Surely they can’t expect us to pay 240 per month for power!

[Ellie198712]

Just read Martin Lewis’s latest email and it’s predicting average bills of £2900 per year!! Surely the government will need to step in and subsidise this cost. Our current bill is about 100 per month, and this just seems untenable for the vast majority

I thought this thread was about the cost of power, it seems to have been completely derailed.

In April 1963 when my DF died, our house had just been bought for £1,500. It was a 3 bedroom private build semi, where the builders had gone bust after finishing the last of 12 houses in a tree lined road 14 miles from a large NW city. The 12 properties were taken over by the council and we were lucky enough to get the last one which had a garage, large brick- walled rear garden with verandah, side garden and walled front garden with raised gateposts and wrought iron gate. It was beautiful.
My parents were able to buy it at the reduced price from the council. It had separate dining and sitting rooms plus a large tile floored kitchen and two outdoor brick store-rooms. Lilac trees had been planted at either side of the front gate and one at each corner of the lawned rear garden and a hedge behind the front wall further enclosed the property. It also had an enclosed front porch. 1500...seems unbelievable nowadays.

[quote poshme]@pickachew that's why we have a dehumidifier- because hanging outside doesn't always dry washing. But I dried 2 loads outside yesterday. Freezing cold- but windy. So nearly completely dry when i brought it in

And I totally get that issues like incontinence means that tumble driers are needed- I had a stage of washing 4 sets of wet bedding daily so you have my sympathy on that.
But bambina was talking rubbish- including that tumble driers are necessary for everyone with children. I don't agree.
[/quote]
My grandparents were from Liverpool and I remember being washed in a tin bath in front of a coal fire in the early 1970's.

It worked, in fact it was the most cozy bath I remember and the heat from the fire was considerable.

No central heating. Big 1930's house. Nights were cold in Liverpool in the winter.

Dear god! Again...?

Sorry, that was for @LoisLane66

@SamphiretheStickerist

Yet here we are, on MN, repeating the crap that forms opinions that get taken out into real life to help form policy in governments and organisations.

Or do you think all MNers are home making mums or bots?

Mumsnet was used in an economics module when I was attempting to study.

It would be interesting to know if Mumsnet was consulted when formulating Universal Credit.

Yes, laughable. Ha ha!

But look at the number of times threads get picked up and make big newspaper articles. A mention in HoC, HoL. All the engagement by organisations, MPs etc etc.

This place DOES have an impact. We, general members, are asked our opinions on all sorts of things.

Mumsnet was used in an economics module when I was attempting to study.

Soap operas were used in a module of my English degree. Nobody was under any illusion that meant they’re great literature.

@SamphiretheStickerist
You don't need to read or agree. We all have choices.

Also known as inflation and accompanied by constantly rising prices and interest rates.

And huge accompanying inflationary increases in wages which often cancelled out rising prices. I'd be very happy to have a 15% mortgage rate on a large £50k house with wages increasing at similar rates.

@LoisLane66 how do you choose when to be born?

Surely you have read the thread and seen explanations, desicusion and debate about comparing prices and earning back then and now? Yet you still plonked down your family tale, like manna from heaven. What was it supposed to accomplish?

@SamphiretheStickerist
🤐😂

@lonelyapple

Also known as inflation and accompanied by constantly rising prices and interest rates.

And huge accompanying inflationary increases in wages which often cancelled out rising prices. I'd be very happy to have a 15% mortgage rate on a large £50k house with wages increasing at similar rates.

Wages didn’t rise at the same rate. They were constantly playing catch up. And the prices of everything were constantly going up. Every week the supermarket shop cost more. Saying you’d rather have lived then is ridiculous, especially when people who did live then are constantly telling you that you’re viewing it through rose coloured spectacles.

£240 per month? Mine just increased from £115 to £305pm. Horrible!

I'd be very happy to have a 15% mortgage rate on a large £50k house with wages increasing at similar rates.

We had friends who thought the same. They did what many here will tell you is a myth. They took their house keys back to their lender and took the debt as a long term hit to the chin.

Wages didn't rise in line. And the mortgage rate climbed very quickly. We were laughed at when we worked out what we could afford at 20%. With the low deposit we paid our rate got to just under 19% and we managed to hold onto our 1 bedroom flat.

It wasn't as rosy as some might think.

@Ddot

Old tip put tin foil behind radiators to deflect heat. Can we please have some tips on how to keep usage low and not on who is more intelligent please

The following all apply to combi boilers.

Check the flow temperature on your boiler and reduce it to 55 degrees. Picked that one up as part of the Octopus Winter Workout and it noticeably reduced our gas consumption without reducing the warmth of the house. The heating will need to operate for a greater proportion of the time, but will cost less to run.

Also check hot water temperature - ours was set at 78. You are going to mix it with cold at the tap to get a usable temperature and it’s more efficient to heat it to a lower temperature and then use less cold to mix it with. You will do the adjustment at the tap automatically to get a comfortable temperature.

Our shower runs from the hot water feed and has two controls, one for flow and one for temperature. After we charged the setting on the boiler, we had to change the temperature control on the shower just the once, now it’s perfect, and we are using less gas for our hot water. The article I saw suggested 50 degrees for hot water, but DH likes an occasional very hot bath, so I left it at 60 to keep him happy.

@Handsoffreturns

If anyone would like a thread with info on saving energy, cutting your cloth back even further, benefits, grants and further support for fuel poverty, please let me know and I’ll set it up. This thread seems to have taken a bit of a turn to derailville.

