Price cap

[alastairq]

3 hours ago, Bernard Lamb said:

Our friend Alexa also gets grumpy if you switch her off

 Nice to see Alexa has a friend.....   :)

[Jonboy]

3 hours ago, APOLLO said:

Re turning off items on standby I read it is unwise to turn off your internet router at night as many receive updated software etc overnight when traffic is lower. 

 

Any comments re this ?

 

Brit15

 

 

Not only this but the router and your local exchange will be “talking to each other” to negotiate the best connection speed. Repeated turning off and on is interpreted as a line fault so they automatically reduce your connection speed to give a more reliable connection….

[57xx]

On 17/09/2022 at 13:02, Jonboy said:

Not only this but the router and your local exchange will be “talking to each other” to negotiate the best connection speed. Repeated turning off and on is interpreted as a line fault so they automatically reduce your connection speed to give a more reliable connection….

 

This ^^ is the most important reason not to repeatedly turn off your router/modem.

[57xx]

On 16/09/2022 at 08:16, hayfield said:

 

We have a "smart thermostat" (Tado in our case) to start off it was cheaper to buy and fit one of these than get British Gas round to fit a normal thermostat when ours developed a fault (at that time we were new to the area and did now know a local heating engineer)

 

Our son in law put us on to it as he and my daughter worked shifts and a standard system needed overriding most days as their shifts altered, we also worked shifts initially, but these were the same every week and both part time. This system is a game changer especially as we are retired, the system is on when we are in and off when both are out, if we go out for a few hours, the day, a  weekend, or a week or two it turns itself off. It also notices if a door or window is open and the rate it responds differs according to the temperature outside. It can be manually overridden if we have visitors or simply boost the heating 

 

This may not suite everyone, but saves us money and a lot of overriding a basic thermostat. For us the cost was zero as we needed a new thermostat anyway and needed a replacement 

 

I installed a Honeywell Evohome about 6 years ago. The reduction in gas usage over the first year was quite stark. It has paid for itself over time, well before the massive increases we have seen in energy costs. These really are a no brainer now, especially with a lot more systems on the market and at lower prices than I paid back then.

 

On 16/09/2022 at 20:51, Nearholmer said:

One option is to “zone” your central heating, have more than one zone, each with its own thermostat. Ours has two zones, one downstairs, one covering the top two floors, which helps, and by using that and thermostatic valves on each radiator, and a bit of art on my part (knowing which door to leave open, and to set the radiator near the zone thermostat low), we can get appropriate temperatures everywhere, cool in bedrooms , comfortable in the sitting room (c20 degrees), warm enough not to get blue fingertips when working in the study, or blue other bits when emerging from the shower etc. But, the house is fairly modern, so well insulated, windows not too big …… in a house with poor insulation you’d be fighting a losing battle however fancy the controls are.

 

As above, I have 7 zones in my house. Every room is a zone controlled by the thermostat built in to the TRV, all reporting back to the central unit where they get their schedule from. (the exception is the hall zone, that rad has no TRV and is the safety net for boiler pump over-run) Every room has it's own daily schedule, each zone can have 6 different temps through the day, every day can be different. On work days I warm up the main bedroom and bathroom for getting up and washed, I don't bother heating the rest of the house as I wouldn't be using it. Off during the day while I am at work, then warm up the living room and kitchen/dining room ready for getting in and cooking dinner. On "Work from home" days, I only heat the room I am working in, there is no point heating the whole of one floor when you are only using 1 room! 

 

There are lots of other systems available now. The Tado that Hayfield has is probably rated as one of the better ones, but comes at a price when looking at a full system (also you have to pay a subscription for premium features) and not just a single wall stat. Other good contenders are the Hive and Drayton Wiser (the later the most cost effective one of the lot). All of them work with the likes of Alexa/Google home etc if you are that way inclined and just want to shout out a temperature for any room. I wouldn't rate Nest amongst these as they do not have smart TRV's yet. The proximity sensing in Nest is a bit of a gimmick IMO when compared to a fully zoned house, as you still heat your whole house (or a whole floor if you have two zones).

