My central heating has just switched itself on for the first time this autumn.

Mine has come on on several occasions over the last week.

My heating will never go on I tell you - NEVER!


I've had £10 emergency credit on my pre-payment card for at least 2 months and there's still £4 something on it.

I have made reflective insulating panels by attaching kitchen foil to corrugated cardboard from the large box my Wilko Blox, paint, pillow and throw-over were  delivered in.

I have placed them behind my bedroom radiator to see if it makes the room any warmer.

I shall report as soon as I have any news.

I did something similar when I moved into this house 12 years ago. Now all the foil is detaching itself from the backing and falling out onto the floor.

Yesterday and the day before, I did an experiment. Normally, I just have the radiator on in the room I'm in and have it going full throttle. Having been given advice by YouTube videos, I decided, instead, to have every radiator in my house on but all set to 3.5 on their thermostatic valves.

Doing this used 1.08 units of gas per day.

Today, I have reverted to my normal practice.

Tomorrow, I shall see how much gas I've used and find out which method is most energy efficient.

PS, for both trials, I have had the main thermostat in the hall set at 17 degrees.

My boiler temperature has been set at 75 degrees, which is its maximum. YouTube videos also told me to do that. Traditionally, I have had it set at 60 degrees.

I have now checked and I used .54 units in that 24 hour spell - half of what I used via the other method. I have therefore debunked the claim.

But, the peak temperature in Sheffield on Wednesday was 11 C, on Thursday 12 C and yesterday 14 C. And you said you had the thermostat at the same setting, so you'd've used more gas on the earlier days.

I'm assuming that a one degree rise in temperature wouldn't result in a halving of my gas usage.

The Call of the Wendigo wrote:

I'm assuming that a one degree rise in temperature wouldn't result in a halving of my gas usage.

The important thing is the difference between the outdoor temperature and the thermostat, because that's how much work the heating has to do. You said that was at 17 C, so:


Wed 11 C  - difference 6 C
Thu 12 C  - difference 5 C
Fri 14 C  - difference 3 C

See? the difference on Friday was 0.6 of the difference on Thursday, and 0.5 of the difference on Wednesday.

0.53 units used in the last 24 hours. 0.01 units down on the day before.

Can I get it down to 0.52 units tomorrow?

The Call of the Wendigo wrote:

0.53 units used in the last 24 hours. 0.01 units down on the day before.

Interesting, because peak Wendifield temperature on Saturday was 13 C, and my model would have predicted increased usage.

What time of day do these 24-hour periods you're logging start?

I still haven't turned my heating on.

Not since I moved in back in May of last year.