Rising fuel Can you get through the next few months without heating?
- Thread starter Orang Utan
- Start date
spring-peeper
Well-Known Member
I couldn't afford the heating last year so I certainly won't be able to afford it this year
Luckily we have an open fire in the living room which we light at night (with scavenged wood - gawd it sounds dickensian don't it?) but in the day it's fucking freezing. No matter how many fekkin jumpers I put on it's brass monkeys. By the time spring arrived this year I was a bit mental from being so cold all the tme.
*sends madzone a cyber-load of chopped hardwood*
I really wish it could be the real thing.....
madzone
Physically unfavourable
We're ok for wood - I've been hoarding it all this year
*sends madzone a cyber-load of chopped hardwood*
I really wish it could be the real thing.....
If I don't light the fire in the day we should have enough till about January 
spring-peeper
Well-Known Member
We're ok for wood - I've been hoarding it all this year
We keep the woodstove going from November to March and hubby cuts the wood out back - help yourself!!!!!
(if we don't keep it going through the winter months (dec-feb), our water pipes will freeze and burst - we have no choice)
spanglechick
High Empress of Dressing Up
when the weather's damp, yup. but that's not terribly unusual. we don't have an airing cupboard.
felixthecat
are we there yet?
I wish I could but our house is freezing in the winter and my poor daughters room is like an icebox. I'm just going to put it on for a couple of hours in the morning and evening though and we'll use blankets and snuggle up for the rest of the time.
This ^^ but change daughter's room for son's room. the daughter has the warmest room in the house.
my heating gas bills for winter run $150-$200 per month depending on how cold it is...
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
We have a solid fuel stove in the front room. This winter I shall be half-inching lots of pallets and chopping them up with axe and benchsaw.
It's amazing what you find on wood scavenging hunts. Me brother found a roll of lead in a skip last year. Brucie bonus
It's amazing what you find on wood scavenging hunts. Me brother found a roll of lead in a skip last year. Brucie bonus
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
But it's been the summer! You shouldn't have paid anything! (Unless you live in Iceland or summat)
felixthecat
are we there yet?
Don't forget it includes cooking and heating water if you have a boiler and you use gas. Mine was £80 for the summer quarter and we didn't have the heating on at all - thats all cooking and hot water.
madzone
Physically unfavourable
I pay £44 a month for oil (and a yearly boiler service) and that just gets used to heat the water.
madzone
Physically unfavourable
We've got a woodburner in the kitchen but we're not allowed to use it
Something to do with the chimney
madzone
Physically unfavourable
It's not to do with having it swept. It's the size of it and the fact that is isn't lined or is unlineable.get the chimney swept mine only cost 25 quid!
Or something.
Excuse the hideously out of focus pic - can't be arsed to take it again
We put the woodburner in when we moved in and when the chimneysweep came to clean the chimney he told the landlord he didn't think it was safe and they told us not to use it again
dessiato
4 years and I still cry sometimes
Luckily I can easily manage without heating for a few months. I do worry about my family back in the UK and the additional costs to them of the heating. I am seriously thinking that it might be cheaper for them to come out here in the new year. If they stay here the savings in fuel costs could cover the cost of them renting somewhere and staying for about 6 weeks.
ChrisFilter
Like a boss.
I think we'll do far better in the new house than in the old. Last place we lived in we had to leave the bathroom window open for the cats to get in and out. And the windows were all loose and horrible. And it was just cold generally.
New house is a mid-terrace ground floor maisonette so we should be far better off. Haven't noticed it being chilly at all. The bedroom is really warm despite having 10ft high ceilings and old wooden french windows in. Only a tiny bit of outside facing wall. Lounge has big windows and with sort of slidy bit at the top that doesn't seal closed so might get cold.
The main difference is that the old flat, 1 bedroom, had 7 big radiators. The new place has 4 small radiators in the whole 2 bed place. 1 in the lounge, 1 in each bedroom, one in the utility room. This should save a fortune by itself.
New house is a mid-terrace ground floor maisonette so we should be far better off. Haven't noticed it being chilly at all. The bedroom is really warm despite having 10ft high ceilings and old wooden french windows in. Only a tiny bit of outside facing wall. Lounge has big windows and with sort of slidy bit at the top that doesn't seal closed so might get cold.
The main difference is that the old flat, 1 bedroom, had 7 big radiators. The new place has 4 small radiators in the whole 2 bed place. 1 in the lounge, 1 in each bedroom, one in the utility room. This should save a fortune by itself.
ScallyWag II
New Member
I spent about twice as much as i normally do during the summer this year on gas (about £40) and that was for hot water only. But i'm on a prepay meter and apparently they're more expensive. So I'll be a lot more careful this year with the heating, no more falling asleep with it on and waking up at 3 in the morning in a boiling house But i will use it. I'll put it on timer to come on just before i get up in the mornings for about an hour and then to come on just before i get home for a couple of hours if i need it.
But i will use it. I'll put it on timer to come on just before i get up in the mornings for about an hour and then to come on just before i get home for a couple of hours if i need it.
geminisnake
a complex mass of conflicting ideas
No, our fire heats the water for the next day so we'd be without hot water. We also live rurally with nowt but fields between us and the North Sea so no cosiness from neighbours.
We're going to be burning (a lot) more wood right enough coz I can get that free. Coal has gone up 4 times in that many months
Never used to use heating often when I lived in the town in a block of flats, others heat seemed to keep that place warm
Yuwipi Woman
Whack-A-Mole Queen
It gets down to -30 F here in the winter. I'm not likely to turn it completely off. What I've done in the past is set it on its lowest setting and just use electric blankets to sleep under and a space heater on a timer in the bath.
Yuwipi Woman
Whack-A-Mole Queen
We've actually been a bit glad for global warming. Last winter our lowest temperatures were -12 to -17 or so in Feb.
scifisam
deleted
Depends how cold it gets, doesn't it? We might well get away with only putting two radiators on, though, one in my daughter's room and one in our bedroom. The rest of the flat doesn't seem to get cold, despite us having no insulating neighbours.
Blimey! Do you keep it all at sauna levels or something?
Blimey! Do you keep it all at sauna levels or something?
moose
like some cat from Japan
Our house is bloody freezing, and it gets pretty nippy here, but I'm tight with the heating, so we put jumpers on and only turn the heating on in the dead of winter. And drink a lot. We have a real fire in the living room, fuelled with wood offcuts that mr moose gets given from a furniture factory, supplemented by a couple of coal deliveries.
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
Drink a lot? How does that help?
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
beer jacket?
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
Huh?
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
felixthecat
are we there yet?
Beer jacket - you know, the invisible thing you wear home from the pub and stops you from freezing to death in the depths of winter even when you are only wearing a t-shirt.
You usually use it the same time as the beer scooter and hopefully not the same time as the beer goggles.
