and it’s miserable. I couldn’t live like that. Well, I did when I was a kid, horrible.

Laughing at suggestions through the thread to wear a dressing gown, blankets or a poncho.

Can you imagine a client on zoom seeing someone sitting in a big dressing gown? You are trying to land a deal and you’re swaddled in three blankets and sporting a bobble hat?

@speakout

*Grenlei I've not switched the heating on yet. I usually keep it off til December.*

Wow- where do you live? Currently 5 degrees here, and have had frost a few nights recently.

South London. I completely accept that in other parts of the country it is a lot colder :)

Our heating is not particularly efficient anyway so even with it full blast the house is never that warm, I'm always disappointed by how little difference it makes.

I hate being cold, especially in my own house. It makes me feel miserable. I'd try to save money on other things. Personally, I think YABU

I also only have 9 radiators for 13 rooms (rather jealous of @speakout's 16 radiators) so that probably doesn't help!

Is your house insulated? Helped a lot in our case.

£660 per month!!!! i presume you live in a huge mansion for that amount!

Wow we are up to £85 per month for gas AND electricity in a three bedroom detached and I thought that was an excessive hike due to my DH being at home the past 15 months or so.

We have hive and so maximum temperature is at 18 degrees and then it goes off. I definitely find having hive or similar good at setting our limits throughout the day.

Overnight it only comes on when drop below 14 degrees

Mine went on today for the 1st time as I was feeling chilly sitting working. Canary camera did say it was 15 degrees.

I am surprised that people think 18 or even 16 is acceptable for living in, because I feel cold if it drops below 20! Honestly I would rather do without food than be cold. It makes me miserable and I get a headache because it makes me so tense. I once saw a documentary where they tested someone’s body response to temperature and 16 was deemed unhealthy and could even lead to hypothermia. It’s not just the body, breathing in cooler air is not healthy either.

£660 a month is Insane
You must live in a Draughty castle?

It reminds me of “Testimony” a house in Wales where the electric bill was colossal - driven by poltergeist activity
The cottage was called Heol Fanog

Swalec were called out umpteen times and could find no reason for such vast bills.

Dh and ds3 are both working from home at the moment, and it is already feeling pretty chilly here, so I can understand your Dh wanting to be warm, @reallyagain - but I agree with you that it is not reasonable to spend a fortune hearing a whole house unnecessarily.

Dh is going to try having the heating on all day, but at a lower level (15 degrees), and is going to see if this makes the gas bill go up. If it doesn’t, and we are all comfortable, we will do this from now on. The assumption is that it could be as fuel efficient to keep the heating on all day as it is to heat the house up to 17 degrees in the morning and evening.

In the past, when all the dses were away at university or working, and Dh was working away from home a lot, I didn’t think it was reasonable to put the heating on just for me - so I wrapped up more, wore slippers, and put the gas fire on in the front room in the evening.

I think that, if your Dh wants the heating on more, he has to cough up more to pay for it.

Edit
“
Testimony” was a book written about the Welsh Cottage still info online about it.