The Monster in My Garage: Part Two

Well, the Monster is slowly being brought under control and parts have been ordered by both the electrician and heating engineer.  So, hopefully the Monster in my garage (aka my heating system), will be feeling a lot better in a couple of days time.

Meanwhile, it has turned very chilly here in Edinburgh.  The temperature outside just now is about 5 degrees and the Monster is eating it's way through a lot of gas. The nights have also closed in, as the sun now sets at about 4pm, so the candles are burning in the home front.  So, I took the decision to switch energy providers, in order to get a cheaper deal.  Using the price comparison website uswitch.com it was really simple to compare the different deals and to see potential savings. 

I had been putting off making the switch, as we were getting our electricity from Green Energy, the UKs only 100% renewable energy provider.  But with money being so tight, I had to take the unpleasant decision to move onto a brown tariff.  USwitch estimates that we will save £500 per year with our new provider and it only took me a couple of clicks of the mouse and a couple of e-mails to sort everything out.  JW and I have consoled ourselves by agreeing that by saving costs in the short term, we will be able to install solar panels and a ground source heat pump for our home in the longer term.

Until then we are keeping an eye on the little things, by using an OWL smart meter to tell us how much electricity we are using in real time.   It really does help you to turn off lights, switch down towel rail thermostats and not use the dishwashers so often.  I wish you got one for gas meters too! 

For the heating system, it now appears that the Energy Saving Trust believe that keeping your heating on all day isn't cheaper than using your timer after all!  But, I think in our case it is the best way to go as we have good insulation and, as I am home all day I don't want to sit in the freezing cold.  Our room thermostats are set to 17degrees in the rooms we use (zero in the spare room).  So, it does get a bit cold if you are sitting still, but I just put on a jumper (or two) and my new secret weapon:

Last Christmas' Novelty Slippers!

 Although, the Guinea Pigs are rather scared of them!