My smart meter is £3.57 it's 8am!

[cantheydothisreally]

Omg first cool night last night and heating has come on

As the title says it is 8am and my meter is already over £3

Thermostat set at 18 degrees

Heating has now gone off

Where do you all live with frosts and 13 degrees inside? Genuinely asking. I came home at just past 1am last night and it was 12 degrees outside, house this am (inside) is 19 degrees and heating isn't on still. Am I in a little micro climate? We are by the sea maybe that helps

our heating came on for 2 hours this morning and cost us about £2 in gas :(

already on £4.50 use for gad and electric and barely gone 9! And we have a wash just put on with another 2 loads to go, fully expect the meter to get up to £10 today :(

Luckily it's now going to be double digits or at lowest 7 degrees at night for a while now so won't be using the heating for a while

I'm worried about April now, Rishi says he will still protect the most vulnerable which is great, but we're on 'average' salaries and will probably get nothing and god knows where prices will go....

By the way remember your boiler heats your water. Make sure your boiler heat times (if you have a tank) match the central heating for efficiency. If you have heat on demand hot water that is apparently more expensive

I'm in Norfolk and it got to about 3 degrees last night!

I'm out west, though I admit walking back late without a coat I was heated internally by gin!

You've always had to pay money to keep warm though. Try not to get too miserly about it.

Not this much money though. And plenty of us don’t have the extra money to throw around.

@Soontobe60

Yes my gas usage would certainly indicate this. But if I kept the heating on constant, whilst I wouldn't get the big initial spike, I'd still use the same or more gas as the boiler would fire to maintain the temperature.

Even at pub rates that's probably cheaper!

@cantheydothisreally check your settings today, to make sure it's only clicking on when it should be (you say it's 'off' at night, just check it). Also as a PP has said, check which rads are coming on at what time.

even at the PC rate, you don't need to soend that much in an hours heating unless you have an unusual need to have loads of radiators on at 7am.

Ita not throwing it around though, to keep warm? I appreciate costs have gone up but too many of these threads are ott.

@RedHelenB

sorry, but that's a really tone deaf comment.

the vast vast majority of people have never had heating cost this much, nor everything else costing more at the same time.

it's mean & nasty to accuse people of being miserly, perhaphs you don't understand the meaning of the word??

you can only spend your money once. If you've paid mortgage/rent other bills & bought food, there's only so much left for gas/electric

perhaps a better way of saying it would be 'actually can't afford it' is that better? for many it's not ott at all, they cant afford all these rises so maybe that's why there is so many of these posts?

I’m in the north west - it got down to 4 degrees on Thursday evening. I’m trying to work in the office and cycle to work as much as I can to keep outgoings down, but I won’t ride when it’s icy so the heating in my old cold house will have to come on when I work from home. It’s ridiculous that I’m trying to balance out whether it’s cheaper to work from home and suck up the heating costs or drive/public transport to work at a tenner a day.

Cumbria. On a hill. Has been 0 at night for the last couple of nights and frosts in the morning. Slightly warmer today because it's raining.

From individual viewpoints it can seem that way. I am sitting in a warm living room, our gas and electric tariff were fixed below cap rate, so we PERSONALLY have not been affected.

However, I can still see that the majority of people are not in my position and are worried sick about the fuel prices, mortgage rate, inflation etc. So no, these threads are not all OTT.

People sharing how to save money and how to work out how much is in use can be very helpful.

Yes. It’s money that you otherwise would have thrown around if you didn’t now have to spend it on heating.

unless you are going to default on an essential bill to pay the heating that money is discretionary income and would have been spent on nonessentials. Lots of us don’t have that kind of money to cut back on non essentials.

Foolish move getting a smart meter

I live on the fylde coast near Blackpool and the night before last was 3 degrees outside

North East here, 4 degrees last night and frost on cars in the morning.
I put the heating on Wednesday afternoon because it was really cold in the house, it really struggled to get up to temperature.

im usually frugal with the heating so this is pissing me off already.

Is it not that it is costing- but how different it was to last year?

My bills last winter were about £150 combined a month so utilities costing ~£5 a day. A £300 a month bill will cost £10 a day so £5-6 on heating is what I'm expecting. Im fortunate that i can afford it so planning on £10 and not trying to save money being cold.

Also lots of people are still on cheaper fixed tarrifs this winter so it's also hard for people to compare online as only some people are on the higher standard tarrifs at the moment.

North west here. Still haven’t put the heating on as my house is registering around 19 degrees. It’s quite cold outside though..

I’ve worked out our heating for a 3 bed semi at 18 degrees costs £1.20 an hour.

£3 for 1 hours heating?!

Jeez I’m glad my heating isn’t on yet.

I don’t have the heating on much anyway but I think when I do I will just put it on in the mornings, as you don’t need it as much in the evenings.

Try adding smart thermostats if there’s a good deal Black Friday

It means instead of day whole house being turned to 18 degrees at 4pm. You can individually control better. Ie it’s Saturday, so our home office is set to much cooler today than it would be Mon-Friday.

Weekdays bedrooms would come on at 6.30am, downstairs kitchen 7am, and living room not until 8am, as we get up, shower etc upstairs then straight to kitchen to eat. Office doesn’t go on until 8.50am.

Daytime in January bedrooms kept cooler as no one uses during the day, and living areas warmer. All rooms can be overridden via app or manually if you use those rooms differently one day.

Basically would mean those 2hrs morning heat, could be reduced maybe by half if you control more where the heat is going

The first hour is the most expensive. If you have a hot water tank, the boiler is heating up both your house and your water from cold. The rest of the day is must abbot maintaining the temperature (or in the case of the water, assuming the tank is still lagged and you have it hot water heating on a timer) not needing to heat it any more at all)