We meant to start one yesterday but got tangled up in the derail.

Yes please!

I was born in 64 so strictly speaking I am a boomer. But I haven’t reached retirement age yet and won’t for another 10 years and then when I do I don’t have a great pension waiting for me. I have been a carer for my mother for 24 years, my husband who who have been in receipt of a civil service pension died before retirement age and I get a fraction of what he would have been entitled to(50%) and then I will get a state pension when I reach 67. We already do multi generational living as my mum and adult children plus one of their partners live with me. But the young couple want a home of their own which I can understand as they want their own space and by staying with me then are building up enough funds to leave probably at the tail end of this year or early next.
I am what you would think of as asset rich but income poor as I own my own home which is large enough for 5 adults but I cannot sell up as long as my mother is alive as it is adapted for her wheelchair. But when she dies one of the first things I will do is downsize probably to a two bed house as my older boy has special needs and although he works will never be able to earn much more than minimum wage. Any money left over after moving and investing a bit to supplement my pension I will divide between my sons and then when I die any invested will go to my son with the special needs to supplement his low age. But for now I have a expensive house to run on a limited income. My mum puts her pip into the bill account and my sons top up as well but I don’t like taking too much from them but they always offer if things get tight.
So it is pretty much a fallacy that baby boomers are all reaping great pensions and having 3 holidays a year. Some might be but others like me are just getting by and others are living in poverty and can’t afford to heat their homes.

*The following all apply to combi boilers.

Check the flow temperature on your boiler and reduce it to 55 degrees. Picked that one up as part of the Octopus Winter Workout and it noticeably reduced our gas consumption without reducing the warmth of the house. The heating will need to operate for a greater proportion of the time, but will cost less to run.

Also check hot water temperature - ours was set at 78. You are going to mix it with cold at the tap to get a usable temperature and it’s more efficient to heat it to a lower temperature and then use less cold to mix it with. You will do the adjustment at the tap automatically to get a comfortable temperature*

Actually, I still need to thank you for this advice PuzzledObserver. You wrote about reducing the flow in the boiler and it's made a huge difference in our gas usage.

Missing words...back in January.

@FourTeaFallOut

*The following all apply to combi boilers.

Check the flow temperature on your boiler and reduce it to 55 degrees. Picked that one up as part of the Octopus Winter Workout and it noticeably reduced our gas consumption without reducing the warmth of the house. The heating will need to operate for a greater proportion of the time, but will cost less to run.

Also check hot water temperature - ours was set at 78. You are going to mix it with cold at the tap to get a usable temperature and it’s more efficient to heat it to a lower temperature and then use less cold to mix it with. You will do the adjustment at the tap automatically to get a comfortable temperature*

Actually, I still need to thank you for this advice PuzzledObserver. You wrote about reducing the flow in the boiler and it's made a huge difference in our gas usage.

Just done this. Thanks

I started a thread a while ago - I don't know all the answers - but people can offer tips as appropriate

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4471775-Confused-about-the-price-cap-and-energy-consumption-Heres-the-thread-for-the-physics-and-the-maths-to-help-you

Apologies for the essay but you did ask :-)
It's a bit difficult to estimate because we didn't have a budget for it, we just did it as we went along, room by room and had money to do various bits. We actually started it in 2011 but then had family issues (2 sets of aged parents with health issues, both long-distance and in different towns) and then I was made redundant which slowed it all down.

We did as much of it as we could ourselves; we did all of the existing plaster removal, insulating, replastering and redecorating, all of the draught-proofing and insulating the floors and roof (we chose to replace/repair and draught-proof floorboards but insulate underneath).

We ebayed/freegled some of the insulation and battens, the rest was purchased online room by room. I learned to plaster or as it's known in our house 'vertical cake icing'!

We freegled/ebayed 3 of the windows and put them in ourselves, the rest were installed by a local supplier in 2 lots.

We purchased and fitted new front and back doors ourselves

A local installer supplied and fitted our boiler

A local builder rebuilt our old and draughty dormer and supplied and fitted a new window but we did all of the prep for him.

We bought and fitted our Tado system

We also bought and fitted a new kitchen (partially with ebayed carcasses, the rest bought new), knocked a wall down to make a room larger, de-arteced all of the ceilings and sanded 2 lots of stairs. We would have liked to build a porch at the front of the house and install solar panels but we ran out of steam and money. I now never want to see building tools ad equipment again in my life but I'm really glad we did it.

A rough back of an envelope figure would be around £5000 over 3 years, with the bulk being for the dormer, boiler and windows, although I was really happily surprised how little the windows actually cost, I'd always thought replacement windows cost mega-bucks. This includes new white goods and kitchen appliances (listed below).

We managed to defray some costs by re-selling many of the tools we bought as we went along, although I was sorry to wave goodbye to my 2015 birthday present - an air compressor and a nail gun (it was my choice, not my only present and soooo much fun :-D )

We also took the opportunity to buy a new washing machine with a 1600 spin speed, a dehumidifier for use if I can't dry outside, and to ditch the dishwasher (they seem to need replacing depressingly frequently). More recently we upgraded my old and well-loved pressure cooker and slow cooker to a multi-cooker (pressure-cooker, saute pan, rice cooker, air-fryer, slow cooker all in one), and bought a halogen hob (gob-smackingly more efficient than a standard hob), together they make quite a difference to my utility bills. We're also head-cheerleaders for merino base-layers and socks and rummaged wool blankets for snuggling into on cold winter evenings :-)

Meant for @Alwayscheerful :-)