Keeping your home warm / heating / energy crisis / insulation etc

Mixing both is a cleaning hack for certain things, usually where the fizzing helps.
Toilet bowl cleaning, unblocking etc.

Also on carpets and soft furnishings, because you might want it to be salty water after cleaning.

Then again, bleach turns into salty water too.

Canny wait to see how much of a shambles they will be fitted.

how come - do you mean because its BG? Or because of the particular model they are using?

Wouldn't you then put baking soda on the thing, then spray diluted vinegar at it?

This, I'd then use a straight vinegar/water mix afterwards. I was following online guides.

I tried bleach first but the mould would come back worse. When I switched to Vinegar it seemed to fix the problem.

I've been looking over my energy usage since I joined Octopus in May, and clearly the gas usage tracks the weather very closely as you would expect.

What I can't work out is why the electricity also appears to. Obviously you use more lighting when it's dark. But there is a clear November dip in electricity, coinciding with the warm spell, what's going on there? Do some electrical appliances (tumble dryer?) use much more electricity when it's cold - even though given we had the heating on, it didn't get particularly cold inside?

Each bar on these graphs is a month, starting in May. January short because it's not a complete month.

What am I missing?

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Maybe less oven/kettle use when its warm?
Do you have an electric shower?
Eating less at home?

Assuming you haven't forgotten that you took a holiday.

30 days in november any even out that dip.
More dryer usage from Oct onwards.

Dehumidifiers have a fairly large difference in power usage, depending on where the weather is coming from and outside air temp.
Cold dry(ish) polar air carries much less moisture than warmer air from the tropics.

Shower isn't electric and we rarely eat out. No holiday in November or dehumidifier.

Genuinely think it may be that we subconsciously drink a lot more tea when it's cold. Possibly less salads and more lasagnes. But if that's all it is I'm surprised to see it so visible in the stats

Just because it’s BG.

These heat pumps need to be done right or they run like shit. We’ve installed one with a friend and honestly I don’t know if it’s worth the bother until the grants and such are done. It was a serious amount of work!

Tumble dryers use a ton of leccy, so much so we have the gas one running as it’s so cheap to run compared to the electric

I had no idea gas tumble dryers existed. Ours is a heat pump which is meant to be efficient, but I think it still isn't cheap to run. Possibly it gets more use in cold weather as we are wearing more layers.

Pump circulating the central heating?

I had no idea gas tumble dryers existed

Not sure you can buy them anymore. My parent's gas one broke last year and they couldn't find a replacement and had to get an electric one instead.

Pumps use about 50w. Maybe 6h of use a day. 300wh a day, 9kwh in a month compared to not using central heating at all.

Running the oven for an hour a day 2kwh, 60kwh per month.

200wh per extra kettle boil, 6kwh extra per month.

As you used about 40kwh less in November, probably some combination of the above.

This article seems to suggest a heat pump tumble dryer would still be cheaper than a gas tumble dryer by some distance. Last updated Sept 22 so hoping it’s factored in the current energy situation: https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/tumble-dryers/article/gas-tumble-dryers-afRhU2a4CVP8

Tried searching but no results. Any suggested heated electric insoles?

Anyone having issues getting a electric/gas smart meter installed or replaced?
I seem to be having major issues with this, my current provider (who are proving to be shit) have said that faulty smart gas meter replacements are seen as low priority and they currently have no installation date.
We advised them of the issue in 13th October.

Search for ski boot heated insoles. They pretty much all have external batteries though, as the nature of an insole means the power supply just can't be built in to it.

Have you told them it doesn't appear to be giving any readings and you intend your bill to be zero until such time as it's fixed?

I had thought of that, but assuming they pull an up to date reading when they finally replace, I want to avoid a £2000 gas bill in August…

Thank you from a very cold house

Door seals -

Our integrated garage internal temperature is 4.8 degrees right now, and the internal garage door isn't well sealed, so can feel an icy draught. I've tried some of the spongy stick on stuff, but its too thick for the door to close effectively.
What options do I have?

Also I have PVC double doors in the room above the garage, and you can feel a draught and noise, which is eliminated when I put pressure on the door, which suggests that the seal isn't very good. It has the rubber seal, I'm guessing it doesn't make good enough contact? How can I improve this?

What options do I have?
It depends on which sticky stuff you have been trying.

E profile sponge is quite thin, or stormguard V seal.

which is eliminated when I put pressure on the door, which suggests that the hinges or locking mechanism/keeps arent very good.
How can I improve this?

Pm me some photos showing the hinges and locking mechanism/ shootbolt keeps and I'll try to point you in the right direction.

You can, Samsung seem to be the last person making them. The company white knight went out of buisness about 3 years ago that use to be the major one.

Well that is apart from commercial gas ones.