Bottesford

It's a rented place so can't really do much about the heating system. I did get the landlord to put some roof insulation in as previously it was just bits of polystyrene thrown around in the roof space. Sadly this was after December 2010! Trouble is the roof is low with the pitch of it taking a corner out of each of the two upstairs rooms making it harder to insulate. We have to move soon as its a one bedroom house totally unsuitable for working from home (which is happening more for us both) and eventually to have kids in. Wow £425 a month! For all that space... I'm paying over £700 for our one bedroom detached 'coach' house with small kitchen and tiny but very private courtyard. We do however live in a private immaculately kept gas lit estate where all the wealthy people & footballers live. Plus its only 10 min walk to the main city square yet remains a very quiet and leafy place to be. So we are paying for location which is indeed perfect. To get much better around here you need to pay £1500+ a month so sadly we must move on soon. If you think that's pricey though don't ever look at London... Being built into the hillside, facing south east and being surrounded in massive Victorian houses & mature trees results in zero sunlight falling on the house itself after about 1-2pm. Even in late Sept it takes till gone 9am to even begin to fall on the house too which doesn't give it long to heat up. The garden is even worse now getting a mere 3 hours at very best of sunlight. Evening sunshine - what's that!? Winter - well maybe 1-2 hours at best between 10am and noon helped a little by the leafless trees. You know those prepay meters cost more per unit don't you? That's why once on them the utility companies will do anything to not switch you back to a regular meter. Be better with an energy watching device instead.

Or more to the point - different homes! I only use gas for hot water for washing up during the 3-5 months (this year just over 3 months) of it being warm enough to not need heating. Very inefficient being an old fashioned back boiler so my boiler man said yesterday as even the shower is electric. I don't need 48 quids worth in summer of course but take a month like December 2010 and its burning half the North Sea gas supply to try to keep up (literally the boiler was burning constantly whilst we were in during that time and then *just* got the house to 21c after 5-6 hours solid burning after it fell to 13c during the working day). But despite the mostly mild winter the cold dragged on into June and has kicked off again mid-late Sept so its pushed it up this year. For the first time this autumn the central heating is now on. We went out straight after work so meant the house is now cold. Normally on getting in at 6 I'd put the gas fire on to slowly raise it to 20c by bedtime. But coming in just now means I need to do it quickly or it'll be horrible to sleep in and worse to get up in tomorrow as I'm not yet setting the timer for morning. Yes we are now looking for a new place to live as this place is horrible for efficiency and is only ever warm in heatwaves. Any of you out there who cringe & sweat when it gets above 20c come live here you'd be in your absolute element freezing your kecks off for almost all the year!

I pay £48 per month but have fallen behind a bit this year doing that. Partly rising energy costs and partly the cold/wet spring, summer & now autumn! Not a good year for bill payers.

Already a lot of leaves down here with all this wind!

Crikey if I'd done that it'd be on almost all the time! This year we'd have probably had some downtime during late May (in daytimes anyway) and a few weeks in August but that's about it. Finally got the boiler serviced but continuing to eek out using the gas fire on medium setting so far.

On that theme I wonder what all these crap summers are doing to increase CO2 emissions as more folk jump on a plane to warm/drier places like southern/eastern Europe or it seems Iceland or Greenland!

Yes - its an old pre 1900 coach house type building most definitely not designed to keep heat in but superb at keeping it out and getting rid of it. It'd be superb in the south of Spain...

If only I could - but solid brick walls prevent that! Got the roof insulation done properly last year and it did help keep upstairs warmer. Doesn't help downstairs though as most heat clears off up the open stair case. 16.7c at home now and falling... hmm wonder if it'll hit same as outdoors. Prob won't as server & budgies might just keep it that 2c above!

My Monday morning involved the following: - Awaking to a cold, dull house with rain hammering on the skylight making the lyrics "I wish it was Sunday, that's my Funday" play loudly in my head... - Cycling to work in pouring rain and getting soaked to my underwear. - Having to cycle slowly due to surface water, higher traffic volumes, more pedestrians (students go back today) and the fact that my brakes don't work well in this wet. - An ambulance turning its siren on right next to my ear and an arse in a big 4x4 trying to force me off the road by driving too closely (always those sorts of cars!). So all in all a grand start! Didn't put the heating on though but its only 17.1c at home now and continuing to fall so it'll be on when I get in. Those precious few warm, sunny mornings this year with empty roads & the feeling of being awake seem oh so distant already...

