Yet Another Cycling Forum

General Category => The Knowledge => OT Knowledge => Topic started by: mrcharly-YHT on 11 January, 2024, 01:43:26 pm

Title: Heating costs per year
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 11 January, 2024, 01:43:26 pm
MrsC was doing some budgeting before getting the oil tank refilled, and was surprised to see how much we are spending on heating oil.

£1200 per year

I'd assumed it to be much higher.

We do keep the house quite cool compared to many people (17.5 is the max temperature). In evenings in winter we sit in living room, which has a solid fuel stove for supplemental heating.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: toontra on 11 January, 2024, 01:53:26 pm
Since getting a smart meter it's been pretty sobering viewing during the current cold snap.  £5 for gas heating per day set at 16c.  The heady days of 17-18c are a thing of the past!
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: De Sisti on 11 January, 2024, 02:49:25 pm
I currently pay £95 per month with Octopus for gas and electricity on a two-bedroom terraced
house. I generally build up a large credit surplus in the summer (I cashed in £300 of it Aug 2023)
and use the rest during the winter months. It is currently at £190, but probably will be used up by
the end of March.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: Kim on 11 January, 2024, 03:50:10 pm
Currently something like £1050/year for gas (It went up a lot when our fixed tariff came to an end).  I don't have a way of separating space heating from hot water, but eyeballing the graph for the last year suggests it's something like a 4:1 ratio (assuming we use the same amount of hot water all year round, which isn't going to be true as we wash more in warm weather).

Some amount of resistive electric heating (I only have rolling averages) which varies at the whims of weather and illness (we used a fan heater extensively when barkata was stuck downstairs after her hip surgery, so recent figures would be atypical).  I don't have a good figure for the boiler's electricity consumption, which seems significantly higher with this newer model, on account of it spending much more time pumping tepid water around in order to do load compensation.

Plus the room we spend most of our time in during the day is heated to the order of a few hundred watts by computers.

This is in an ISO standard Victorian terrace, with landlord-quality insulation.  We keep things somewhere in the 19-22C range, depending on what we're doing, because we're not masochists and I value my lungs.


We rarely have visitors, but have people who do found that ventilating for covid reasons has lead to a significant increase in heating use?  On the odd day we have had to have windows open for prolonged periods in winter, it's roughly doubled our gas consumption.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: HTFB on 11 January, 2024, 05:14:56 pm
Currently something like £1050/year for gas (It went up a lot when our fixed tariff came to an end).  I don't have a way of separating space heating from hot water, but eyeballing the graph for the last year suggests it's something like a 4:1 ratio (assuming we use the same amount of hot water all year round, which isn't going to be true as we wash more in warm weather).
Ah, but in summer the water is warmer before you heat it, so each litre uses less gas. Annoyingly my access to my former team's folders has just today been revoked -- maybe they noticed me pinching their slides for a talk -- so I can't offhand tell you which effect predominates nationally.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: rogerzilla on 11 January, 2024, 05:24:13 pm
MrsC was doing some budgeting before getting the oil tank refilled, and was surprised to see how much we are spending on heating oil.

£1200 per year

I'd assumed it to be much higher.

We do keep the house quite cool compared to many people (17.5 is the max temperature). In evenings in winter we sit in living room, which has a solid fuel stove for supplemental heating.
Are you including the cost of the solid fuel, if any?  I spend £1,140 on gas and electric (gas is probably £600 of that) but around £600 on wood.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: rogerzilla on 11 January, 2024, 05:28:21 pm
Since getting a smart meter it's been pretty sobering viewing during the current cold snap.  £5 for gas heating per day set at 16c.  The heady days of 17-18c are a thing of the past!
I keep the living room at 21oC, which is recommended if you're over 40.  Other rooms are cooler, but rooms you sit around in need to be warm enough to reduce stroke risk.  In t'olden days the sitting room had the fire and no-one sat around anywhere else.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 11 January, 2024, 05:36:10 pm
MrsC was doing some budgeting before getting the oil tank refilled, and was surprised to see how much we are spending on heating oil.

