I have a double glazed south facing conservatory which allows passive heating into my bungalow. Even in Winter, its unheated, but Winter sun is sufficient to warm the conservatory, and provide passive heating, reducing the need to turn on heating in the daytime.
In Winter, I set my thermostat to 18C, and only boost the heating as necessary in the evening. Any rooms not used, have the radiator valves turned off. The time clock controls my heating to come on automatically, and for me, I do not need heated rooms over night, so the heating goes off at 10.30pm.
Another saving I have found, is not to have the hot water turned up too high, it is pointless heating water to high temperatures, then having to cool it down with cold. However, now and then, I allow the boiler to reach 60C to kill any bacteria in the system, then lower it back again.
I do keep my boiler serviced every year, and insist the engineer checks for maximum efficiency. Our previous boiler was useless, it took ages to heat water, and was barely adequate to supply hot water to all radiators. Old boilers are a false economy, and I saved money instantly when i switched to a Greenstar boiler.
I think if people are careful with electricity and gas use, they can still save money.
The Ovo in-home display is a great gadget for monitoring use of electricity, but I still appear to be having issues with SMETS2 meters not communicating with Ovo. They have both been changed to the latest versions, but still, the system is not communicating. It is a puzzle I have to resolve!!!
Hey
Some great ideas there! Really helpful advice, I'm glad to hear your managing to make savings.
Sorry to hear about your smart meter, it sounds like you had a SMETS1 meter which has been upgraded to SMETS2. We have a great guide about this topic:
The lost communication may be a temporary issue following the enrollment, which should hopefully resolve itself. But, to be on the safe said, I'd advise completing a smart meter health check if you haven’t done so already:
Hope this helps.
Hi Emmanuelle,
You are correct - I was installed a non-working SMETS1 meter by Ovo, then, the updated version SMETS2 was installed this year. But hey… it still does not work! I have a checklist to do, to see if communication is taking place, but its not resolving itself. According to my expert son in law, he says, its a pity your engineers didn’t carry out an RF strength check in my area on DCC’s current 02 network. But hey ho! i might be the first to get a smart meter remote antenna, it seems we need a few extra dB’s to communicate!! Watch this space!!!
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