Well the living room was 16.2c when we got up around 10 this morning. With no sunlight to warm things the only way it would go from there is down. Our bodies would probably raise it by 0.5c (at best) assuming no other losses - of course there are other losses so overall it would continue to go down. 16c and lower just isn't a temperature to sit and work, read and so on in that we intended to do today. So on goes the gas fire which steadily raised it to 20c then off it went and now at 19.5c which is fine. Besides keeping the house at lower temperatures produces mold problems from the excess condensation from showers/cooking which we'd like to avoid!

Far too early for frosts here unless it gets really cold as I'm very near to the city centre (albeit probably the coldest a city location can be due to ample trees, parks, big gardens, etc). 6.3c has been the lowest I've recorded so far (since May) and at 0622 on a Saturday morning - both too warm & too early for me to witness a frost!

Well not yet but could easily happen in October or even November if we got a deep southerly flow. Warm weather now isn't an Indian summer anyway - need to get some frost first technically. Certainly feels like autumn though - fire is much needed when in the house. Was 16.2c in here when we came down at half 10 this morning - it went straight on!

Yeah a very poor year for those of us that like it not cold & wet all the time! And for gardening too - still trying to ripen my peppers but think its getting too late now

Equinox is tomorrow @ 1449 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox Summer ended 31st August anyway - officially. In feel it really only lasted a few weeks from late July to early September. Could count the late May spell too I guess.

I look forward to saying the same to you next time the it rises slightly above room temperature outside again! :lol:

Getting mine serviced next week as it can often take 5 or 6 goes for it to get going (assume thermocouple is dodgy) making room stink of gas. Still not running central heating (partly because of the above) but gas fire has been on since I got in bringing it up from 17.6c when I got in to the current 19.6c. Trouble is even when I'm not cold my feet just end up like blocks of ice even in socks & slippers.

I do indeed! Count yourself lucky that your season is so much longer than mine - well temperature wise at least!

It has been a dire season for many crops with the season so extremely short and so devoid of sunlight. A real shame about the apples - the garden has been a real struggle with everything running so late. 15.8c in the house this morning and I'm going to have to get the central heating fired up pretty soon. Done my best to hold off using the gas fire in the evening but its horrible getting up for work with everything freezing cold - especially putting on icy feeling clothes! If I put it on soon that will make the shortest 'off season' I've ever had lasting only from June 3rd to mid September. Now even for this cold house that is a short warm season for a city centre in the Midlands!

9.9c min now a lovely sunny day so far 16.8c.

Surprised she hasn't chucked you out to live in the shed yet! :lol:

Surely if air con is required then they are doing the correct thing by dressing to the temperature of the office. Why have to wear jumpers indoors when its 25c outdoors?! Aircon at 18c?! Sounds like when I went to the US and everywhere was freezing cold - massive use of energy for making it stupidly chilly. I would never air condition below 24-25c and then only to 22c at the lowest. In the same way I never heat above 20-21c - if its cold out you don't expect it to be 'hot' indoors and if its hot out you don't expect it to be cold indoors. Just wasteful.

Woa and there was me thinking I had some 'lively' debates about temperature with the other half... Must be enough contrast there to set off some very lively 'storms'!

OK done it - gas fire is on just to take the chill off a bit. My own presence warmed the place to 18.4c which ain't warm enough to sit in. Will leave main heating off for now as it looks to be getting less chilly in the coming days.

And there was me thinking you liked the cold! :lol:

Not yet although came close in late August. Currently 18c in here which is fine having just cycled 5 miles but in a hour or two things might be different! Thing is if I don't heat a little come morning the upstairs windows will be dripping in condensation. But first the boiler needs looking at as it won't start reliably. Fun fun fun... 21.2! You lucky one - my place didn't exceed that during all of last weekend! But that's cause we weren't home to open the windows to let the warm in so sadly it missed its 'charge'. Only sun between 0930 and 1200 will warm it now - or temps 21c+ outside.