I just put my heating on and

[CaptainSamCarter]

It cost me 70p.

In July we fixed our energy tarrif. At the time it was higher than the standard variable rate, but we took a gamble that it would be lower than the forecast October rate.

It turned out our gamble was correct until Liz Truss intervened.

Now, coincidentally, our gas price per kWh is exactly the same as the new price cap that has been set by the government (just over 10p).

So I was curious to see how much that meant in terms of running our heating and it's a bit chilly today so I decided to test it out.

We installed a new boiler 18 months ago, have insulation, double glazing etc. So about as efficient as we can get.

I put it on for 25 minutes by boosting the thermostat from 17 to 19. So not even that warm really.

It cost 70p. I've been using around £1 a day in standing charges and showers etc. So if I want to do that, and heat my home for, let's say, two hours a day, rounding up it's going to cost £4 a day or £120 a month just for gas. A year ago I was paying that for both gas and electric.

I've seen a lot of people saying that they are relieved about the measures that have been introduced but I'm not sure that many people realise just how much it's going to cost to heat their homes.

I was wondering how much ours would be per day, this is interesting. It's a massive worry!!

I was wondering also. Won't the cost per hour drop once you're maintaining a temperature, though, rather than needing to warm the house up?

That would be my hope, however, what I haven't taken into account is that it's 11 degrees here outside today and it is regularly below zero in the winter (Cumbria, fairly high up) so I don't know how much harder the boiler will have to work to maintain that heat in the colder weather.

It's all a bit of a worry.

I did this last week. One hour cost me 83p. I put the thermostat up to 20 (it came on at 15) and I turned it off after the hour, and it clicked off at 17.

I live in a 200 year old semi detached four bed cottage. Our water tank does our heating and hot water, the boiler heating the tank.

Your boiler will be running at full capacity when it's first switched on, in order to get the whole system heated - ours always sounds like it's on full thrust to stay with and then quietens down. Once system is heated and close to required teperature, it'll even out to keep it ticking over, so it won't cost you 70p for each 25 mins

If its £120 a month but then the £60 off a month it will be costing £60 a month which isny too bad and some people will have had £150 via council tax too so it is a lot of support. It's what happens after the 6 month discount that concerns me.

No

The cost is set by how much heat you lose to the outside

So it you turn the heating off it loses heat until it reaches outside temperature

Then it's stable until you heat again - ie once it's lost that's it

If you left the heating on the whole time to keep it up to temperature it would be firing up multiple times to replace the lost heat and you would keep losing that heat over and over again

Iget a plastic milk bottle , put a small hole in it and compare how much water comes out if you "keep it topped up" versus only topping up a couple of times a day - the water is the heat that leaves the bottle and you control the topping up strategy to optimise how much leaked water yiu ahve and the level of water in the bottle

I think I'm going to do a similar experiment. My concern is how much harder (and therefore costly) it'll be to heat up when it's really cold.

We already have a tado system so only heat rooms as needed, but we also have drafty old Victorian terrace that leaks heat like a sieve.

I did the same on Sunday morning, 2 hours was about £1.10.

I've been looking at the charts on my Shell account, was surprised to see how much the heating is: in June, July, Aug my gas was £15-£20. Electric hob, so that's really just for hot water. The fact that how much I use goes up by a multiple of between 6 and 8 in the colder months is heating alone.

We've not put the heating on yet, currently avoiding it.

My price is also pretty much level with the cap.
I followed the boiler advice (what temp to have the rads and water) and I went from around £2 to keep the house at 21 in the evening to £1.55 so worth a look if you haven’t already

That sounds about right. Last winter I was using 40kwh a day in gas in the coldest months, which was costing me around £1.55 a day at 3.85p per kwh.
At 10p per kwh that'd be £4 a day, so very similar usage. That was our highest use month (January), then others weren't as high. However, it wasn't a particularly cold winter and we are in the south.

Just looked back and our coldest month last winter was Jan and we used 3880 KWH gas for the month at £105 plus standing charge. That was at a cheap fix of 2.7p per KWH so the equivalent would be c.£388 at the new cap.

Our gas in the summer (so hot water) has been £80 a month! Dreading the heating going on, we have electric to cook and an electric shower.

Have you put your usage into the mse calculator? If you pay by direct debit then the cost is spread over the year not just the winter months. Ours will be just under £1200 a year based on last winter's usage that we will be able to cut back on slightly. About 70% of that would be in the colder half of the year but we don't pay it based on when we use it. £100 a month every month is still a lot though!

Dreading winter.

We have a 200 year old draughty house, And a really inefficient boiler. Looking at getting a new one but it's whether it would be worth taking on a loan for etc .

The past few months (so summer) our bill has been around £170. But we pay £300 each month. We use gas for heating the hot water tank plus cooking but rarely use the gas oven now just the hob and air fryer.

Our use in winter is going to rocket and we will rattle through our credit. Already decided we can't afford to put heating on until November. I have a oil filled radiator for when I'm at home alone all day (SAHM) and plenty of blankets and hoodies etc for DC.

I don't see how we can cut down. This month we have been trailing no baths and just (electric).showers so don't need to heat the hot water tank as much but we haven't had our bill yet so don't know if it's worked

MSE calculator estimating £3600 a year

Also, looking back at winter usage, so in Jan 2022 we used £99 of gas I think it was 3075kwh which was 3.22p each and cost us around £99. If we use the same amount of gas in December (we are fixed until Jan) it will be 9p a unit so that's £280. Absolutely shocking

It cost 70p. I've been using around £1 a day in standing charges and showers etc. So if I want to do that, and heat my home for, let's say, two hours a day, rounding up it's going to cost £4 a day or £120 a month just for gas. A year ago I was paying that for both gas and electric.

your direct debit was £120 for both electric and gas and that was based on an average across the year, your calculations are false and don’t give the whole picture

last year my direct debit was £70 for both gas and electric - but in December I was billed £15/16 of gas alone each week, that included daily standing charge

that was at 4p a unit and now it is 10p per unit so it’ll be 2.5x

Decafflatteplease

if I was looking at a new boiler I’d be investigating storage heaters I can run on solar panels for free. Even in the winter the daylight hours would allow the storage heaters to be fuelled for free and they are now controllable by an app on your phone to a particular temperature

@Decafflatteplease Have you considered an electric throw rather than an oil filled radiator? Should use much less electricity. You don't need to wait for a bill to compare usage, just look at the meter readings.

I'm going to take the readings now they need submitting anyways. Will try to work out the maths 😂

I did look at throws and nearly bought one but I don't sit still I'm always on the go around the house.

Currently wearing DH joggers over my thermal leggings 😂

In the past from about this time of year we'd have just set the temperature to a nice comfortable level and left it there - bar sleeping hours - until about March. I realise how unbelievably lucky we were to be able to do that.

Now however we're really having to think about it a lot more than we would have done previously. I'm sitting in temperatures that I wouldn't have done, and wrapping myself up in a blanket more.

Won't be able to get away with it as the weather gets colder, but it's bearable for now.

I've caved and put it on at 18 for 90 minutes. Even the hardy teen was complaining.
I'm planning 6-7.30am and 7-8pm at 18, with two radiators turned off as they are in hallway/room we don't use much.