[Metr0Land]

This table from the Martin Lewis site shows different suppliers applying the rebates differently from each other depending on who you're with and how you pay

 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/08/how-energy-suppliers-will-pay-the-p400-cost-of-living-support-pa/

[Graham108]

33 minutes ago, Metr0Land said:

This table from the Martin Lewis site shows different suppliers applying the rebates differently from each other depending on who you're with and how you pay

 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/08/how-energy-suppliers-will-pay-the-p400-cost-of-living-support-pa/

But what it doesn't say is that BG are applying the rebate over 6 months rather than a single amount. So they get the £400 from the government and bank it making lots of interest.

[Nick C]

6 minutes ago, Graham108 said:

But what it doesn't say is that BG are applying the rebate over 6 months rather than a single amount. So they get the £400 from the government and bank it making lots of interest.

They all are, as far as I know: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/getting-the-energy-bills-support-scheme-discount

[hayfield]

What I want to do is rather than increase my DDI is that I would prefer to pay the same each month and use the credit to top up my account balance. Octopus will be reducing my DDI for these 5 months, but I have the option of asking them to increase the amount when the early email notification or the payment arrives.  I like to manage my account by paying in equal payments each month so for me its better to credit these payments as extra payments. On the other hand I could just as well temporally increase my DDI for the next 5 months

 

I accept others may like to pay as they go, but being on a fixed income I prefer spreading the cost over the whole of the year

 

 

[woodenhead]

My increase is only £27 per month and with the rebate applied it’s actually a reduction for the next 6 months.

[RedgateModels]

mine is £84, but they don't know how many jumpers and blankets we plan to use this winter 🤪

[spikey]

4 hours ago, RedgateModels said:

mine is £84, but they don't know how many jumpers and blankets we plan to use this winter 🤪

 

A propos which, I have just discovered how marvelous ex-British Army thermal vests are.  An absolute bargain at £6 each unissued (i.e. new), and seemingly indestructible in the wash - which is more than can be said for the corresponding M&S product at three times the price.

[Free At Last]

6 hours ago, RedgateModels said:

mine is £84, but they don't know how many jumpers and blankets we plan to use this winter 🤪

A couple of years ago my son bought me a heated bodywarmer powered by a rechargeable battery pack to keep me warm on my winter walks or out in the garden. I wear it indoors sometimes when I don't need the whole house heated. On the high setting it can get too hot but it automatically turns down after five minutes. Battery last quite a while too and has USB outputs so can be used to charge a phone, etc. 

[Neil]

Of course we could move somewhere warmer where we would only need heating on a few days of the year. What could be simpler than moving to the Mediterranean, after all we're members of the European Uni ...... , oh hang on that's not going to work.  .........

 

Gibraltar anyone?   Will we all fit?

[RedgateModels]

18 degrees on the room 'stat last night and we have all adjusted to this temperature. No need for the heating on (yet)

 

We ran it at 21 degrees last year.

Edited September 29, 2022 by RedgateModels

[Hroth]

Being in a semi, I'm waiting for next door to put their heating on*, it warms up the party wall wonderfully so I benefit from passive heating after the wall gets to temperature.  Admittedly if they start to economise I'll be breaking out the fleece blankets and sleeping bags if it gets too cool before the start of November...

 

* House across the road has theirs on already, you can see the condensation from the boiler venting into the open air!

[spikey]

3 hours ago, RedgateModels said:

18 degrees on the room 'stat last night and we have all adjusted to this temperature. No need for the heating on (yet) ...

 

And long may that be so.  My curiosity got the better of me this morning, so at 0630 I threw all caution to the wind and put the central heating on.  The room stat showed 16.3°C at the time.  I switched it off one hour later, by which time the stat showed 17.4°C.  That little exercise cost me £1.03 ...

[hayfield]

4 hours ago, RedgateModels said:

18 degrees on the room 'stat last night and we have all adjusted to this temperature. No need for the heating on (yet)

 

We ran it at 21 degrees last year.

 

 

Ours has been on for over a week, not for long though

[TheQ]

Don't know what you lot are worrying about..

 

My heating is LPG  twice the price of mains gas and the house has single brick walls...