snowie Posted October 14, 2017 Share Posted October 14, 2017 It's that time again; time to sort out a new electricity contract. We have storage heaters, Economy 7 and 2 meters, and no electricity provider has proved to be capable of accepting readings for 2 meters online. They all claim to be able to but in the end can't. We now have to have 2 standing charges, one for each meter. It still works out reasonable, but providers still phased by 2 meters (excuse pun) Is anyone out there in a similar position? can anyone suggest a provider please? I'm getting close to installing the "wet" system I decided against 30 years ago! Maybe now's the time regards Alan b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletguy Posted October 14, 2017 Share Posted October 14, 2017 snowie - 2017-10-14 9:05 AM It's that time again; time to sort out a new electricity contract. We have storage heaters, Economy 7 and 2 meters, and no electricity provider has proved to be capable of accepting readings for 2 meters online. Is anyone out there in a similar position? can anyone suggest a provider please? Ufff.......storage heaters was the worst method of heating i've ever experienced for a start! The first chance i got to switch to gas heating was the best decision ever. Still, if you like 'em then stick with it but they definitely ain't cheap to run. Best thing to do to get quotes is run your details through comparison sites such as Go Compare or Compare the market dot com. Also well worth looking at this guys website;. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity And this; https://www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/ppc-rev/new/electricity/?ref=ppcgoogle~brand-ppc~000300~energy&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3paCu5rw1gIVkTLTCh2caAiPEAAYASAAEgKUIvD_BwE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted October 14, 2017 Share Posted October 14, 2017 snowie - 2017-10-14 9:05 AM It's that time again; time to sort out a new electricity contract. We have storage heaters, Economy 7 and 2 meters, and no electricity provider has proved to be capable of accepting readings for 2 meters online. They all claim to be able to but in the end can't. We now have to have 2 standing charges, one for each meter. It still works out reasonable, but providers still phased by 2 meters (excuse pun) Is anyone out there in a similar position? can anyone suggest a provider please? I'm getting close to installing the "wet" system I decided against 30 years ago! Maybe now's the time regards Alan b Do you have gas Alan? My son lives in a village in the Yorkshire Dales, where there is not mains gas.The main house has oil fired heating, plus a lovely wood burner in lounge. He also owns a holiday cottage in the same village, that has storage heaters, plus a wood burner stove. He recently changed the storage heaters, and the new ones are much more efficient, as it is a cottage anyway, and not always inhabited. You would have weigh up the cost, but unless you have good heating in living area, and the storage are for bedrooms, "a wet" system would be a better option, but could prove expensive to install. Would you benefit from the cost ? PJay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowie Posted October 14, 2017 Author Share Posted October 14, 2017 Ok; 30 years ago I had a quick decision to make, and rather than half demolish an old cottage putting a wet system in I had an electric system installed, additionally, our village doesn’t, have gas. Our total energy bill is about £1400/yr, which is not uncompetitive. I would love to have a more controllable system installed, and maybe we are getting close, but not there yet, and £5k will fund plenty of trips to the sun. I made this enquiry about 5 or 6 years ago but can,t find responses in archives. Regards Alan b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletguy Posted October 14, 2017 Share Posted October 14, 2017 PJay - 2017-10-14 3:10 PM Do you have gas Alan? My son lives in a village in the Yorkshire Dales, where there is not mains gas.The main house has oil fired heating, plus a lovely wood burner in lounge. He also owns a holiday cottage in the same village, that has storage heaters, plus a wood burner stove. A wood burner is worth every penny and the amount of heat they kick out is pretty amazing. I have an open fire and live in a sensible area where you can burn anything including REAL coal! Had i known i would be in this house as long as i have, i'd have installed a log burner. All my neighbours had their open fires and chimneys bricked up and have gas fires fitted. Absolutely bonkers as an open fire or log burner is a very desirable asset and strong selling feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antony1969 Posted October 14, 2017 Share Posted October 14, 2017 Bulletguy - 2017-10-14 4:30 PM PJay - 2017-10-14 3:10 PM Do you have gas Alan? My son lives in a village in the Yorkshire Dales, where there is not mains gas.The main house has oil fired heating, plus a lovely wood burner in lounge. He also owns a holiday cottage in the same village, that has storage heaters, plus a wood burner stove. A wood burner is worth every penny and the amount of heat they kick out is pretty amazing. I have an open fire and live in a sensible area where you can burn anything including REAL coal! Had i known i would be in this house as long as i have, i'd have installed a log burner. All my neighbours had their open fires and chimneys bricked up and have gas fires fitted. Absolutely bonkers as an open fire or log burner is a very desirable asset and strong selling feature. Agree with my good friend ... House we live in we bought as a wreck ... We were going to spin it and sell it but decided to move