How much are you spending on heating per day during this cold spell?

^^^ That's the problem. If I've been out for a walk to the shops theexercise means I can have the heating about 2deg lower. Very cost effective.

Amd prolly active.

Thank $deity for that

Mmm, 16C is cool-but-not-cold and 17C is OK-but-not-warm. Anything more than 18C and I start twitching with anxiety at the thought of squandering resources[1]

Owain

Owain wibbled on Thursday 07 January 2010 18:07

Don't worry, the greenies favorite wind generators are currently saving the planet with a staggering 72MW of output.

Current total demand is 58GW :-O

reduction

Can't honestly remember the last time I had any red meat, stopped eating it in 1993 after a 3 month backpacking trip around the world spending 6 weeks in China, meat didn't really feature in the street food. I did have some fish a year or so back when I was hungry and could only find a chippy.

Are you really sure? That seems like and awful lot of heat going somewhere. Maybe you like it tropical though...

If my maths are right to burn that amount of oil in 16 days would require a 25kW boiler to run flat out 24/7.

(16*24)*25 =3D 9600kW Oil produces about 10kW/l so 9600/10 =3D 960l.

Sure you haven't got an oil leak? Have you got the windows open?

Ah, looking at your figures 17th Dec to today is 21 days not 16.

It's not been very warm here either, between 0 and -5C for the last few weeks. I know the Highlands have been colder, -10 to -15C, but I don't think it would increase oil consumption that much, would it?

I wish! Well, no I don't, but no, it certainly isn't hot in here.

Whoops, yes, you're right. Our supplier works on the basis that we use

To be fair, we're heating a house plus adjoining shop, with door constantly opening and closing. House is solid granite walls, cool in summer, 'kin freezing in winter.

The house is quite large, but we only heat the parts we use. Frost settings on the rad stats keep the pipes unfrozen in the rest of the house. The problem is original Victorian single glazed sash windows. They had a major renovation this summer, which is good in that they open, for the first time in generations, but the down side is that draughts come in the parts that used to be stuck with multiple coats of paint. I'm planning to try some of the cling film type double glazing applied with a hair dryer, as others have recommended.

MY very well insulated but somewhat large house has a heatloss of 10Kw at -5C for 19C internal. That's what the heating engineer said. And that is to 2000 building regs. AND it takes no account of windchill. They insisted on venting the concrete raised floors!!

And yes, if I didn't light the fires Id be running the 12Kw boiler 24x7 to keep up.

So I can easily concede 25Kw+ continuous on an older property.

In-laws have very large old house and that's what they run at..bloody great 40Kw boiler needed in that.

And open fires, too.

average temp in the UK is low teens its only 4-5 degrees above that in winter/spring that you need to heat.

Now, its maybe 25 degrees temp rise you need. 5 times more power.

VERY realistic then.

In message , The Natural Philosopher writes

I don't know how to calculate such things as heat loss, and would probably depress myself if I could. What I can say is that the temp. here is -15 outside this morning, and we struggle to keep the house at

Calculate in Kelvin, that way the temperature rise is only

(273 + 25)

---------- = 1.07 times (273 + 5)

instead of 5 times :-P

Exactly: heatloss is roughly a function of the temp difference. You cant make more that 30 degrees over ambient. I am not surprised. Most house are not designed to do that. My requirement was for -5C out, 20C in. I was assured this was standard practice. That's 25C rise.

Many people will struggle and have boilers going 24x7 if we get average temps below -5C.

Er, with respect, that is NOT the tempearture RISE.,

That is the temperature.

P=X(Ti-Ta) where Ti and Ta are internal and ambient temps.

Whether they are in kelvin or celsius is irrelevant, as it is not a division going on, but a subtraction.

Out of curiosity, I checked Boilerjuice's price for my area - they quoted 58.78 pence per litre!

In the last 30 seconds I've got 49p/l (CA9 3). 5-10 working days delivery time. I've never found BJ competitive compared to the local suppler who is generally 1 to 2p cheaper than the other suppliers in the area and BJ above them...

I guess it depends on where you are an if anybody else near by has ordered. They do say club together to get a better price but I'd rather support our local business.

The biggest snag is "Please note the smallest tanker available is a 6 wheel rear steer." I presume that means six axles rather than wheels... ie one of the big beggers that you see at petrol stations. I *think* they could get it here but it would have to reverse down the road a bit and back up an ice covered track to turn around, on a blind corner...

Similar difficulties here. I use the local supplier - they know the area, and while not cheap, are less expensive than Boilerjuice.

Reading some of the other articles, I see I neglected to mention about 180W of PC/router/switch/monitor/etc incidental heating too.

Yesterday, aircon usage was higher as it was colder outside and the room started off colder in the morning too (I switched central heating off before room got up to temperature). Aircon used 3.5 units. Now I've found it can still grab lots of heat from outside and chuck it into the room when it't -5C outside, I'm even more impressed with it.

Nothing philosophical or ideological, I'll eat meat if it's put in front of me. I just seem to have got out of the habit of buying it. I used to eat Frosties for breakfast, then one day noticed I hadn't bought any for several months. Same with meat.

-- JGH

same with me with tea.

I realised I was only drinking it out of social habit., not actually enjoying it.

But my body complains if it doesnt get enough meat. Just used to it probably.

It never complains it needs more cabbage though.

Anything that smells that bad when it's cooking shouldn't be eaten.

Typo -- 2.5 units That was from 9am to 7pm.