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Topic: Most economical way of heating house?

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Capt Lightning

18/10/2022 at 1:46pm
Location: Turriff Aberdeenshi
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There is no mains gas in this village, so most houses have oil heating and a few use LPG.

We have a high efficiency external oil-fired combi-boiler. This has a well insulated thermal store which holds water at high temp. When you turn on a hot tap, the hot stored water is pumped through a plate heat exchanger which heats the water supply to the taps (through a thermostatic valve).

When necessary, the burner fires up to keep the store temp high. The central heating water is pumped separately through a sealed system.

All this means that you get near instant hot water at mains pressure and as it isn't stored, it is OK for use in cooking. Of course you have no airing cupboard (or hot press as we called them) but we have a well insulated linen cupboard with a radiator and it is used to finish off the drying if needed.

We also have a de-humidifier and in conjunction with a clothes rack, does a good job of drying clothes.

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Colin21

18/10/2022 at 2:21pm
Location: East Herts
Outfit: 1992 Elddis Wisp 450CT + X Trail

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Our hot water is at mains pressure too as its a pressurised system. There is no stored cold water, which can be a disadvantage if the water gets cut off, but it does mean no tanks in the loft to freeze up. Mains water comes in and goes straight to all the cold taps in the house and to the hot water tank, so all taps are fresh water and only hot is stored, but it is stored at mains pressure which is quite high in this area.

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Capt Lightning

18/10/2022 at 6:53pm
Location: Turriff Aberdeenshi
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Colin, I've come upon that type of system, but not often. Do you have to get regular safety checks on the pressure relief valves and expansion vessel.

It can be a problem not having a cold water tank, but fortunately we don't have many interruptions to our supply.

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Colin21

18/10/2022 at 7:21pm
Location: East Herts
Outfit: 1992 Elddis Wisp 450CT + X Trail

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Quote: Originally posted by Capt Lightning on 18/10/2022
Colin, I've come upon that type of system, but not often. Do you have to get regular safety checks on the pressure relief valves and expansion vessel.

It can be a problem not having a cold water tank, but fortunately we don't have many interruptions to our supply.

The Housing Association does come round once a year and check the whole system as a matter of routine. It's quite reassuring. It all seems to work extremely well and the only problem we have had in 30 years is failure of the 3 way valve. That has had to be replaced twice in that time.

I can't remember more than a couple of times having our water cut off, and that was only because of burst water mains needing to be repaired further up the road. We were given warning each time and were able to store enough water for our needs while it was off. We think its a great system, the best we have ever had.

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Best Regards,
Colin

Capt Lightning

21/10/2022 at 1:45pm
Location: Turriff Aberdeenshi
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Just has a top-up of oil delivered. 519 litres - £490 (inc VAT). Well assuming we get the anticipated £300 in addition to WFA, we should break even on that.

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SGThomas

21/10/2022 at 2:00pm
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Quote: Originally posted by Capt Lightning on 21/10/2022
Just has a top-up of oil delivered. 519 litres - £490 (inc VAT). Well assuming we get the anticipated £300 in addition to WFA, we should break even on that.

As I read the government web site this payment is in place of WFA. However I hope you are correct and I am mistaken.

We are in too high a band to attract discount on council tax and our ceilings are 9ft6 downstairs and 8ft9 upstairs. So every little contribution will count.

Colin21

21/10/2022 at 2:13pm
Location: East Herts
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Quote: Originally posted by Capt Lightning on 21/10/2022
Just has a top-up of oil delivered. 519 litres - £490 (inc VAT). Well assuming we get the anticipated £300 in addition to WFA, we should break even on that.

That doesn't sound too bad, although of course I don't know how it compares to last year. I have just looked at my records and last year our total bill for gas and electricity was £720, and that is for a 3 bedroom house with gas central heating. (I said we were careful

) We have already well exceeded that this year with 3 payments still to go, and with us trying to cut back even further, not that we can really. The general price increases have swallowed up our pension increases many times over. Short of turning everything off altogether I don't really think we can make any more cut-backs. I haven't worked it out yet this year as the year hasn't ended, but to the end of last year our pensions were then worth only 85% of what they were worth when we retired 10 years ago.

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Colin

Capt Lightning

22/10/2022 at 2:59pm
Location: Turriff Aberdeenshi
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At last I found a pic of my house. As you will appreciate that it wasn't built with economic heating in mind. The walls are about 30 inches thick, so they act like a big storage heater!

Stuart, everything I've read suggests that pensioner households will receive £300 in addition to any other benefit that they may receive.

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starcraft

10/3/2023 at 11:47am
Location: Suffolk
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Remembering back to the days of my early childhood. No mains electric, just candles or oil lamps, gas mantles, open fires and paraffin heaters, I'm sure the home was much warmer (and cheaper to run) back then. I had the same homely feeling during the 1973 power cuts.

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Mitchamitri

10/3/2023 at 12:13pm
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Our home has coal fires - when I go from a hot living room with it's glowing file to the cold hallway I get taken right back to my childhood.

Capt Lightning

10/3/2023 at 12:52pm
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Mitchamitri, that sounds like my parent's house and my own first house that I bought in 1973.

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Colin21

10/3/2023 at 2:00pm
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Sounds a bit like the house I grew up in too Mitchamitri. Roaring coal fire in the living room and freezing everywhere else. I also lived in a similar, although much bigger, house in Nofolk between 1983 an the end of 1989. We used to get ice on the inside of the bedroom windows in the depths of winter. Sometimes didn't clear all day. So glad of the gas central heating we have had for the past 31 years!

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Colin

blueexpo97

10/3/2023 at 4:33pm
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Paraffin heaters in every room that didn't have a coal fire, living room being the only one.
Ah the days of Esso Blue.

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starcraft

10/3/2023 at 5:13pm
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I had gas heating years ago, lasted one winter, never again. I have to see a real flame. I've always had a Solid fuel fire of some kind. I loved the old Raeburn range in one place, a Parkray in another and now a nice Charnwood multi fuel stove + radiators keeping everywhere warm (except for my bedroom, I never could sleep in a hot room.)

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Colin21

10/3/2023 at 6:06pm
Location: East Herts
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Quote: Originally posted by starcraft on 10/3/2023
I had gas heating years ago, lasted one winter, never again. I have to see a real flame. I've always had a Solid fuel fire of some kind. I loved the old Raeburn range in one place, a Parkray in another and now a nice Charnwood multi fuel stove + radiators keeping everywhere warm (except for my bedroom, I never could sleep in a hot room.)

Not keen on gas fires, we have lived in a couple of places that had them, but our gas central heating is lovely. I do love a coal or log fire but either would be impossible where we live now as there are no fireplaces or chimneys. It's a terraced house built in 1992 so nowhere to put a flue through the wall, even if our housing association would let us. I wouldn't want a hot bedroom or a cold one, but I do like it to be warm. Our heating goes off overnight but the house stays reasonable anyway. Not too hot and not too cold.

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Best Regards,
Colin

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