into it , anyway we put a wood burner in the central dining room with lounge and kitchen to either side ... All are decent sized rooms with high ceilings ... The burner heats all rooms up easy and we leave the stairs door open to get some heat upstairs ... I insulated under the stone flags on the floor and they keep the heat really well ... Don't know about Bullet but I get most of my wood free , mostly from a scaffold company where I take the old , clean scaffold boards and cut em up ... When we move again first thing on the list will be a burner but I will also look into heating the water from it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletguy Posted October 14, 2017 Share Posted October 14, 2017 antony1969 - 2017-10-14 4:41 PM Bulletguy - 2017-10-14 4:30 PM PJay - 2017-10-14 3:10 PM Do you have gas Alan? My son lives in a village in the Yorkshire Dales, where there is not mains gas.The main house has oil fired heating, plus a lovely wood burner in lounge. He also owns a holiday cottage in the same village, that has storage heaters, plus a wood burner stove. A wood burner is worth every penny and the amount of heat they kick out is pretty amazing. I have an open fire and live in a sensible area where you can burn anything including REAL coal! Had i known i would be in this house as long as i have, i'd have installed a log burner. All my neighbours had their open fires and chimneys bricked up and have gas fires fitted. Absolutely bonkers as an open fire or log burner is a very desirable asset and strong selling feature. Agree with my good friend ... Good God. 8-)8-) Don't know about Bullet but I get most of my wood free , mostly from a scaffold company where I take the old , clean scaffold boards and cut em up ... When we move again first thing on the list will be a burner but I will also look into heating the water from it. Used to when working as the metal used for bomb tails came with wood packing. Also they felled a number of trees on the factory so i got a few trailer fulls from that but as you will know, wood burns quite quickly on an open fire where a couple of logs in a log burner will last ages. I only fire it up occasionally during winter usually with coal so i chuck out a nice thick plume of smoke into the air. Burns better than smokeless crap and gets the firebricks hot pretty quick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starvin marvin Posted October 14, 2017 Share Posted October 14, 2017 Aren't wood burners the new diesels? Not only polluting but also releasing co2 locked into the timber. Cosy? for sure, but very bad for the environment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted October 15, 2017 Share Posted October 15, 2017 starvin marvin - 2017-10-14 10:15 PM Aren't wood burners the new diesels? Not only polluting but also releasing co2 locked into the timber. Cosy? for sure, but very bad for the environment. Have to agree. Most of the villagers in my son's village, burn wood and those egg shaped coal , as well. In winter it does have lots of smoke coming out of the chimneys, which you can often smell , BUt they have a lot of rain, so i suppose that washes it into the soil?? I will stick to my electric coal effect fire, in lounge. Even on just the glow, no heat, it makes you feel warmer,(and no messy ash to clear away) and with the central heating , the house is lovely in winter PJay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowie Posted October 15, 2017 Author Share Posted October 15, 2017 In our future low or zero carbon environment there won’t be a place for gas or oil fired central heating will there? And can you see the UK adopting the “ Passivhaus”? Not in my time I think Regards Alan b Ps. Answering my original question will be easier then I suspect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 Hi Alan Prior to moving to where we are now, where we have gas, we had economy 7 storage heaters BUT we only had the one meter. It just had a digi' display and you just scrolled through to the relevant -High rate/Low rate reading.. (*we were with Scottish Power at the time with a totally paper free, online account ) As it seems as though the energy suppliers are unable to deal with your two meters, I'd be asking your existing supplier to switch you to one meter that can take both rates?... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowie Posted October 16, 2017 Author Share Posted October 16, 2017 pepe63 - 2017-10-16 10:58 AM Hi Alan As it seems as though the energy suppliers are unable to deal with your two meters, I'd be asking your existing supplier to switch you to one meter that can take both rates?... That’s the next step: we have a 3-phase supply as we were expected to install more heaters, system installed by East Midlands EB 30 years ago. Thanks for suggestion Regards Alan b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archiesgrandad Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 Living in rural France we, like all our neighbours, have a nice big log burner which is lovely to sit in front of on a cold winter's evening, and it keeps the whole house warm. We have pretty good insulation and double glazing everywhere, and we need to use it for about 5 months of the year, so we find that we need about 10 cubic metres of wood, mostly a local sort of oak, and that costs about 60 euros per cubic meter, or about 600 euros a year. We think it's pretty expensive. We use electricity for lighting and water heating, plus the usual domestic demands, but the deal here is that all electricity used between 2230 and 0630 is half price, so that's when we do most things that use electric AGD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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