With energy prices so high, is it any wonder everyone wants to save a bob or two when they can?
Here at Cumbria Crack Towers, the radiator thermostats have always been well managed but now that the servants have discovered ‘flow temperature’ on the combi boiler, things have taken another turn in the battle to save the cash.
For those who have not heard of this money saving wheeze, if you have a combi boiler, it is said to work most efficiently when the temperature of the water going out to the radiators is set at 60C.
At this temperature, when the water is returned, the boiler recovers heat using condensation which lowers the bills. No, I don’t understand it either, I am a cat not a heating engineer, but I am assured it does.
However, most combi boilers have a flow temperature well above 60C, often over 70C, which is simply draining £20 notes from your bank account. It is easy to reset the flow temperature – just Google ‘flow temperature adjustment’ and there are many articles that explain how. Of course, you could look at the boiler user manual a) if you remember where you put it and b) you have a degree in thermal technologies!
Cumbria Crack Towers has had solar panels fitted for around 10 years and by utilising the energy generated on bright and sunny days, we have managed to reduce our overall bill by 30 per cent. The deal we signed up for is no longer available and the Government seems reluctant to reward domestic solar energy.
The Government is, however, pushing for more and more renewables and while the Lake District is spared the windmills, we are likely to see more on the fringes of the count and out to see.
Beyond the gas or oil boiler, there are still plenty of ways to save money and many of them are as simple as ‘switch it off’. How many of us have a phone charger plugged in all the time? What about the set top TV boxes or, indeed, the TV left on standby?
These days many of us have in-home virtual assistants which we call up whenever something important is required (“Alexa, what is the home ground of Crewe Alexander football team?” or “what is the weather in Kuala Lumpur?”) who sit silently in the corner listening to our every word.
Other ways to save money on heating? Spend £7,000 on getting your house heat pump ready with increased insulation and larger bore pipes and radiators (not all houses will need major changes, but many will) and then spend £6,000 on an air source heat pump.
Apparently, you will recover the cost with lower heating bills in around 12 years, by which time, technology will have moved on and we will be heating our homes from solar energy beamed via the moon.
Everywhere you look, these days, is advice on saving money.
But the Government has come up with another wheeze – get money for NOT using energy. The Demand Flexibility Service asks those with smart electric meters who have been invited and opted in, to reduce their electricity usage between certain, usually early evening, times and get a rebate based on how much less you have used compared to your normal usage during the same period.
It is claimed that the consumer can get £3 taken off their bills for every KwH they save. Again, don’t ask me, I am just a cat, but I do know that the dishwasher, washing machine and, particularly, the tumble dryer, use shed loads of electric so using these have to be rescheduled.
While some providers have already used the scheme, the first national event was on January 23 when those consumers were asked to reduce demand from 5pm to 6pm and then on January 24, from 4.30pm to 6pm.
The aim is to reduce consumption to the point where cuts to supply can be avoided. But is realistic or is it a sop to the green lobby? Is the Miggins’ family using their oven to make a cottage pie for tea doing that much damage to our electricity generating capacity?
The argument is that if we multiply the savings from not using the Miggins’ oven by millions, then the savings are worthwhile but what happens at 6.01pm when we all turn on the ovens? How do you overcome that spike?
What we really need to do is reduce demand across the board for every minute of the day and night. As a nation, we need to invest in more energy efficient appliances and more renewable energy production.
How about a tidal barrier across the Solway or Duddon estuaries? Yes, the same green lobby will argue that these will damage the ecology of the area but perhaps it will provide a new or different ecology. And no one is suggesting we put tidal barriers in every estuary just those where the topography and tidal flows make them cost efficient.
But, hey, what do I care…. I have my fur to keep me warm. All I ask for is air conditioning in summer!
About Cumbria Cat
Born in Cumberland and, from later this year, will be back living in Cumberland, having spent most of the past 50 years in some place called Cumbria, this cat has used up all nine lives as well as a few others.
Always happy to curl up on a friendly lap, the preference is for a local lap and not a lap that wants to descend on the county to change it into something it isn’t. After all, you might think Cumbria/Cumberland/Westmorland is a land forged by nature – the glaciers, the rivers, breaking down the volcanic rocks or the sedimentary layers – but, in reality, the Cumbria we know today was forged by generations of local people, farmers, miners, quarriers, and foresters.
This cat is a local moggy, not a Burmese, Ocicat or Persian, and although I have been around the block a few times, whenever I jump, I end up on my feet back in my home county. I am passionate about the area, its people, past, present and future, and those who come to admire what we hold dear, be it lakes and mountains, wild sea shores, vibrant communities or the history as rich and diverse as anywhere in the world.
