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Post by martin44 on May 17, 2023 18:41:37 GMT
I spent a few quid on my property when i moved in... in feb 2022.. on the electrics and boiler.. all light fittings changed to 3w... A+ rated oven and micro... and A rated induction hob... bought a ninja air friar.. and had the loft insulation upgraded from 200mm to 400mm (already double glazed with pilkington KS) ... boiler was upgraded from british gas boiler 2001... to latest alpha E-Tec condensing boiler .. all at a cost of ~ 3.5k... i fitted everything myself except boiler.
reason? hoping to keep my electric and gas bills low... maybe even as low as pre rip off.. see results below and let me know if it worked..
electric reading 20 march 2022 42605
electric reading 2 april 2023 44733
gas reading 14 march 2022 22883
gas reading 20 april 2023 23472
i dont feel as tho i am paying any more than i usually pay..... BUT... i layed out 3.5k.
edit... hot water and shower are on gas. ( and yes i do shower regularly... every sunday)
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michaelc
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Post by michaelc on May 17, 2023 19:00:57 GMT
I spent a few quid on my property when i moved in... in feb 2022.. on the electrics and boiler.. all light fittings changed to 3w... A+ rated oven and micro... and A rated induction hob... bought a ninja air friar.. and had the loft insulation upgraded from 200mm to 400mm (already double glazed with pilkington KS) ... boiler was upgraded from british gas boiler 2001... to latest alpha E-Tec condensing boiler .. all at a cost of ~ 3.5k... i fitted everything myself except boiler. reason? hoping to keep my electric and gas bills low... maybe even as low as pre rip off.. see results below and let me know if it worked.. electric reading 20 march 2022 42605 electric reading 2 april 2023 44733 gas reading 14 march 2022 22883 gas reading 20 april 2023 23472 i dont feel as tho i am paying any more than i usually pay..... BUT... i layed out 3.5k. edit... hot water and shower are on gas. ( and yes i do shower regularly... every sunday) I looked at boiler efficiency briefly. This is my boiler: www.homeheatingguide.co.uk/efficiency-tables?model=008662i.e. 20 years old and 78% effecient. They have most of the boilers on there. The condensing boilers seem to go up to 88%. Didn't seem to be a huge improvement? Of course I don't know how these figures are arrived at but the site doesn't seem to have an axe to grind in that regard.
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keitha
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2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
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Post by keitha on May 17, 2023 19:03:19 GMT
a lot depends on house size ...
and the readings is the Gas Cubic meters or hundreds of cubic feet
for the same period I have 1500kWh of Electric and 5775 kWh of Gas
Boiler efficiency depends a lot on how you run it Short bursts at high temperature is lower than running longer cooler, also how often the boiler is serviced etc
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Post by martin44 on May 17, 2023 19:08:01 GMT
a lot depends on house size ... and the readings is the Gas Cubic meters or hundreds of cubic feet for the same period I have 1500kWh of Electric and 5775 kWh of Gas the gas is cubic meters... its a 3 bed bungalow built ~1985... good thick walls so im assuming good thick insulation, south facing as well....
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Post by martin44 on May 17, 2023 19:11:01 GMT
a lot depends on house size ... and the readings is the Gas Cubic meters or hundreds of cubic feet for the same period I have 1500kWh of Electric and 5775 kWh of Gas your electric consumption is 25% less than mine .... bummer.... but your gas consumption is way higher... maybe the boiler was a good investment.
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keitha
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2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
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Post by keitha on May 17, 2023 19:18:57 GMT
Not an expert by any means but you look pretty average, Bungalows tend to be more costly to run than houses.
