To just think fuck it now in regards to the heating?

[FuH]

I have a 2 year old who has chest issues. We've been in and out of hospital with him more times than I can count, he has two inhalers daily, steroids, children's nursing team who are regularly asked to come and see him etc..

It's always worse when it's cold. He's been really unwell again this past week and I was fretting about the heating, being home all day as he's off nursery, but needing to keep the house warm for him and I have just woken up this morning and thought FUCK THIS.

I cannot let my two year old child get even worse in -3 frost because I'm so worried about bills. I don't know what the answer is but I've decided from today that I'm not going to care.

Has anyone else just though 'fuck it'.

What a sorry state we are in.

Same here, I’ve hardly had it on and when I have got desperate it’s been low and only in the rooms we’re using and yet my bill was still £400. I paid the bill but even before the bill was due to be paid I had endless emails and messages from Eon Next about the bill, (I’ve never been in debt or late paying) I had to call them and tell them to back off, the bill wasn’t due yet so stop hounding me!

The thing is we don't all live in the same house type or geographical area, we don't all have the same boiler etc etc.

Leaving heating on but turned down overnight will not make a lot of difference for some, but for others could be financially disastrous.

My mid terrace house in a city in the south is going to be cheaper to heat than a detached house in the country up north. On a hill.

My gas bill for November was £87, and that was on every day 7am to 11pm at 19, down to 15 overnight. Last night I dropped it to 17 and it hasn't fired up more than twice.

If you don't have a smart meter you can still test this for yourself by taking meter readings at the same time each day.

Fairy lights barely cost a thing so I’d leave them on!

Mine are on all the time as I understand LEDs cost barely anything?

Very true, but I think our house is fairly typical for the UK - but we live in the South (outer London).

November's gas cost us £115, but we have turned up the heat since then (we tried 18C, but it was miserable).

My electric use hasn't changed since putting on Christmas lights. You can see it leap up when I use the washing machine or dryer.

No you can't, but it can be ground down!

Someone asked on another thread about how much their xmas lights cost to run. They used 5 watts an hour, so 0.17p/hour.

Yes, fuck it. They can't send you to prison for being behind on the utilities after all.

I really do think one of the reasons Strep A is on the rampage is because children's immune systems are being compromised by being too cold. If they were a little warmer, I am convinced that they would be able to fight it off more efficiently. Combined with lower quality food and parents being terrified of losing their jobs so they have no choice but to send ill DC in to school.

I hope your son is feeling perkier soon.

I like that Londoners always quote their Zone number. Is it warmer in some Zones than others?

Yes. Central London is warmer than outer London (urban heat island).

This time last year (different house) I was paying £60 a month for gas AND electricity.

We’re now paying around £300 a month, and that’s being pretty frugal with it tbh. We are cold a lot of the time.

How am I supposed to suck that up? Plus petrol rises, plus food, plus my extra mortgage. It’s all adding up to about £500 a month more in outgoings.

And I work in the private sector so I don’t get any kind of pay rise, even a below-inflation one.

I get extra help from the govt as I receive tax credits but it’s still hideous.

The thing is we don't all live in the same house type or geographical area, we don't all have the same boiler etc etc.
Leaving heating on but turned down overnight will not make a lot of difference for some, but for others could be financially disastrous.

This is very true and makes comparisons impossible.

My DPs have also just had a new boiler and a Hive thermostat fitted.

We live in a early 60's semi with cavity wall insulation, poor double glazing (aluminium frames that literally suck the heat out), loft insulation and not far from Cardiff. They're in the valleys in a 100+ year old stone built end of terrace, minimal ancient loft insulation, mostly single glazed. They're generally two degrees cooler than us before the heating goes on due to location. If we look at the Hive app at the graphs showing temperature through the day, the speed their house loses heat is slightly terrifying.

My DF tried the maintaining a constant temperature thing and it was very costly - without that they're already spending £10 or more a day on gas & electric. Like I say I'm trying to keep it at a max of £7.50 atm, (that will have to go up as it gets colder), with temperature no lower than 17 in the day, ideally between 17.5 and 18. We don't have heating on at night and never have done. I've done the maths on what we can afford to spend given the help from the government and the credit built up over the summer. What we'll do next year, as so far we've not been eligible for extra help, I don't know.