£1200 per year

I'd assumed it to be much higher.

We do keep the house quite cool compared to many people (17.5 is the max temperature). In evenings in winter we sit in living room, which has a solid fuel stove for supplemental heating.
Are you including the cost of the solid fuel, if any?  I spend £1,140 on gas and electric (gas is probably £600 of that) but around £600 on wood.
No cost for solid fuel, I get my own.

Our house is detached, 2 story, 5 bedrooms. Poor insulation, which I'm gradually improving.

Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: MikeFromLFE on 11 January, 2024, 08:05:12 pm
Since getting a smart meter it's been pretty sobering viewing during the current cold snap.  £5 for gas heating per day set at 16c.  The heady days of 17-18c are a thing of the past!
I keep the living room at 21oC, which is recommended if you're over 40.  Other rooms are cooler, but rooms you sit around in need to be warm enough to reduce stroke risk.  In t'olden days the sitting room had the fire and no-one sat around anywhere else.
Thanks for the info.
We keep our living room at 21 which seems to be about right for us, or maybe a degree or so low for Mrs M who has (among other things) thyroid issues.
No appetite for hair shirts here.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: Paul H on 11 January, 2024, 08:17:46 pm
My fuel costs for 2023 were £760, of which I think about 70% was heating.  Just me in a small two bed flat, careful with usage but never to the point of being uncomfortable.  That's almost exactly double what it was four years ago, though cushioned by the 2022/3 refunds.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: zigzag on 11 January, 2024, 10:18:15 pm
in uk, heating two bedrooms and a bathroom to a comfy temp, around £900/y (this includes some hot water)
abroad, colder (baltic!!) climate, temperature indoors 21-22c year round, heating all 141m2 for £50/y (not a typo - new house, latest greatest tech)
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: felstedrider on 12 January, 2024, 08:05:57 am
£1,400-£1,500 per year.   About a grand of that is gas.    7 year old build, 4 bed detached.

I'm just into the third year of a three year fix so have been isolated from the recent price changes.   I was a little concerned how much the household bills might go up when this ends but wholesale markets have been drifting down for quite a while so it might not be so bad.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 12 January, 2024, 08:52:39 am
Currently paying Octopus around £1800 pa, gas and electric, for a 2 bed flat  :facepalm:

That's roughly twice what we paid before the war in Ukraine. Gas markets have long since stabilised so somewhere along the chain, producers I suspect, are making a huge profit. In true British style, we suffer in silence.

We lose a huge amount of heat via the windows. Working on it...

Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 12 January, 2024, 08:56:18 am
in uk, heating two bedrooms and a bathroom to a comfy temp, around £900/y (this includes some hot water)
abroad, colder (baltic!!) climate, temperature indoors 21-22c year round, heating all 141m2 for £50/y (not a typo - new house, latest greatest tech)

That is really impressive. Of course, all new houses in the UK are being built to such a spec <sarcasm>
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: Tim Hall on 12 January, 2024, 09:16:43 am
No cost for solid fuel, I get my own.

Our house is detached, 2 story, 5 bedrooms. Poor insulation, which I'm gradually improving.
What does this entail? You have a copse which you can fell, you pick up driftwood off the beach or what?
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 12 January, 2024, 10:00:16 am
No cost for solid fuel, I get my own.

Our house is detached, 2 story, 5 bedrooms. Poor insulation, which I'm gradually improving.
What does this entail? You have a copse which you can fell, you pick up driftwood off the beach or what?
Kindling is mostly from garden trimmings (we have a lot of small trees and shrubs).
I have a peat bank, which gets 'cut' in May.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: rafletcher on 12 January, 2024, 10:44:32 am
Currently paying Octopus around £1800 pa, gas and electric, for a 2 bed flat  :facepalm:

That's roughly twice what we paid before the war in Ukraine. Gas markets have long since stabilised so somewhere along the chain, producers I suspect, are making a huge profit. In true British style, we suffer in silence.

