Now would be a good time for the annual"have you tested your central heating system" post

[Owain]

When I were a lad you ate your vegetables or got no pudding.

Owain

[Dave Liquorice]

"You! Yes, you! Stand still laddy!"

"Wrong, Do it again!"

"If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"

"You! Yes, you behind the bikesheds, stand still laddy!"

[Andrew Gabriel]

And now they've grown up, it's a campaign to treat them like vegetables...

[djc]

I replaced my Ideal Mexico five years ago. I never turned it off over the summer as getting the pilot lighted again tended to be troublesome. After it was replaced with a Worcester-Bosch whiich had no pilot light I realised how much that pilot light was costing me over the summer months.

[SteveW]

I don't generally bother. Boiler, pump and associated motorised valve run for hot water all year. As each room has its own dedicated timer/stat and motorised valve, a stuck valve or other fault only loses heating for one room, which is not a major problem.

SteveW

[geoff]

Geoff's in the land of the mannequin piss atm and off to Braunschweig for his eldest son's wedding tomorrow

[geoff]

In message , John Rumm writes

Still wearing short sleeved shirts ATM

[geoff]

In message , Brian Gaff writes

What, poor taste in alcoholic beerages?

yeah, prolly

[John Rumm]

Well same here - but was tempted to get the thin coat out of the cupboard!

[John Rumm]

Congrats to him and his Mrs to be then!

[Tim Lamb]

Has anyone done the sums for gas system boiler/ electric immersion for the summer?

[Andrew Gabriel]

A pilot light is typically burning about 250W, continuously in your case.

[SteveW]

What do you mean "at the moment?"

The only time I changed to long sleeves last winter was when working outside all day. If I'd only been out there for an hour or two, I'd still have been in short sleeves.

SteveW

[polygonum]

Think he meant when he goes to get money from hole in wall.

[Andy Burns]

I use my boiler (ancient cast iron lump with pilot light) for hot water all year round, on timer twice a day with tankstat and plenty of lagging, I have smart meters so monthly readings are accurate never estimated, gas costs in July and August this year were 12.2kWh and

12.1kWh respectively.

Even at the 8.5p/kWh rate (for first 2680 kWh/year) I'm not going to moan about £1/month for hot water!

[Dave Liquorice]

That much? Yeeps if I've got the maths right and 5p/kWhr for gas that's =

over =A3100/year. Glad oil boliers have spark ignition...

[Dave Liquorice]

I bet if you switched from the twice a day time switch to "on demand" it'd make a noticable difference to the gas used. I found that out when =

the mechancical time switch failed. Didn't immediatly replace it, I was =

living on my own at the time and to heat the cylinder from stone cold wa= s only 30 mins or so. Just bung it on before I wanted a bath, it would be =

hot again by the time I was finished to switch it off. The tank was well= lagged and would remain hot enough for washing up/washing for at least

48hrs.

[Andy Burns]

I *thought* that sounded suspiciously low ...

Apparently when Eon's online energy tracker says

"July 2012 total consumption 12.21kWh"

what it actually means is

"July 2012 consumption 12.21kWh per day"

Still, allowing for discounts and excluding standing charge, the actual gas cost is still only 37p/day.

[Andy Burns]

Even noting the correction from £1/month to 37p/day, I don't think ICBA.

I don't know how long the boiler runs for each day in summer, but I'd guess it's about 1/4 hour morning and evening (I should hook-up a monitoring script to the networked thermostat).

But I don't want to get up half an hour before I want a shower ...

[S Viemeister]

My old one didn't - it was a Rayburn.