Energy consumption awareness!

We are in our first month of a new contract for Dual-Fuel, (gas & electricity) and we've done everything that we can afford to do and checked everything where financial help is available and, like many, found we are not eligible so we have to live with our energy consumption and try to control it as best we can.

Consequently, over recent months, we've become ultra-watchful of our consumption and found minor ways to try to keep our energy consumption as low as we can.

We've cancelled any plans for a holiday next year and had new double-glazing units fitted in our double-glazed windows because 7 had failed.

We've had a dodgy external wall damp course fixed too so there's not much else we can do now because our house itself cannot be insulated any better due to the unsuitability of our walls for injected insulation - no cavity!

We'd already had an official Government-approved inspection of our loft insulation last year and been told we have done the best possible with a full 12" of insulation.

Yesterday I fitted a floor-to-ceiling thickly-lined curtain to go across our front door to cut some of the heat lost by the two glazed windows it has, so that's about it.

The reason for that curtain is because our main thermostat is, like hundreds if not thousands of other houses, in the hallway - the coldest "room" in the house!

The upshot of all this is that our house is now 1 degree warmer with no heating on.

Doesn't sound much does it, but it now means that by setting our heating to 14 degrees centigrade the hallway easily reaches that temperature now so the heating is no longer burning away gas trying to heat the hall to 15 degrees AND heat the other rooms to over 17 degrees as it was before!

Now you're probably wondering where all this is leading so I'll explain.

Our friends tell us that they think we are over-the-top with all this but they are struggling to keep warm AND eat properly whereas we are not and it's simply because we apply ourselves to how to make our hard-earned income work effectively for us, in everything, including our food shopping but without compromising on quality, consuming excessive salt, excessive fats and all of the other things you have to bear in mind these days, and we do that automatically.

Do others do all this or do you regard it as an extreme reaction? stevmk2

Re: Energy consumption awareness!

Its an individual thing - the thermostat goes up and down accordingly ...
You are taking sensible measures to keep warm ....

Re: Energy consumption awareness!

Not OTT if you feel better doing it, we are lucky in a flat we have people above us, below us and either side so our insulation is great, their heat helps heat our flat too.

Might sound OTT but I can recommend people around you for really inexpensive heating

Re: Energy consumption awareness!

I'm in the fortunate position of not having to scrimp and scrape but nevertheless I don't believe in wasting money so I don't have the heating on when it's not necessary and I grow a fair bit of our own food, fruit and vegetables. My wife cooks our meals from raw materials, no take-aways or micro-wave meals for us other than in an emergency.

Re: Energy consumption awareness!

I don't think we're wasteful either..heating's not on if it's not cold enough...we also grow some veg and freeze some for over the winter months...i always cook our meals from scratch too

Re: Energy consumption awareness!

I'm in the same fortunate position as Alan Cooke - except that I do the cooking and Mrs G. does the gardening. I've spent a fair bit insulating the house and over the years I've cut the fuel consumption my about 25% AND made the house warmer. I set the hall thermostat to 20 deg and have TRV's on the other radiators.

Re: Energy consumption awareness!

My total income per month is £683.31.

Made up by a state pension of £462.32 and a personal pension of £220.99

I have a couple of investments bringing a small amount but do not pay any tax on them because all income is below the tax threshold.

I have no problem in finding the money to heat my 3 bed roomed house.

Also not into holidays never took them when I worked.

Re: Energy consumption awareness!

That's one thing we've noticed with people we know that live either in flats or in terraced houses Julie.

My daughter and her partner live in quite a large flat; so large that they rent-out part of it as it's almost a separate flat.
We were around for dinner a couple of weeks ago and although they had their heating off, it was so warm in there that they had to open windows.

Likewise our eldest live in a terraced house in the middle of a block; their heating's hardly ever needed because the houses either side seem to be heated to such high temperatures that their thermostat doesn't click on until it's turned up to 20 degrees Centigrade.

Not sure I'd like to live in a flat though but we're thinking maybe terraced house would be a better bet if and when we can downsize.

That's one of the things where I don't understand why it's not been looked into better by governments - the under-use of houses.

We have two bedrooms we don't use, other than for keeping them ready for family visitors or friends occasionally.
We have at least one elderly widow neighbour of ours would prefer to downsize from her large 3-bed house but there's no easy way of doing it with the value of our houses on the open market being about the same as 2-bed flats or houses in our area.

That's just the properties themselves, before you consider costs on top.

It always seems strange to me that governments often go on about under-used properties or even empty properties that could really help to house the homeless and those on low incomes but all we ever hear is 'affordable' housing.

In our area prices for affordable housing simply do not match up to the income levels in general and I suspect that's the case in many areas.

We have 1-bed flats nearby with asking prices of 80% of the value recently quoted on Zoopla for our 3-bed house, which does have plenty of outdoor space. stevmk2

Re: Energy consumption awareness!

Steve, when we took early retirement, we actually 'up-sized' because we moved to an area where we could afford a bigger house, and to be honest, we'd really like a bigger one. It's not that the house is small, but it has 3 good size bedrooms, while a modern house of the same size would probably have 4 and 2 bathrooms. Useful when the family visited.

However, back where we lived in Hampshire there was recently an ad. for a new 3 bed Semi that qualified for the govt. 'help to buy' scheme. It was only £299,000. All you needed was a 5% deposit, some help from the govt. and a mortgage of ONLY £220,000.

There must have been queues of first time buyers after that one!

Re: Energy consumption awareness!

It was only £299,000

Yeah right - the queues of traffic alone must have caused Hampshire Police traffic problems!!

Interesting post from you perspective Grumble.

I had thought of that but my wife's 100% against leaving this area, mainly because of family as the vast majority are minutes from us here on the outskirts of Milton Keynes and to be honest it would be a hell of a wrench after 40 years too.
My wife's even adamant that she will only move to somewhere within this area too, despite my trying to convince her that it'll be damn-near impossible in what's basically a small town or parish with b****r-all chance of any further houses being built 'cos there's simply no room!

Mind you, she says she wants us to move to our final home before I'm 65 and retired, and as that's under three years from now so she just might have to accept that we are going to be very limited if she continues to adhere to that.

We'll see. stevmk2