Saving on heating bills

And Amen to that as well and especially booking in advance. The so called Budget hotels (which I will not name as Peter refrains to do so) are the cheapest form of accommodation when one has to stay away from home overnight . It is the preferred choice for family/friends when visiting us (if we can't put them up) and always our choice when we visit them, and for the same reasons.

Living in a sea side town there are a choice of (very local) B&B's, and of course they have to make a living and charge accordingly. They are never the choice of people visiting so must make a living from the casual tourist who does not or cannot book ahead.

 

I have highlighted the many points made by Peter, and have to say I do not agree with any of them; especially ventilation being un-green. I have already concurred with Pauline's comment about 'letting fresh air in' and 'turning up the thermostat and opening a window' as such behaviour(one or the other or both) is second nature for I am sure the majority of people here in the UK especially during the colder months of the year.

I (and I speak for my wife) can say from experience gained over the years living in varied accommodations -bed sits, flats, houses (rent and purchased), old, not so old and almost new - that is the way we went about things, and for the large part still do. (Give or take the odd experimentation with Humidifiers and that only came about because of medical advice, and similarly having a window slightly open at night).

True I can cite examples of people (mainly elderly) who do not like a house too warm, and even those who shun opening windows -nothing to do with saving the planet mind - just their own personal custom. A few years back we had an elderly widow lady living next door who was Canadian; she was in her 80's then. We noticed her windows were thrown open wide during the day and when we asked why, she told us she was following the sound medical advice of her Specialist, to breathe in fresh air (remember we live by the sea, and the air is fresh) but to always keep them shut at night. We called her the 'Duchess' because she used to invite us round for afternoon tea; (cucumber sandwiches and tea poured from a teapot into china cups). We found she compensated for the open windows with what would otherwise have been an uncomfortably heated environment, but the 'fresh air' made it strangely very cosy.

I am sure Peter bases his facts on professional and scientific advice and can quote chapter and verse. All I have to say to that is I know without a shadow of doubt, I could if I had the time and inclination, find advice to support the 'turn up the heat slightly, and open the window' doctrine. Saving the planet is a wonderful goal, but I think it best left to be sorted out at world level and then passed down for mortal compliances.

Others may disagree of course, but peacefully and not by gluing oneself to a motorway sideroad or chaining oneself to railings. Perhaps some will choose low thermostat settings, windows tightly shut, and cold weather clothing?

 

Humidity can be a problem where people dry their laundry indoors on radiators and airers, with adverse consequences for both building and occupants. Our son experienced this a few years ago until I persuaded him to invest in a tumble dryer. But not everyone can afford to buy or run a dryer, or has space for one, or can dry clothes outdoors. Drying outdoors is the greenest option but not always possible.

 

This is overly simplistic, and obviously we have already considered this question. However, with older properties sometimes the "problem" is simply down to the way the house was built, or maybe where it was built, and "dealing" with it is not cost-effective, if it's even possible.

That very much depends on how much you spend on heating, how long the windows are open for and whether you would be opening them regularly anyway.

 

I am not so much concerned with cop-outs as cop-ins; those that come under such headings as: HEALTH, FAMILY, WELLBEING, and under sub-headings: INCOME, EXPENDITURE, PROPERTY, SECURITY, MOBILITY... (and likely other headings close to my heart and that of my wife). In other words matters we can effect and hopefully control. It does NOT extend to taking on the worlds problems, other than a degree of sympathy and understanding, and perhaps, just perhaps, electing the right people to take on the more serious world challenges. Life is short and I was taught, and believe, charity begins at home. If that is passing the buck -so be it.

 

The actual age is not really what's relevant, it's older in the sense of not being recently built to more modern standards. It's more about how the property was built and often where, so an 18th century house may do better than a cheaply built 1950s house.

Well as I said, there are too many variables involved to make generalised assumptions like this, and you haven't factored in the cost of the dehumidifier itself. Even where there is some saving on heating costs, it may take several years to pay for itself and they don't always last that long. As with most things what works for one person won't necessarily be right for another. That's life!

 

Well, I appreciate you were just being facetious, but I was actually making a valid point. If we are going to judge the cost-effectiveness of an optional additional item, then both the capital outlay and the running costs are relevant.

Don’t forget I am speaking from experience. We bought a dehumidifier to use in a previous house, where damp and humidity were a much more significant issue than where we now are. We chose the Which? Best Buy, which had a very similar power rating to their current one, and while I can’t remember the exact noise rating, it was one of the quietest.

It had some temporary impact on the humidity issue, but there was no noticeable saving on heating costs. The general noise it made wasn’t an issue, although it did get noisier when working hard, but the problem was the underlying pulsating which reverberated through the house and made it impossible to use overnight as was recommended, and quite hard to tolerate at other times. Then as a final insult it stopped working just after the end of the guarantee period. So overall we were not impressed and felt it had been a waste of money.

(I notice from the Amazon reviews of the latest Which? Best Buy that some users are still raising the same issues on noise.)

 

The only time that I have used a (rented) dehumidifier was when we doubled the size of a bungalow in South of England in 1980s. Concrete floors were laid and the pumice block walls were plastered so there was a lot of moisture to be removed without applying heat which might have caused cracking. We ran it 24 hours a day for a week or so and it did a very good job. It did not seem particularly noisy but then we were mainly living in the existing part of the house, particularly at night.

Varying heat requirements of central heating systems due to weather can be significant. I designed my own system based on a solid fuel gravity fed grains boiler and sized the radiators/boiler based on published degree day data and the insulation installed. The amount of insulation is by far the most important aspect to consider. Ventilation was controlled by opening/closing fanlights above windows.

When my wife and I moved to NZ, we had a new house built with underfloor heating using a large heat pump to provide warm water for the plastic pipes buried in the concrete floor slab. The heat pump heats the floor overnight using cheap rate electricity costing about 7p/kwh. That is a bit like having 14 night storage heaters in the floor and no wall-mounted radiators. It provides a dry environment which we have no need to humidify.

 

We didn't get any choice, it stopped working (as I said) and in light of our experience we didn't feel inclined to splash out on another one.

We never achieved low levels of humidity in that house.

Anyway, I suspect we may have bored people with this for long enough, so perhaps we should move on now.

 

History teaches us many things, and one of them as aptly spoken by a character from Alan Bennett 'History Boys Play' is "History is one bloody thing after another". So hostilities, wars, plagues, pandemics, and yes global warming (to name but a few of the things that threaten or may threaten the future quality of living) will always be resolved by early steps taken by a current generation, or by lessons learned from both actions and inactions and overcome by generations that follow.

Actions follow the law of physics "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". Reactions are not always as intended (one has only to think of the early days of the Pandemic) and so require further actions. Sometimes inactions provide better solutions to allow problems to be better understood and lead on to actions that produce better results.

It is no use blaming this generation or that of our forefathers, grandparents and parents for the problems of today. It is merely history repeating itself. Some actions taken at the time were right, some wrong and some ignored when they shouldn't have been. Only history will decide who/what was right and who/what was wrong - and even then opinion will differ just as it did for those making decisions.

 

I didn’t say that we didn’t reduce the humidity - which we did by opening the windows regularly - only that we never achieved low humidity.