Like many my energy supplier went under last year and I was moved to one appointed for me (Shell) From next month my bill is going up £180 a month, the price cap goes up nearly £700 next month None of the comparison sites are coming up with any deals, energy suppliers not taking on new customers I have an open fire in the living room we've not used in years, I'm considering getting it swept and ordering in a half pallet of coal Anyone found any better solutions than setting light to chunks of carbon and sending the smoke up the chimney?
I was afraid this was going to happen, though I can understand the reasons for it. One of the things I most hate has been the trend for yuppies in cities and towns to get an open fire. I go for a walk every evening and in the winter the nice crisp air is often acrid with smoke from big houses with flash cars outside who no doubt have other forms of heating. To me, it’s little different than if they simply dumped their toilet waste on the street or peed in a swimming pool. However, many people are really going to be choosing between eating and heating next winter. If they are, I can’t blame them for taking any available option, which I think will lead to many just collecting wood, wet or dry. Better that than freezing, though open fires, romantic as they may seem, are messy and mean you always sit in atmosphere full of particulates. Not good for the health and blows my mind that people would have them these days with kids. There are some things that could help, such as looking at your insulation with an expert and simply turning down the thermostat a little, taking all appliances off standby etc. Bigger solutions like heat pumps and solar panels may pay off, but you need the investment. It may also get to the point where electric heating becomes cheaper than gas. It’s a real problem.
Doesn’t generate enough heat for me. Am I not doing it right ? Just been notified my bill is going up to £350 a month so I really do need to get it right.
Yes, there are more Wood burners and they are supposed to be cleaner, but they still guff out particles. Open fires are the most stinky ones and they are increasing in popularity because they are being heavily marketed. Madness, unless it’s your only heating option or back up option.
Wood burners are 80/90% more efficient then open fires, open fires are mostly pointless as the majority of heat goes up the chimney, they’re more for the aesthetics if anything. Obviously you still get heat from them, but if you were serious about using wood as means of heating your house you’d invest in a wood burner.
I did have a wood burner in my old house, it was a Victorian house so the only one that fitted was a hobbit one, which is the type you get in things like narrow boats. I got a delivery of properly dried out wood from a tree surgeon that was £80, it filled the back of a transit sized tipper truck. Lasted me about three winters. The stove would only fit two very small bits of wood in at a time, but that would heat the room for about an hour plus.
Yes but with the impending crunch to your household budget caused by increased energy bills you’re going to have to get used to doing it in Lidl.
I wonder if I should raid my pension pot when i can get to it and go balls deep for solar panels, + storage battery, + heat pump, + replace radiators for underfloor heating Anyone have any experience of any of these? Anyone brave or crazy enough to have done this already?
I’ve got a friend who has a new home, invested in all of the tech, but with super insulation, so the house barely loses heat without a window open. (This also means it stays cool in the summer). His bills are tiny (as he often reminds me) and he gets money back from redirecting surplus electricity from his solar panels. I think you do have to go really deep on it to make it work and surely the future is making this easy for everyone to do. But it can be done to great effect.
Apparently you need to be able to last long enough to build up enough friction; maybe your doctor can give some advice and help.
I’ve never understood why solar are over for homes hasn’t moved on much. It’s still very unsightly, expensive and takes a fair while for the investment to pay back I’m sure there must be a reason why the roof tiles can’t have integrated solar panels…as should panels on the road to light up street furniture
My missus hates having the heating on so I guess that's saved me a few pennies! I literally sit in the office at home and wear a hoodie and at times a jacket (madness really) and I guess i'll be continuing to do so when November comes around! Good job it's getting warmer now......
It requires support to make quick and easy ways to set up and incentives. For many people above the bottom, energy bills are a pain, but not one they want to spend a couple of grand up front addressing. If we all had them there would be no blabbing about how they affect house prices and I cannot understand why they don’t come standard with new homes.
Solar roadways, the idea to embed solar panels in roads and pavements ended up a huge flop Panels need to be angled to the sun, or in advanced systems track the sun for maximum efficiency Flat panels on ground don't face the sun, get covered in dirt and grime, and run hot (heat reduces efficiency) through lack of circulation; tens of millions of dollars were raised and spent just to find all that out! I am surprised though recent governments have not insisted by law all new housing and commercial builds incorporate solar, heat pumps, rainwater traps etc They are not really practicing what they preach
I think we’re a bit to wedded to the idea that a house should look a certain way in this country. Obviously you can tell a new build is a new build but they’re still mostly all built to look exactly the same way they have for 100+ years. People favour Victorian and period homes and they fetch a premium, just because they look like a ‘proper’ house. If we weren’t all so obsessed with a house looking a certain way then houses could be designed with the environment and conserving energy in mind instead as the main priority. Instead developers just churn out generic photocopies of previous houses at the cheapest possible cost, because ultimately that’s what people want in the main. It’s ingrained in society, with mortgage lenders often unwilling to lend against anything non traditional, because ultimately they’re worried about the demand for it being affected.
And, sitting here in my Victorian house, I’d also point out they’re generally far bigger. High ceilings, larger rooms and far more solid construction than the rabbit hutch, cardboard-walled new builds that infest this country.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a massive hypocrite because I’m also sitting here in my Victorian house, and my last house was also a Victorian house. But my point is that for most people the expectation is a house looks like the type of house you draw as a kid, made of brick with a slate roof and something that generally hasn’t changed in overall design for hundreds of years. if you took that preconception away and started from scratch, designing homes to be as environmentally friendly and efficient as possible they’d probably look completely different. Generally in life we want everything to be as modern as possible (like cars) apart from houses.
Anywho : Energy bill . Smaller car , live in/only heat 1 room . Like everyone did in the old'un days . Hot water bottles . On and on ad finitum I have these tips ....... DM me ....
They always look fabulous and the build price is way cheaper than buying. It’s just the land, the risk and the massive kerfuffle of it.
Solar panels need the right house to be totally effective and the feed in tarrif are not as good as they used to be. Heat pumps only really work with super insulated and efficient homes. They also tend to struggle with the vary variable weather we get in the UK. Also they are eye wateringly expensive. Many areas are "smoke free" so worth checking if you can actually have an open fire. You certainly won't be able to burn coal. A good efficient new gas boiler is really the best option for many.
I've never understood the people who remove their chimney breasts to get more space. The square rooms always look ugly to me with no character. I've also been slightly concerned that if natural resources ever run dry then how do we heat our homes without a chimney? Yes the risks are now well known about open fires but as already said above, modern wood burners with very dry wood are ridiculously cleaner than open fires. We had one put in a couple of years ago and haven't even got through the first delivery of wood yet as we use it so little. During winter when WFH when the house got cold I'd chuck a couple of bits of wood in there to keep the room I was working in warm until the heating came back on which was ok, but if I went outside I could definitely smell it in the air which isn't so good. Living by the canal means the air is always full of their burning coal fires anyway, but a few months ago I went into a posh hotel for a family thing and in reception they had a huge open fire going and the smell was horrific. The poor staff working there may as well be smoking 60 a day.
