Cost of living!

[jep]

Insulation is indeed critical. As with underfloor heating, which is hopeless unless the floor is properly protected, otherwise you just effectively heat downwards not up.

Gas central heating has allowed us to get away with shockingly poor heat retentive housing. 

Pre-central heating, you heated one room and kept the door shut and curtains closed (I'll ignore the suffocation issues). 

Justin 

 

[Rambo]

I think that in Scandi. countries about half have some form of heat pump. That's because their houses are well insulated, including below floor level.

[Sparky]

I'm sitting in one in Denmark right now and can attest to that.  Well toasty and at a fraction of what I'm paying at home.  Having to cool down with gin.

[MPx]

A GSHP works well enough if it suits your house and lifestyle.  As an early adoptor I have acquired a bit of a jaundiced view - but it really can work.  As said it needs properly insulated floors and it realy only works well at low flow temps (~45 degrees)  Those low temps mean that its not very "controlable".  House heat up and cool down times are measured in 10s of hours not 10s of minutes - it wont suit those who like to turn the heating off for parts of the day .  Also while its wonderful with underfloor heating its not really hot enough to heat via Rads.  Even the oversize aluminium ones we have upstairs struggle when it gets properly cold.  But if you're in and wanting heat most/all of the time and you have low temp underfloor heating it really is a lovely form of heating.  Costs are bonkers.  We installed ours in 2012 and the whole thing (heatpump, ground collection, hot water, underfloor, rads, etc) cost about £60k when an LPG system with ordinary rads would have been ~ £10-12k.  And that with me doing all of the labour in the house - professionals did the groundworks and heatpump in an outbuilding.   In the first 7 years we got just over £23k back in the Govt RHI scheme and its probably a fraction cheaper than LPG to run (not as much as claimed however) but the whole thing has still cost at least double possibly triple so makes no financial sense at all - you have to want to do it for other reasons.

[MPx]

Anyway this week I'm wondering who it is exactly in this cost of living crisis.  Two things: 

1   We don't do holidays, so obvs I'm out of touch, but I've been trying to book a short break for 4 of us to go away (UK based) at the end of April.  Not school hols, prob still iffy weather, yada yada.  First prob is nowhere has any availability so clearly a lot of other people are also doing this, second prob is room rates - finally found somewhere nice on Friday (last two rooms in the hotel) for north of £500/night FFS!   ...in Wales!

2  My SiL has an old diesel Fiesta with 168k on the clock - had it 8 years, needs to replace it, wants a small automatic.  So my glib prediction (elsewhere) that rule of thumb ordinary cars halve their value every 3 years - errr No - well not small autos anyway.  Did the research to see which had a proper auto box and came up with half a doz for her to look at as well as Fiesta - Corsa, Venga, i10, Mini, ix20,etc.  Scoured online for examples last Monday and went in on Tuesday to find half of them had been sold so there's no shortage of buyers and they are paying (for example) £10k for a 2015 (8 year old!) Corsa which was only £15k new and should be worth about £4k by now.  What is going on?  How can and are Joe Public being able to afford this ?

[Steve V8]

6 minutes ago, MPx said:

How can and are Joe Public being able to afford this ?

Universal credit.

[Rambo]

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/cost-of-living/air-source-heat-pump-costs-25803172?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target

[C8RKH]

 

 

I'd ignore the Universal Credit comment @MPx.

I'm away right now on holiday. We booked it last Sunday and flew out on Wednesday. We got the last 2 seats on the plane. We're in Fuertaventura as I just wanted a cheeky week away. 90% of the people on holiday with us are over 60, mostly all retired on on their second/third holiday of this year. There's plenty of money with those who retired early on final salary schemes - mostly public sector workers from councils, teachers, the NHS etc from what I can gather talking to them. The last of the golden handcuff generation? Well no. Not really. Oh some of the joys of working in the public sector for many, not all.

So lots of pension cash around to spend on holidays.

Don't get me started on hotel costs in the UK. The hotels are seriously taking the piss which is why we use Premier Inn a lot just because you get a clean, spacious room, a super bed, pillows and quilt. It's all we need to be honest as we tend to spend the whole days out and about. Pre-pandemic I stayed in London a couple of nights a week paying on average £150 a night. Now, the same hotels are £210 - £380 a night. Fooking nuts especially given the same brand, standard and style, in another UK city would be £70 - £140 per night. Not helped of course by the number of rooms taken up in London and beyond by refugees/Asylum seekers which has reduced availability significantly.

