(paying for heating bill) who&#x27;s turned their heating on yet?

Original post by nic-nac

This is to anyone in a student house where you have to pay some/all bills, including for the heating. Have you put the heating on yet ? And for how long each day ? My parents have it on for 2-3 hours twice a day, I'm not sure if we can afford that much, but then again, we do want it on enough to actually heat the house. Yesterday I managed to set the timer (the clock was wrong and the heating was set to be on for most of the day!) and we seem to be war enough, well I'm not shivering even when i'm wearing my dressing gown now !

I put it on for a couple of hours or so. Though I try to wear a jacket indoors so that we don't use as much heat. And also, I got quite annoyed at my flatmate who had the heating on overnight! I'd see where someones coming from if they're ill, but at a cost of around 20p/hour (according to the Internet), over 5 hours, that's £30/month extra!

His excuse was that he didn't have any clean clothes, so he went to bed with nothing on. Well freaking get some clean clothes, or more clothes. It's cheaper than bills....

Reply 3

Dragonfly07

18

I'm poor as hell but I turn the heating on every time the house is cold. To be honest though we have an amazingly insulated house, so it doesn't take long for it to heat up and we want to turn it off quite quickly because it gets TOO hot.

Reply 4

placenta medicae talpae

Heating = on.
Wish it weren't.
Complete waste of money for a penguin like me :penguin:

Reply 5

Swanbow

19

Lived off campus last year, and we didn't turn the heating on once. It was the worst winter of my life, I barely left my bed.

This year back on campus, and heating has been on since I moved in :biggrin:

Luxury.

Reply 6

On a side note, when my flatmate goes home for the weekend, Im going to have a look to see how much central heating is actually costing us ie:

Wait until it's sufficiently cold
Go outside, and have a look at the gas meter. Make a record of that
Put the heating on
Set an alarm for an hour
Turn the heating off
Have a look at the gas meter, and note the difference. Then I can calculate exactly how much CH is costing/hour :smile:

Or at least how many KwH's we're using

I might also do it with showers ie: before I go in, in the morning, do the above process and see the difference

Reply 7

OP

Original post by kidomo

Welcome to the student life where wearing layers upon layers during winter is normal.

We were trying that, put our extremities were still freezing, even in November ! At least we have 3 weeks off a Christmas where we don't have to be paying bills, except for the standing charge.

Original post by de_monies

I put it on for a couple of hours or so. Though I try to wear a jacket indoors so that we don't use as much heat. And also, I got quite annoyed at my flatmate who had the heating on overnight! I'd see where someones coming from if they're ill, but at a cost of around 20p/hour (according to the Internet), over 5 hours, that's £30/month extra!

His excuse was that he didn't have any clean clothes, so he went to bed with nothing on. Well freaking get some clean clothes, or more clothes. It's cheaper than bills....

I'm the only one that knows how to set the heating ! We agreed to try a couple of hours in the morning and evening, although one housemate only wanted it on once a day ... the other 3 of us, soon overruled her :tongue:

and then see how much it would be costing us and if we can turn it down a bit more.

Original post by Dragonfly07

I'm poor as hell but I turn the heating on every time the house is cold. To be honest though we have an amazingly insulated house, so it doesn't take long for it to heat up and we want to turn it off quite quickly because it gets TOO hot.

Ours is a bog standard mid-terrace, so we have insulation from two sides at least. It seems to warm up quickly ... if we remember to turn the radiator on that is ...

Original post by placenta medicae talpae

Heating = on.
Wish it weren't.
Complete waste of money for a penguin like me :penguin:

some of us need heating though, one of us has low blood pressure and two of us have bad circulation, plus I get ill really easily and badly.

Original post by Swanbow

Lived off campus last year, and we didn't turn the heating on once. It was the worst winter of my life, I barely left my bed.

This year back on campus, and heating has been on since I moved in :biggrin:

Luxury.

We were seeing how long we could last without heating, but it has been freezing. But then none of us knew how to change the settings, plus we couldn't find any instructions, so I phoned home as my dad's a plumber.

Reply 8

Original post by nic-nac

I'm the only one that knows how to set the heating ! We agreed to try a couple of hours in the morning and evening, although one housemate only wanted it on once a day ... the other 3 of us, soon overruled her :tongue:

and then see how much it would be costing us and if we can turn it down a bit more.

