Home energy saving tips /ideas...

[rogerzilla]

It was 13.1 in the end.

I'm in the office today so (unusually) the CH rather than the stove is on.  It's probably costing £1.50/hour running up from cold.  The condensate drain is badly placed but shouldn't freeze in a couple of hours' running.

[mrcharly-YHT]

My, it's cold out.  I have been out since 5 and the indoor temperature has dropped by more than 1^oC an hour.  At that rate, it will be below 10^oC in the morning.  Obviously it won't, as the temperature differential narrows, but 13^oC is likely.

It was 5.6° indoors when I got up this morning, and 2.4° when I got back from work. Only just managed to bring the temp up to something reasonable.

Do you live in a tent?

[Cudzoziemiec]

My, it's cold out.  I have been out since 5 and the indoor temperature has dropped by more than 1^oC an hour.  At that rate, it will be below 10^oC in the morning.  Obviously it won't, as the temperature differential narrows, but 13^oC is likely.

It was 5.6° indoors when I got up this morning, and 2.4° when I got back from work. Only just managed to bring the temp up to something reasonable.

Do you live in a tent?

I don't live in a tent, except on holiday, but where I do live there is no heating in the kitchen. At all.* I made the mistake of going in there barefoot about 9 o'clock and the floor was painful. The air temperature must be below 5 and the floor must be close to zero.

*This was meant to be temporary. Like a tent.

[Mr Larrington]

Is there such a thing as a system that:

• Replaces the thermostat with a gadget that
• Communicates via the Devil’s Radio with a temperature sensor located somewhere sensible, and
• Sends on/off instructions to the boiler over the existing Anbaric String, and
• Doesn't require Kimlike Powers to install?

[mrcharly-YHT]

Is there such a thing as a system that:

• Replaces the thermostat with a gadget that
• Communicates via the Devil’s Radio with a temperature sensor located somewhere sensible, and
• Sends on/off instructions to the boiler over the existing Anbaric String, and
• Doesn't require Kimlike Powers to install?

Our Hive does that. The temp sensor is battery powered and can be moved (also, you can control it via a knob, rather than just an app).

Installation was pretty simple. Replace existing boiler control, usually on a wall, with the hive box (wiring is identical, you can photo the existing wiring and just put them in same place in the hive).

Cudzo and PO's descriptions of their living spaces make me appreciate my house more. I haven't had to put up with cold like they described since I moved off a boat.

[FifeingEejit]

I have discovered that despite the air temperature at head height being a nice comfy 18c, there's a howling gale going around my feet under the desk.
I had a shufty around with a surface thermometer and found the carpet temp is more like 16 under there and the skirting board is similarly cold, however that's not going to find me the source of the gale.

I suspect it's the tiny gap between skirting boards and the chip board slabs that make up the flooring below the carpet, and the tiny gaps between said chip board (it's probably not chip board I'd fall right through that)

Any ideas on how to confirm and seal?

I do know where the gale in the kitchen comes from as I found a massive hole in the plaster board when I was trying to find out why there was mouse shit in with my pans.

[rafletcher]

Is there such a thing as a system that:

• Replaces the thermostat with a gadget that
• Communicates via the Devil’s Radio with a temperature sensor located somewhere sensible, and
• Sends on/off instructions to the boiler over the existing Anbaric String, and
• Doesn't require Kimlike Powers to install?

Yep, a wireless digital thermostat is your friend, like tgis one..

https://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/honeywell-dt92e-wireless-digital-room-thermostat/

The receiver is meant to be close to the boiler, but that's for aesthetics really, it can just repace your existing wall stat that takes 2 wire 240V.

[Mrs Pingu]

Yes, I got a wireless stat fitted in the old Pingu Towers where there had been no stat at all. The receiver was under the boiler and I moved the stat depending on whether we were using the wood stove or not. Twas also a Honeywell.

[Mrs Pingu]

I have discovered that despite the air temperature at head height being a nice comfy 18c, there's a howling gale going around my feet under the desk.
I had a shufty around with a surface thermometer and found the carpet temp is more like 16 under there and the skirting board is similarly cold, however that's not going to find me the source of the gale.

I suspect it's the tiny gap between skirting boards and the chip board slabs that make up the flooring below the carpet, and the tiny gaps between said chip board (it's probably not chip board I'd fall right through that)

Any ideas on how to confirm and seal?