How are others spending so much?

Maybe check your boiler settings and balance your radiators? Is your thermostat in a room with TRV radiators that are set too low (the target temp will never be reached and the heating will never turn off)

That's low! Especially as you have the heating on so often.

I don't think people are being extravagant in spending 'so much' as you can see from this and other threads.

My bills are through the roof also- old cold house, no heating on today. I have followed Mumsnet tips and have heated throws and a new air fryer, Oodies, that sort of thing.

Yep. I'm poor but have built up a huge credit for the last year so I have it on everyday.. No way me and my kids are suffering.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4690421-heating-on-low-all-day-experiment?latest=1

There's a lot of us who have put the theory of heating all day or when needed to the test.

My smart meter has been flashing at me today saying my weekly budget has exceeded and I'm only half way through the week,so I've stuck it in a drawer.
Luckily I'm a cleaner and the homes I clean are all pretty warm but when I get home and the temperature is 13 I'm forever playing with the thermostat, putting it up to 15 and then back to 13 when its warm. I've become a bit obsessed.
Just me and teen son here and his bedroom has no radiator so I've got an oiled filled radiator and set it at 1.5 permanently ( I was in and out playing with the dial but i can't live like that so am leaving it. The light is often off so not costing).
I seem to live in my dressing gown over my clothes at home and glad I bought an electric blanket!

I don't think people are being extravagant, but I'm confused as to how people are spending so much.

Our house was cold/damp when we bought it. The main reason turned out to be some leaking pipes hidden in a couple of walls and some poorly fitted double glazing that had deformed and was letting water into the wooden frame of the bay windows (completely rotten but hidden behind the mouldy plaster).

We had an entirely new central heating system with big double panel/double convector radiators, fitted to the outside walls, in every room and new windows at the front of the house.

The radiators give off a lot of heat when running full blast, but our heating just ticks over when set to run 24x7 and they get barely warm a lot of the time. On reflection, we (I) probably went overboard and could have got away with a much smaller boiler and radiators, but I was terrified of spending all that money and having a system that couldn't heat the house - that was before I discovered 24x7 heating cost pretty much the same as intermittent heating (our bills actually went down a bit).

With regards to costs, EDF took another £254 yesterday and we now have a £636 surplus going into winter. I think that should be enough to see us through until spring without having to worry about unexpected bills.

So grateful to have a log burner.We have heating on upstairs for a couple hours a day though.

You don't need to do this. If you set the thermostat at 15 it will automatically turn the heating off when the house gets to 15 and turn it back on when it drops.

Switching between 13 and 15 won't save you much, as your heating won't need to be on much to maintain 15 and if you are fiddling you are probably making the system work harder.

Try a "normal day" and a day of leaving it at 15 and compare daily meter readings. I bet the difference isn't worth the discomfort and stress. Alternatively compromise on 14 🙂

Thanks JesusMaryAndJosephAndTheWeeDon that makes sense,will give it a go. Though will turn down to 10 when I go to bed!
I've just hung a blanket(well,nailed it on the top of the door frame) and already don't feel such a draught so I'm feeling happier.

You keep your house very warm compress to us, we have never used any heating at night for example.

Smaller house than yours,2 bed semi, home all day, this in the North East of England.

It's never been above freezing here today and we will use £ 3.50 worth of gas at 10.7p per kWh.

Wish my mum had taken this approach. My baby brother was like your ds op, we had breathing equipment for him at home and he was always having ambulances everytime he stopped breathing. Now we both have asthma and severe allergies.

We have the heating on first thing and in the evening when the kids get back from nursery. I run an oil filled radiator with thermostat overnight in the kids room with me. And we use the heating for most of the 3 days we keep them home too and just wrap up on our 4 wfh days. It's miserable to be cold as a child, living with black mould and just never getting warm. I haven't bothered checking our usage, it won't change the need to keep the children warm, especially with a 10 month old. I did double our direct debit when our fix ended in October though. Hopefully that will cover it...