Jumpers instead of heating – how you’re cutting back this winter

A few years ago we moved into a relatively new cottage with an old oil fired range cooker that heated the water and fed the central heating systems. There was a bottled gas hob. The boiler stayed on all year to heat the water. The oven took 20-30 minutes to warm up. Individual radiators had thermostats but there was no overall thermostat to control the heating and there was no immersion heater.

The range was inefficient and expensive to run or replace. We did what we could ourselves to keep the fuel costs down by laying extra insulation in the loft, adding draught excluders etc. Extra layers of clothing helped in the colder months and thick socks worked a treat. We wanted a greener energy solution so we did our homework and consulted the experts.

To begin with, we installed a wood burner to replace the open fire and this cut the fuel bill over the winter. Our house is on the edge of a conservation area so we weren’t able to have solar panels on the front which faces south. We looked at putting them on the back and after 15-18 years we might have broken even on our investment. We looked at ground source heat pumps, woodchip burners and other green energy sources but we had restricted access to the back garden and not enough space for storage. They were all very expensive too. Green energy was neither viable nor affordable so we looked to gas.

There is no piped gas into the village even though we can see the lights of a storage plant from our window. A village the size of ours didn’t offer them enough return on the investment. We asked if we could have an Lpg tank and boiler but the driver must see the tank from his truck when he comes to refuel and he couldn’t. The next best alternative would be 6 x large gas bottles, but we would need too many deliveries to replace the empty tanks. We wrote-off gas as an option and we were told that suitable electric heating systems weren’t that efficient.

The running and maintenance costs on the range became very high and the price of oil escalated. The final straw was when we spent £1,000 in the space of a few months only to have the oven break down on the run up to Christmas. The freezing weather also affected the gas to the hob. The oven part arrived in January but it broke down again 4 weeks later. By this time we’d had enough.

We opted for an efficient oil boiler with time switch and thermostat and a separate dual fuel cooker with lpg. Although it cost a lot of money to replace the old system, we now have a more controllable and efficient heating system and aim to keep the running costs down.

We only have an oil boiler as we had no choice and the price of oil is more expensive than other fuel sources. There is no good reason for oil being so expensive and it does not seem fair that we have to pay so much just to keep ourselves warm.

If this conversation has shown anything, it is that, whilst there is a trend for rising energy prices to cause increased concern over affordability, there is a wide variaton of individual experience, and ideas. This is not surprising. Were everyone’s metabolism the same, and were we all to live in identical rectangular boxes, our needs, and experiences, might be the same. As we are not identical, some are old, some are young, some are fit, some are poorly, and we live in a wide variety of buildings, some of which may be energy efficient, but most are not, and we have a wide variety of heating methods. It is, therefore, not surprising, that a “one size fits all” way to improve our “lot”, is simply impossible. Few people can afford to employ an independant consultant, and most “free” advice is sales based.
The government should be making realistic advice more affordable, not just to those officially classed as fuel poor. They may have the greatest need, but are not the only ones to be “struggling”, and unable to afford advice, let alone improvements. I would have thought it not beyond the bounds of possibility, to devise an online facility to provide, at least, some REAL advice, to “point people in a possible, right direction”

There have been several posts relating to curtains, to help with energy retention. It is true that closing curtains will often reduce heat loss, from a room. There is one caveat. There is a modern tendancy to site radiators beneath windows. There is nothing wrong with that, there are good reasons for doing so, but it does mean that closing the curtains can actually INCREASE heat loss. Depending on the fitting of curtains, one can be enclosing the radiator in a sort of “window room”, which will get very hot, whilst the radiator output, to the main room, is reduced. In those circumstances it is better to use a blind, either roller or venetian, which will help to retain heat without changing the effectiveness of the radiator. I appreciate they are not necessarily aesthetically pleasing, but that is personal choice. The thickness, or insulation, of a closure is of secondary importance. Any opaque closure will have energy benefits.