I do know where the gale in the kitchen comes from as I found a massive hole in the plaster board when I was trying to find out why there was mouse shit in with my pans.

I think you're going to need to pull back the carpet. Pretty sure you can get cork strips for just such a thing. Or this foam https://www.draughtex.co.uk/how-to-fill-skirting-board-gaps

[FifeingEejit]

hm, The gaps look small enough that I'd need to get feeler gauges out to find out how small

[Mrs Pingu]

Probably caulk is your friend then. Is it a draught or do you just need the underfloor insulating?

[FifeingEejit]

underfloor insulation would be nice but i should have done that before moving all my stuff in

due to lack of a feeler gauge I have used the next best thing. post it notes.
6 of, so around 1mm

There's also the spiky bastard things holding the carpet down.

Interestingly of the 3 carpeted rooms the office (where the draught is) has underlay, the living room has underlay, and the bedroom has cheap shit carpet slapped down in place with nothing to grip it.
this of course means I can easily check to see how well stuck together the big sheets of wood-like board are and I can't feel a draught through it.

[Jaded]

Is there such a thing as a system that:

• Replaces the thermostat with a gadget that
• Communicates via the Devil’s Radio with a temperature sensor located somewhere sensible, and
• Sends on/off instructions to the boiler over the existing Anbaric String, and
• Doesn't require Kimlike Powers to install?

We use Hive.

Plus it has a simple record of temperatures, so I know that it was 12.5 degrees here this morning.

[Kim]

Yes, I got a wireless stat fitted in the old Pingu Towers where there had been no stat at all. The receiver was under the boiler and I moved the stat depending on whether we were using the wood stove or not. Twas also a Honeywell.

$gasman recently replaced our Not-a-Honeywell wireless stat with a much posher Honeywell, on the basis that the old one was "crap"^[1].  The new one does all the usual timery stuff as well, so you can program different temperature set points for different times of day, and comes with a little stand so you can carry it from room to room as well as the wall bracket.  Which I reckon is about peak heating control functionality without going internet-of-shit. 

Not that we're actually using it.  We're controlling the heating with a Shelly Plus 1 concealed in the junction box behind the receiver.

And that's the thing, controlling BRITISH heating is usually^[2] a matter of closing a switch, so pretty much anything is a drop-in replacement.


_{[1] To be fair, I think the receiver was in the early stages of capacitor rot, as it tended to play dead for a while after being deprived of power.
[2] Unless you've got a recent posh boiler that speaks OpenTherm^[3]
[3] Some sort of cursed serial protocol that allows the controller to twiddle the boiler's flow temperature setpoint for shits and giggles.}

[De Sisti]

..this foam https://www.draughtex.co.uk/how-to-fill-skirting-board-gaps

Highly recommended. I wish I had discovered it to fill the gaps in my downstairs floorboards instead of caulk.
Upstairs ok with draughtex though.

[ian]

I like Hive, it's simple and functional, I can change the temperature with my watch or phone (or Alexa, though I don't trust her not to mishear 20 degrees as 200 and cook me). Or you can twist the dial on the portable controller if you want to be old skool.

[FifeingEejit]

Got a Honeywell T9R which is a bit annoying as the R means it's got a stand and I can't be arsed figuring out ways of getting it to sit on a wall out the way.
Also although connected to Wi-Fi it doesn't have batteries so isn't very portable.
The app is rather functional and the geo-location doesn't work with modern phones that like turning location off, but given I need the heating to fire up when I'm 20 miles away in order to get the house comfortable for my arrival and I work 19.98 miles away I just use the scheduler and over rule it with a minimum of 10c when I'm proper out.
Alexa can apparently be taught how to speak to it but given Alexa only just managed "Turn on PC" and can't do "Turn on HiFi" or "Turn on Telly" without asking me what I mean ah hink ahve foond ger limit eh.


Had a scope around with thermometer at lunch, the ethernet port faceplate is at 12c, the radio aerial outlet next to it is also at 12c, the 2 gang power socket is at 15, the plaster board next to them is at 15, the power socket has been painted in, the other 2 have not, hm.
The plaster board above the desk is at 18, head height 19, and drops down to 15 at skirting level.