I'm pretty low usage my walls are the big issue 2 feet of solid stone, heating has been off since the beginning of the month. so for the next few months my gas standing charge will nearly be the same as my consumption
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michaelc
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Post by michaelc on May 17, 2023 19:27:17 GMT
a lot depends on house size ...and the readings is the Gas Cubic meters or hundreds of cubic feet for the same period I have 1500kWh of Electric and 5775 kWh of Gas Boiler efficiency depends a lot on how you run it Short bursts at high temperature is lower than running longer cooler, also how often the boiler is serviced etc Presumably its comparing boilers like for like. That implies there's little point in upgrading?
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keitha
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2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
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Post by keitha on May 17, 2023 20:36:20 GMT
Talking to a friend last week he said for £300 you could add 200 mm of insulation to most houses in the UK, and save over £100 a year on heating. Using bulk purchases and having teams moving from house to house.
That would save £100 every year on heating, so Ok people would have been a little worse off this winter but would be better off after next year, rather than giving everyone £200 off energy this year, yes it would cost 50% more but it would have long term benefits
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ozboy
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Mine's a Large One! (Snigger, snigger .......)
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Post by ozboy on May 18, 2023 13:33:36 GMT
My old blunderbuss is a Kingfisher RS50 - Boiler Efficiency Rating only 65.0%. Apparently. I don't care how inefficient it is, it goes forever, Jeremy Clarkson could fire one of his shotguns at it. And it would still keep going. Zero maintenance costs, I can't remember the last time I had it serviced, it just faithfully & reliably keeps chugging along. Wouldn't get a new Condensing if you paid me, the Annual "Maintenance" Charges alone make the whole "Upgrade" a nonsense. IMHO. As usual.  |
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Post by bernythedolt on May 18, 2023 13:46:28 GMT
My old blunderbuss is a Kingfisher RS50 - Boiler Efficiency Rating only 65.0%. Apparently. I don't care how inefficient it is, it goes forever, Jeremy Clarkson could fire one of his shotguns at it. And it would still keep going. Zero maintenance costs, I can't remember the last time I had it serviced, it just faithfully & reliably keeps chugging along. Wouldn't get a new Condensing if you paid me, the Annual "Maintenance" Charges alone make the whole "Upgrade" a nonsense. IMHO. As usual. If you don't get it serviced, for your own safety at least invest in a little carbon monoxide alarm for the room it's in. I'm a great believer and have one in any room burning gas and even take it on holiday with us if there's a gas appliance in the accommodation. CO sends you off to sleep and you don't wake up again... EDIT: Screwfix / Amazon detector c.£20.
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Post by bernythedolt on May 18, 2023 13:56:19 GMT
I spent a few quid on my property when i moved in... in feb 2022.. on the electrics and boiler.. all light fittings changed to 3w... A+ rated oven and micro... and A rated induction hob... bought a ninja air friar.. and had the loft insulation upgraded from 200mm to 400mm (already double glazed with pilkington KS) ... boiler was upgraded from british gas boiler 2001... to latest alpha E-Tec condensing boiler .. all at a cost of ~ 3.5k... i fitted everything myself except boiler. reason? hoping to keep my electric and gas bills low... maybe even as low as pre rip off.. see results below and let me know if it worked.. electric reading 20 march 2022 42605 electric reading 2 april 2023 44733 gas reading 14 march 2022 22883 gas reading 20 april 2023 23472 i dont feel as tho i am paying any more than i usually pay..... BUT... i layed out 3.5k. edit... hot water and shower are on gas. ( and yes i do shower regularly... every sunday) I looked at boiler efficiency briefly. This is my boiler: www.homeheatingguide.co.uk/efficiency-tables?model=008662i.e. 20 years old and 78% effecient. They have most of the boilers on there. The condensing boilers seem to go up to 88%.Didn't seem to be a huge improvement? Of course I don't know how these figures are arrived at but the site doesn't seem to have an axe to grind in that regard. Our boiler is an Ideal Logic System 24 condensing...... Efficiency 89.5% 
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ozboy
Member of DD Central
Mine's a Large One! (Snigger, snigger .......)