We lose a huge amount of heat via the windows. Working on it...

Our bill is similar, but it's a solid brick 1840's end of terrace 2 bed farm workers house, not meant to last this long. Doors and windows replaced, but a huge north facing gable end that suffers in the wind. Indoor temp 17.5-18C for 15 hours a day. As my wife's a stick thin 79yr old that's pretty good. I'm at work still so at least can go without a jumper for the bulk of the day.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: Jasmine on 12 January, 2024, 04:11:01 pm
My gas (LPG) is about £800 per year. Although I have a thermostat, I tend to mostly use the heating when I feel cold, which doesn't relate to the actual temperature. Most of that will be heating, as a pair of bottles will last April to October.

House is detached 2 bed, 200 years old, stone, poor insulation. I'm hoping to replace the roof this year, which should hopefully reduce some leakage.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: De Sisti on 12 January, 2024, 04:54:38 pm
I keep the living room at 21oC, which is recommended if you're over 40.  Other rooms are cooler, but rooms you sit around in need to be warm enough to reduce stroke risk.  In t'olden days the sitting room had the fire and no-one sat around anywhere else.
Every day is a school day.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 12 January, 2024, 05:13:07 pm
Pingu would be sitting in his pants if we had the temperature at 21C.

I was going to ask why but looked it up. This made for interesting reading https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/research/effect-cold-weather-heart
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 12 January, 2024, 05:20:17 pm
When I look at Octopus on my most recent bill they are estimating £990/yr for gas but we came off our pre-Ukraine fixed in Sept so not sure if they are calculating on some or all of that.
To confuse matters we also swapped from an electric shower to boiler supplied shower this Sept so our gas use for part of the year has increased.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: Pickled Onion on 12 January, 2024, 08:40:05 pm
For my house the heating costs have increased dramatically. Four bedroom old house, occupancy in 2023 three-and-a-bit adults up to five so that has skewed the recent figures. 2017-2023:

Gas (house)   £240.00   £220.00   £480.00   £641.88   £407.08   £717.99   £930.17

I spend most of the time on the boat now, which is cheaper to heat as it's a smaller space. 2023 is negative £400 on account of the government kick-back. I'm perhaps like Pingu as I'm in my shorts right now but it's 11.8 degrees and the CH has been on for an hour. It's generally 29+ with the stove lit and the windows open!

Fuel (boat)   £0.00   £0.00   £0.00   £0.00   £0.00   £272.14   -£406.00

That includes Coal (heating) gas (cooking) and diesel (heating, hw, electricity and locomotion). Most electricity is from solar.

Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: IanDG on 12 January, 2024, 10:50:07 pm
Air Source Heat Pump used 4358 kwh last year, about £1200

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53459973316_b422b433f4.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2ps5kxS)2024-01-12 (1) (https://flic.kr/p/2ps5kxS) by ian (https://www.flickr.com/photos/acf_windy/), on Flickr
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: TimC on 13 January, 2024, 05:12:55 am
About £3500 a year (11,180KWh) for my electrically-heated 300-yo thatched 2-bed cottage. 16°C during the day, 18°C in the evening, 12°C minimum any time.

(https://i.imgur.com/JOvgKCD.png)

Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: Andy W on 13 January, 2024, 05:23:19 am
Heating costs least of my concerns when it comes to household energy consumption. My 18 year old daughter apparently needs 210 litres of hot water to wash x 2 and condition her hair daily.  Like most youngsters she states shes worried about climate change, exceptions can be made for showering it seems.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: rogerzilla on 13 January, 2024, 07:14:27 am
More stuff on minimum temperatures for bones:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5c5986f8ed915d045f3778a9/Min_temp_threshold_for_homes_in_winter.pdf

The advice seems to be slipping from 21 deg to 18 deg based on energy efficiency concerns, which is bollocks unless Human 1.0 has had an upgrade to 1.1.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: robgul on 13 January, 2024, 08:18:58 am
Lots of interesting stuff in this thread BUT making comparisons/comments in £s isn't very helpful given the volatility of energy prices - the sure-fire method is to use the consumption figure in KwH + the standing charge. 