Wonder if I should just put the room thermostat on the floor, the smart meters are buggerd anyway so I can't see the impending fright coming. (Except i've discovered I can see my leccy bill on that meter)

[Kim]

Had a scope around with thermometer at lunch, the ethernet port faceplate is at 12c, the radio aerial outlet next to it is also at 12c, the 2 gang power socket is at 15, the plaster board next to them is at 15, the power socket has been painted in, the other 2 have not, hm.

Plug fuses get warm when they're in use (obviously proportional to the current being drawn), which might have something to do with it?

[FifeingEejit]

yeah could do, the drop between plaster board and plastic of an unused socket on the internal wall is 0.2c
The ones I was measuring earlier are against the fire break between the 2 houses so there's a whack of concrete behind the frame.

[Diver300]

Plug fuses get warm when they're in use (obviously proportional to the current being drawn), which might have something to do with it?

Point of order, m'lud.  Temperature rise is proportional to the square of the current drawn.

[toontra]

I like Hive, it's simple and functional, I can change the temperature with my watch or phone (or Alexa, though I don't trust her not to mishear 20 degrees as 200 and cook me). Or you can twist the dial on the portable controller if you want to be old skool.

The best thing about Hive is the ability to control remotely using the app.  No more panic if you leave on holiday and can't remember if you've turned the heating/hot water off, and I can turn the heating on 20 minutes in advance of getting home so things are toasty when I open the front door.

[SoreTween]

Is there such a thing as a system that:

• Replaces the thermostat with a gadget that
• Communicates via the Devil’s Radio with a temperature sensor located somewhere sensible, and
• Sends on/off instructions to the boiler over the existing Anbaric String, and
• Doesn't require Kimlike Powers to install?

Yes:
https://www.timeguard.com/products/climate/programastat-plus/wireless-7-day-programmable-room-thermostat
Small box connects to your heating system wherever and instead of your existing thermostat.  Big box goes wherever you put it.  The two communicate wirelessly not using any recognised flavour of Devil's radio, nor anything fashionable like zebedee or Z-Wave, it's not part of a mesh, it doesn't report any statistics to anything anywhere.  There's no way the company can bork it remotely nor start charging you to use it.  There is in fact a vast list of things it cannot do.  What it can do is turn your heating on & off and bugger all else.  We have had one for 10 years and they've got out of sync, the receiver missed the turn on message, twice that I'm aware of.  We have stone walls 18" think including internally.
I like the 7 day programmer version as it varies the target temperature through the day and differently Sat & Sun.  But there's an even dumber version if you prefer:
https://www.timeguard.com/products/climate/programastat-plus/wireless-digital-room-thermostat-with-night-set-back

[Kim]

Plug fuses get warm when they're in use (obviously proportional to the current being drawn), which might have something to do with it?

Point of order, m'lud.  Temperature rise is proportional to the square of the current drawn.

Of course it is 

[chopstick]

I have discovered that despite the air temperature at head height being a nice comfy 18c, there's a howling gale going around my feet under the desk.
I had a shufty around with a surface thermometer and found the carpet temp is more like 16 under there and the skirting board is similarly cold, however that's not going to find me the source of the gale.

I suspect it's the tiny gap between skirting boards and the chip board slabs that make up the flooring below the carpet, and the tiny gaps between said chip board (it's probably not chip board I'd fall right through that)

Any ideas on how to confirm and seal?

I do know where the gale in the kitchen comes from as I found a massive hole in the plaster board when I was trying to find out why there was mouse shit in with my pans.

Today I noticed a very faint gentle draught very close to the carpet on our stairs but not any higher and blowing downwards.  It was hardly noticeable but once noticed, it was obvious.  Our permanently open radiator is in the hallway near the foot of the stairs and we tend to have the radiators upstairs turned down at the thermostat valve, plus we have a box room (where the PC is and where I'm sitting now) that doesn't have a radiator - so in the winter, upstairs is usually cooler than downstairs but hot air rises so it does get some heat from downstairs.

This got me thinking - there are a couple of air bricks upstairs and so there is potential for a draught from them but if there was no ingress of air from the outside, being as hot air rises and that hot air must displace the cold air, could it be that the gentle draught that I felt is actually just the movement of cold air caused by the hot air rising from around our hallway radiator?

[Mrs Pingu]

Could be. I was wondering that just last night, why our cat insists on sleeping right under the radiator when there must be a cold draught there as it gets sucked in the radiator.