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.

This last week I've been managing with heating on 7am-8am to bring house up to 19 so my preschooler is warm when she gets up. Then I manage with lots of layers while I work from home, and I get warm from the heat of the oven / cooking in the early evening. Hot water bottle for DD at bedtime, then me and DP sit under blankets all evening. Manageable for now but I think will struggle to only heat in the mornings as it gets colder.

Put your heating on an check price

niw turn off half your radiators and do it again and see if it’s cheaper

Well after a week of having heating on timed for 1 and a half hour in morning, 1 hour at lunch and 3 hours in evening, I've just done a reading- quite unbelievably it seems my bill is just under £3 for the week!! It is an efficient house, good thermostats, adjustable radiators, great boiler, heats up quick but it's a 2000sq ft 4 bedder and the heating has been coming on for short bursts with thermostat set at 20!!

I'm gobsmacked- I'm not going to check now till end of October but at this rate I will be having the heating on as much as I bloody want or need it

Electric was £21 a week -which is about what I expected as we are all electric apart from heating and I do still tumble dry twice a week and use dishwasher every other day

Can't help but wonder if I've got some kind of iffy meter- but the figures I've put in are definitely correct- so I'm just going with it.

Wow, that sounds pretty unbelievable - on a tariff of about 10p/kWh that's less than 1 unit on an imperial gas meter or about 2½ units on a metric meter!

@AliasGraceful I know - I'm not sure why it is but I will take it!!! It's a newly rented house and moved in May---- - it's been showing£2.40 or so a week (been submitting every 2 weeks) which I presumed was standard charge. I was expecting probably around £28 - so was gobsmacked.

You only had it on for 25 minutes though, so the boiler would be working flat out to raise the temperature (it's highly unlikely to have got up from 17 to 19 degrees in that time). Once up to 19, it'll be working at a lower rate to maintain the temp (but still higher than it would be to maintain 17). It's a bit like accelerating in a car - uses a load more fuel to get up to speed than it does to maintain it.

So you can't really tell anything meaningful from that 25 minutes.

Just leave it on 17 and put a jumper on!

I fiddled with the thermostat at 6pm last night to see what it cost keeping it on til midnight (I'm a night owl) and used 14kwh in a 1bed flat, so £1.40 at the October rates...

I imagine my boiler will have to work a lot harder once the temperature drops more though.

I met a guy in the pub tonight he said to me I will be dead bread by the time they try to collect it.

He had a point. He was very elderly. He told me he hadn't fought in wars and scrimped and saved for their retirement to be cold.

He's absolutely right. We should look after our older generation. Regardless of where we are now, they did what we are doing right now, they just got on with it. We are lucky we are not sending our young ones to fight for us.

But the rate the house cools does depend on insulation.

If you boil a kettle of water and put half in a thermos flask and half in jug the water in the jug cools down more quickly than that in the flask.

I'm lucky that my house is well insulated, it holds the heat really well.

In the depths of winter last year I was using 20kWh of gas a day, so about £2 at the new price. I've just bought about 1.5 cubic meters of kiln dried firewood for £150. That should be enough to reduce my gas bill by an equivalent amount, possibly more. The only downside is that it doesn't heat the house as evenly as the central heating.

But the rate the house cools does depend on insulation.

And?

In the analogy given, more insulation would be represented by having a smaller hole in the bottom of the bottle.

Don't forget the outside temperature makes a big difference. If its freezing outside you'll be losing heat a lot faster than if its 12 degrees, and your boiler will have to work a lot harder. There's only limited value in 'testing' at this time of year- good to get a very rough idea but worth re doing when the temperature drops.

My biggest worry is when fuel increases in April and there is no government support. I'll have to disconnect the lot and sit in the library. I'm 68. I never expected this in my worst nightmares. Be better off dead TBH.

@Crikeyalmighty Is it still costing you £3 in gas a week to heat the house

Yes we are about £4 a day