On 15/02/2023 at 09:49, Kimbers said:

Just been on my Scottish power account and found out I was on a higher tariff. Swapped to Variable rate and they have dropped my £313 a month to £263 a month!

So I have to ask the obvious. Surely they should put people on their best rate without having to apply for it? It seems crazy I've been paying £50 a month too much for the last 6 months!! 

Not a happy Bunny but keep being told its not worth switching. But really? Customer service at its........ shitiest!

Key question is do you read your bills as by regulation they NEED to tell you on your bill if a lower tariff is available. So come on, fess up, where you actually reading the whole bill?

[Kimbers]

Not looked at my bill since I was told "There's no longer any point in looking around".

[C8RKH]

So you can't blame your utility then 

[Kimbers]

11 hours ago, C8RKH said:

So you can't blame your utility then 

Yes I can. I can blame anyone for anything!

Don't you know this is the 2020's? No one has to take personal responsibility and can blame anything on anyone else or even historical figures and then have to be believed or else you are discriminatory! 

[Dave Eds]

i find that offensive, therefore I'm offended, and I blame @Kimbers for offending me..... . now let me get back to my Kellogg's Snowflakes.....

[exeterjeep]

Surely everyone blames the government for not providing us all with what we want,

and then we can also blame them for ruining our lives.

[Mark Blanchard]

22 hours ago, exeterjeep said:

Surely everyone blames the government for not providing us all with what we want,

and then we can also blame them for ruining our lives.

It is largely the Government and the Bank of England's fault we have inflation.  They've miss managed the economy for the last 12 years.

[Kimbers]

The news gets better!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65026231

Veg shortages drive surprise jump in UK inflation

Worse! Sorry Worse! Always get those 2 mixed up!

[exeterjeep]

Don't care don't like veg....  

[pete]

On 21/03/2023 at 09:06, Dave Eds said:

... . now let me get back to my Kellogg's Snowflakes.....

or Spurs as we know them😄

[Rambo]

Honesty from Bosch.

https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/news/bosch-tells-homeowners-heat-pumps-dont-work-in-old-homes

[exeterjeep]

This was on our local news yesterday....

ground source heat pumps - first house connected and turned on - wonder if they will go back in a few weeks time (and next winter) to see how much has (not) been saved.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-65054335

The system in Stithians, Cornwall, is an alternative to gas, with homes being connected and each having their own ground source heat pumps.

Cornwall-based firm Kensa claimed the shared ground array was a global first.

The ground source heat pumps are expected to provide 100% of the properties' heating and hot water, meaning that residents will no longer use carbon intensive oil or LPG fossil fuels.

[Rambo]

"The ground source heat pumps are expected to provide 100% of the properties' heating and hot water"

That's a huge ask 🤔

[Kimbers]

I have my Heating engineer round right now doing a service.

I asked him about Ground source heat pumps and he said "Don't do it!" he said that the figures quoted as being 30% cheaper than oil is totally incorrect and its actually 20% more expensive, though he did say that is because of the current cost of Electricity. He also said wait for a few years and their technology will make them not only cheaper to buy but more efficient. 

[phil flash]

46 minutes ago, Rambo said:

"The ground source heat pumps are expected to provide 100% of the properties' heating and hot water"

That's a huge ask 🤔

It will probably achieve that in summer ...  😜  ..

Watch out for "marketing men's bullshit"!  25°C may be acceptable for space heating but water at 25°C feels far from "hot" for a shower or bath!

We've all got heat pumps in fridges and freezers that transfer heat from inside and discharge it into the room, it's not new technology but from a Thermo-dynamics viewpoint can only be called "low grade energy".  Ground source heat pumps transfer heat from ground (obviously!) and discharge it into the dwelling but during prolonged use in extreme conditions, such as the winter of 1962/63*, it can create a "perma-frost" in the ground surrounding the heat collectors, severely reducing it's efficiency when most needed. "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" is a useful moto.  

* In Hertfordshire, where I lived, it snowed (a couple of ft) on Boxing Day night into 27th, and remained below 0°C till early March '63 whilst dumping several ft of more snow in Jan & Feb.

The bad new is 'global warming' is predicted to cause more extreme weather at both ends of the scale...  

 

[Kimbers]

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Judging by the top two, dairy herds must have developed a taste for fine dining.

[C8RKH]

Butter is up by over 33%, margarine by 44%, however now that oil prices are coming down that means margarine prices should fall too as that is what the disgusting stuff is made from isn't it? 

Meanwhile, the French, God you have to them, are burning down the council halls as they may have to work until they are 64!