I've been tracking our consumpton since we moved to this house  in February 2020 (4 bed/2 bath detached, built late 1960s, lots of insulation in the loft - not sure about the walls - gas for CH & big tank HW, electric for cooking - just 2 of us, retired, so here most of the time) 

My spreadsheet presents a fairly consistent picture with reductons in consumption when we made a few changes that cost around £300 - swapped every light for LEDs, fitted Hive valves to 4 radiators to enable timed control in 2 bedrooms we don't use and 1 room that's only used in the evening, increased insulation in the loft.

I haven't finished compiling 2023 yet (waiting on latest bill from BG) but our consumptions in 2022 were :  Gas 16,400 KwH, Electricity 4,700 Kwh. so about 30% more than the "cap consumptions" - I expect similar volumes for 2023.

We've been on a series of fixed rates since switching to BG (from AVRO  :hand:) in Feb 21 with quarterly "pay the whole bill by DD"  - all of which have have been below the cap KwH rates.   Standing charge increases have been outrageous!

Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: Cudzoziemiec on 13 January, 2024, 10:20:29 am
in uk, heating two bedrooms and a bathroom to a comfy temp, around £900/y (this includes some hot water)
abroad, colder (baltic!!) climate, temperature indoors 21-22c year round, heating all 141m2 for £50/y (not a typo - new house, latest greatest tech)

That is really impressive. Of course, all new houses in the UK are being built to such a spec <sarcasm>
But Baltic climates come with Baltic prices – which are going to vary between, say, Finland and Latvia.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 13 January, 2024, 12:01:24 pm
More stuff on minimum temperatures for bones

Spends <redacted> reading document looking for where it mentions “bones”.

 :facepalm:
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: FifeingEejit on 17 January, 2024, 07:35:11 pm
MrsC was doing some budgeting before getting the oil tank refilled, and was surprised to see how much we are spending on heating oil.

£1200 per year

I'd assumed it to be much higher.

We do keep the house quite cool compared to many people (17.5 is the max temperature). In evenings in winter we sit in living room, which has a solid fuel stove for supplemental heating.
Are you including the cost of the solid fuel, if any?  I spend £1,140 on gas and electric (gas is probably £600 of that) but around £600 on wood.
No cost for solid fuel, I get my own.

Our house is detached, 2 story, 5 bedrooms. Poor insulation, which I'm gradually improving.

You've got cutting rights?
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: Cudzoziemiec on 29 February, 2024, 04:26:43 pm
I've just totted it up for another purpose and it comes to about 5,000kWh of gas per year for heating and hot water.
Title: Re: Heating costs per year
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 29 February, 2024, 05:12:30 pm
MrsC was doing some budgeting before getting the oil tank refilled, and was surprised to see how much we are spending on heating oil.

£1200 per year

I'd assumed it to be much higher.

We do keep the house quite cool compared to many people (17.5 is the max temperature). In evenings in winter we sit in living room, which has a solid fuel stove for supplemental heating.
Are you including the cost of the solid fuel, if any?  I spend £1,140 on gas and electric (gas is probably £600 of that) but around £600 on wood.
No cost for solid fuel, I get my own.

Our house is detached, 2 story, 5 bedrooms. Poor insulation, which I'm gradually improving.

You've got cutting rights?

Missed the question, sorry.

Everyone  on Lewis and Harris has cutting rights. It is controlled by the grazing clerks.

Cutting is strictly with hand tools only, and you are not permitted  to sell peat.