Posts: 3,168
Likes: 4,859
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Post by ozboy on May 18, 2023 14:34:58 GMT
My old blunderbuss is a Kingfisher RS50 - Boiler Efficiency Rating only 65.0%. Apparently. I don't care how inefficient it is, it goes forever, Jeremy Clarkson could fire one of his shotguns at it. And it would still keep going. Zero maintenance costs, I can't remember the last time I had it serviced, it just faithfully & reliably keeps chugging along. Wouldn't get a new Condensing if you paid me, the Annual "Maintenance" Charges alone make the whole "Upgrade" a nonsense. IMHO. As usual. If you don't get it serviced, for your own safety at least invest in a little carbon monoxide alarm for the room it's in. I'm a great believer and have one in any room burning gas and even take it on holiday with us if there's a gas appliance in the accommodation. CO sends you off to sleep and you don't wake up again... EDIT: Screwfix / Amazon detector c.£20. Merci Dolt, have 1! 
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michaelc
Member of DD Central
Say No To T.D.S.
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Post by michaelc on May 18, 2023 17:37:10 GMT
My old blunderbuss is a Kingfisher RS50 - Boiler Efficiency Rating only 65.0%. Apparently. I don't care how inefficient it is, it goes forever, Jeremy Clarkson could fire one of his shotguns at it. And it would still keep going. Zero maintenance costs, I can't remember the last time I had it serviced, it just faithfully & reliably keeps chugging along. Wouldn't get a new Condensing if you paid me, the Annual "Maintenance" Charges alone make the whole "Upgrade" a nonsense. IMHO. As usual. The only time I got my boiler serviced was when we moved in around 10-15 years ago. The guy basically said "there isn't much to do with these boilers" so I've not had it done again. The worst that happened to it was the fan stopped but it was trivial to buy a refurbished one on Ebay and fit it (of course you're supposed to be gassafe though grey area when not for profit). I've also had the advice from another (well known on youtube) plumber not to get rid of my boiler as like yours it will run and run and there's only about 4 parts that will ever need changing which can all be sourced cheaply.
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Post by crabbyoldgit on May 18, 2023 19:04:52 GMT
Ah efficiency numbers, nothing makes me more suspicious , measured where against what. Financial, it's cheaper to run percentage wise against another device ,what device. Heat provided per unit of fuel, measured where under what conditions. For example I have a high efficiency condensing gas boiler with a stupid quoted efficiency figure but it's only used to heat domestic hot water never space heating, got a log burner. Hence it's never in condensing mode , therefore the quote efficiency figure is a joke. My log burner an old model is prob inefficient by one measure, however it costs me bugger all to run , I consider that infinitely efficient compared to paying anything for gas, that it's the measure that matters to me.
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on May 18, 2023 19:54:35 GMT
Ah efficiency numbers, nothing makes me more suspicious , measured where against what. Against the amount of heat burning the gas perfectly will transfer to the water. If there's 100kW of energy in a certain volume of gas, then 65% efficiency will transfer 65kW to the water, 85% will transfer 85kW to it. Simple enough to calculate using a measured amount of gas going in vs a measured temperature increase in a measured amount of water coming out. Basically, how efficient is the combustion, how well insulated is the boiler, etc etc. The "condensing" bit of modern boilers that people mutter about is taking waste heat out of the exhaust gases and applying it to the water being heated. Free heat! What's not to like? (and that's every new boiler fitted in the last 18 years, and a good proportion of those in the previous few years...) Our ~17yo condensing boiler had a bit of a recurring lie-down recently, which caused much head-scratching amongst the local heating engineers (actually, it didn't. They just didn't know how to fix it...). Eventually, I resorted to taking out a contract from the manufacturer. Their engineer diagnosed it in a two minute description - a ten quid rubber one-way flap in the flue. The original rubber compound doesn't like LPG exhaust, and goes sticky over time. If and when it dies, I'm going ASHP.
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