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!

The Monster in My Garage!!!

There is a monster in my garage.  It is a big, fire breathing thing, that lets off a noxious smell and chews on huge, big, massive wodges of my cash for breakfast, lunch and dinner.   You guessed it.....it is my central heating system, and it ain't happy! 

I have been tinkering about with the settings, trying to get the thing to behave for ages, but to be honest I have known for about two years that something is seriously wrong with it and I have been attempting to get to the bottom of it in fits and bursts since.  The system is leaking water somewhere, but as it is an underfloor system, it is really tricky to see where the leak is. 

First came the official Engineer for the boiler type I have, to service the boiler and fix a leak in the hot water tank (£550).  That seemed to work; for a while.  Then came a Heating Engineer I found via an ad in a local magazine, who again serviced the boiler and told me it was working perfectly (£50). That didn't fix it.  So, next came a consultant for Air Source Heat Pumps, as the boiler's outside flue often leaves a lingering smell in the upstairs office, I really want to get off of the gas network altogether and be Greener. He said he thought he could tell where the leak was, but wasn't sure how much extra it would add to the cost of the installation to get it fixed.  It turned out that the Heat Pump itself was also beyond our current budget; so that was really disappointing.

Finally, as winter approached, I couldn't ignore the problem any more.  Our Gas Bills were getting bigger and bigger; even though the heating wasn't on!  And I really needed to get to the bottom of that leak!  So, I got in touch with HomeForce, a fab service which hooks you up with reliable tradesmen in Edinburgh.  They sent me a Heating Engineer who has put leak sealer into the system to fix the leak, (my fingers, toes and everything else is crossed in the hope that this works).  While he was fixing the leak, he also found that my hot water tank's thermostat is bust, so that my hot water has been heating up constantly for months; no wonder my bills were huge!  So, an electrician is being organised for a new thermostat and hopefully that will be that.  Total cost so far is £130 for the sealer.  Not sure what the rest will be, but it has got to be better than the £500 bill for the last three months gas supply!

Oh my, I feel like such an idiot, you have no idea how much I wish I had got to the bottom of this earlier.  My lessons learnt are:

1. Use a reputable recommendation service to get a decent, quick and honest workman/woman to fix problems with your heating as soon as they occur. HomeForce are fab if you live in Edinburgh.

2. If you live in a well insulated house, then running your heating all the time is the most economical.  Sounds strange, but it is true.  You use the room thermostats (on radiators, or on walls in my case) to set when the heating comes on, rather than the timer.  This means the air in the house doesn't get cold, which actually is when you use most energy. By switching off your heating, say while you are out at work, the air in your house gets really cold and the heating system has to use a lot of energy to warm all that air up again. 

However, if you keep your heating on all the time, it simply tops up the air as it dips below the set temperature, which uses a whole lot less energy overall.  If you speak to any decent Heating Engineer, most will tell you this is how they run their own system.  The Green Heating guy let me in on the secret and my current Engineer confirmed it.  Although if you live in an old building, you would need to get your insulation sorted first.

3. Finally: If your hot water heater is switched off, and you still have hot water; you have a problem!!!!!  Get it fixed before it costs you £500 :(

Gutters

So Challenge Six has begun, to keep our house maintained for less than £1000 over the next 12 months. 

The first job which absolutely had to be done this year was to get the gutters cleaned out.  As our house is really tall, we haven't got a ladder long enough to reach our gutters and so they hadn't been cleaned for six years....

A small selection of the muck which got cleared

There was a lot of muck to clear out and the guy who carried out the work said our downpipes were completely blocked before he set to work.

I got two quotes for the job, one was for £230.00 and the one I went for cost £65; a huge difference!  It goes to show it is always worth shopping around.  

That leaves £935 left in the pot.  Which sounds like a lot until you take into account that we need to do the following this year:

• Fix the broken alarm system
• Fix the leaky underfloor heating system
• Stain outside decking (hasn't been done for years!)
• Varnish the peeling outside woodwork (ditto)
• Paint the outside metal work (as above)
• Install outside light before Christmas sees our elderly guests slipping and falling at our front door
• Fix the dodgy door bell

Hmm, I am not sure £935 is going to cover it, but we shall see.  I have put out queries for the underfloor heating and await replies!

Challenge Six: Household Maintenance

There are many benefits to being a home owner, such as being able to decorate your house the way you want it and the supposed safety net of equity within the property (although times have changed drastically here).

But the biggest draw back is being responsible for keeping your home in a safe and attractive manner.  The to-do list is just never ending.

Over the last twelve months we spent £2358 on household maintenance.  The bulk of this money was frittered away on what I would describe as 'bits n bobs' of projects, such as a tin of paint to bring an old piece of furniture back into use. 

So, Challenge Six involves spending a maximum budget of £1000.00 on household maintenance, which is to be used for essential repairs only.  

I am rather nervous about this challenge.