Reducing costs

[jon]

At the moment I have configured the heating system to only use the heat pump, whilst isolating the two 3kW immersion heaters. This drives a 2.5kW bathroom radiator and only one 1.8kW living room radiator at ~35C and warm domestic water at ~40C. I run this arrangement on the 'off peak' electricity for 5 hours at a cost of 70p. All this is with an outside temperature of 14C, so it will be interesting to see what happens with the new tariffs when it is freezing outside.

I have also switched off the large freezer, reducing the total daily cost by 68p.

[Spike]

Buy some longjohns while you can, and a thick sweater.

Don’t forget to de-Legionella the hot water tank once a week.

Unless the freezer is empty, that’s not recommended (radio news this morning).

[S Viemeister]

And some hot water bottles.

[SteveW]

Or a wife - although that tends to increase costs overall!

[The Natural Philosopher]

Get a trophy wife on a prenuptial. That way she can be sacked on a standard fixed tariff.

[Jim Stewart ...]

get electric foot heater

[Rod Speed]

Makes a lot more sense to get a heated throw, basically an electric blanket that you use on an armchair or sofa.

[Rod Speed]

Makes a lot more sense to get an electric blanket.

[Brian]

14 C? Where are you?

I dream of a cool day, I don’t like the heat.

[Andrew]

Even if its made of copper ?.

[Andrew]

An electric 'throw' is quite effective. Just don't trip over the cable and end up in A&E

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

I notice many houses locally, where they would leave lights on over night, are now turning them off.

[Jim Stewart ...]

shirley LED bulbs take nothing ? ....

[alan_m]

I have dusk to dawn light in my front porch and selected the lowest energy LED bulb I could find for it - around 2W. That's still £2.50 per year but a cost I'm willing to accept

Perhaps now people are looking at their smart meter monitors and seriously looking at their unnecessary electric consumption. :)

[Ponyface]

you are correct, but the fact is that the power companies are now making up the money they lost by us switching to led. You cant beat them except by nationalising them.

[Dave Plowman (News]

Yes - watching TV of an evening, I see 4 houses across the road through the window. All dark now - before, there'd be hall and outside lights left on.