You could do as I'm going to do (when my flatmate goes home) ie: record whatever it says on your gas meter, put the heating on for 1 hour only. Set an alarm for 1 hour, turn the heating off, go outside and see the gas meter, and note the difference. Use the average cost of around 3p/KwH to work out how much you're using, or post the kwH here, and someone can calculate it (It's pretty easy)

Original post by nic-nac

Ours is a bog standard mid-terrace, so we have insulation from two sides at least. It seems to warm up quickly ... if we remember to turn the radiator on that is ...
:tongue:

some of us need heating though, one of us has low blood pressure and two of us have bad circulation, plus I get ill really easily and badly.

We were seeing how long we could last without heating, but it has been freezing. But then none of us knew how to change the settings, plus we couldn't find any instructions, so I phoned home as my dad's a plumber.

Fortunately, we're on the second floor in a flat, which means that we at least get SOME heat from downstairs, but there's no 3 week holiday for us...(Placement students)

At this point, I don't mind living right on the top floor, if it means it's cheaper :biggrin:

But then in the summer, that would be hardly any thing ofc

Reply 9

OP

Original post by de_monies

On a side note, when my flatmate goes home for the weekend, Im going to have a look to see how much central heating is actually costing us ie:

Wait until it's sufficiently cold
Go outside, and have a look at the gas meter. Make a record of that
Put the heating on
Set an alarm for an hour
Turn the heating off
Have a look at the gas meter, and note the difference. Then I can calculate exactly how much CH is costing/hour :smile:

Or at least how many KwH's we're using

I might also do it with showers ie: before I go in, in the morning, do the above process and see the difference

If it's on the same scale as ours, you can't do it that accurately. I worked out that without the heating we used on average 0.3 units on the meter a day. So in 10 days time, I'm going to see how much more than 3 units we have used.

Reply 10

Original post by nic-nac

If it's on the same scale as ours, you can't do it that accurately. I worked out that without the heating we used on average 0.3 units on the meter a day. So in 10 days time, I'm going to see how much more than 3 units we have used.

Tbh, I'd just like some sort of an idea of roughly how much it's costing us :smile:

Also, remember that without the heating on, you are paying to heat hot water up as well :smile:

Reply 11

OP

Original post by de_monies

Tbh, I'd just like some sort of an idea of roughly how much it's costing us :smile:

Also, remember that without the heating on, you are paying to heat hot water up as well :smile:

I do to, which is why i'm going to check the meter in a few days time, because over 1 day we wouldn't be able to tell accurately, especially if we either all had a shower that day, or none of us did, which would skew it.

Reply 12

tory88

18

We're in a terraced house and there's a baby next door, so we just steal their heat through our walls XD The heating will only go on to stop pipes freezing, I believe. At the moment, it's just one jumper cold, which is much warmer than our house last year. The only issue is it takes an age for clothes to dry on an airer.

Reply 13

Original post by nic-nac

I do to, which is why i'm going to check the meter in a few days time, because over 1 day we wouldn't be able to tell accurately, especially if we either all had a shower that day, or none of us did, which would skew it.

Ah cool. Tbf, Ill just wait for him to go home, because then I know that the ch won't be turned on/off, and it means I can literally just test it for an hour and use that as the basis for any more calculations

Same as having a shower. See how much that is using in water/gas (We have a water meter as well)

Reply 14

Knalchemist

14

I suppose it depends if your place is gas or electric.

My flat was all electric, which was SUPER expensive. So I bought one of those oil filled radiators which significantly cut my bill down.

If you're gas… it isn't particularly expensive.

Reply 15

OP

Original post by Knalchemist

I suppose it depends if your place is gas or electric.

My flat was all electric, which was SUPER expensive. So I bought one of those oil filled radiators which significantly cut my bill down.

If you're gas… it isn't particularly expensive.

The boiler is gas, but the cooker is electric, so for September-November our gas bill was about £1 a week each, which was basically for showers and general hot water.

Reply 16

Original post by nic-nac

The boiler is gas, but the cooker is electric, so for September-November our gas bill was about £1 a week each, which was basically for showers and general hot water.

That's one thing I HATE about uni approved accommodation,or rented property in general for that matter. Because electric cookers are "safer" for landlords, a lot put them in (They also tend to be cheaper as well), which means that cooking costs 5 times as much, because you're using electricity

I'm not *that* fussed, because I have "convenience" machines if you like :tongue:

Reply 17

Alfissti