Its a cold but sunny day today. Blue skies and fluffy little clouds scudding across at high speed. The temperature is around 4 celsius (and not expected to rise much more) but feels a lot colder in the very brisk wind which is set to increase in speed as the week progresses.
I've been wondering 'officially' just how many logs we burn each day. The burner is not lit until about 3pm, we put the last log on around 8.30pm and it burns itself out overnight. Although we used 7 yesterday, some of it was heart wood which is hard to keep going and we had to have the air flow increased as it kept wanting to go out.
Those of you who know me, know I just love data. So I've decided to keep an eye on what we use so when the next load is delivered, we can assess how many months it will last. We have just finished the last of a batch we bought two years ago which has been in use from late October until yesterday. That delivery lasted well but we would normally have the heating on during the day before lighting the burner early evening.
This year, until the full impact of winter is felt, we are trying to not continually use our central heating. We are trialling using the burner only - except sometimes first thing in the morning if we have had a frost overnight. It depends how warm the room is where the wood burner lives. The temperature in there falls gradually overnight but most mornings it is, on average, around 16 to 18 celsius. With both of us being at home now, we spend most of our time in the front room, keeping the door shut or else cooking in the kitchen.
The cost of oil has risen dramatically over the last 2 or 3 years, electric is rising also – 6p per unit total rise this year. Even though we are cutting down our electricity consumption (central heating pump etc), our bills are still rising.
The heating will of course be on when guests stay over the New Year, can't have cold guests.
Are you still managing not to have your heating on all the time yet?
We have succumbed to using the heating! KL's friend stayed last week so we put it on - she is used to warm temperatures! We have used it since, putting it on for a couple of hours in the evening - but not every day. I'm still not using any form of heating during the day. Luckily I've been busy , so I haven't felt the cold.
ReplyDeleteOur front room is recording a temperature of 24c. The rest of the house is like a fridge. However, as our bedrooms face south, they get very warm during the day. Although they are now cold this daytime heat stops the cold having any detrimental effect on these rooms - so far!
ReplyDeleteWe managed to keep the central heating off till now, but tonight we had it on for a couple of hours to take the chill off. While we are at work the heating will stay off, and we shall only use it if the temperature drops below 16 C in the living room. Most evenings my cooking provides enough warmth for the kitchen and the living room, so we hope that we can stay off the central heating for a while yet. As we are going to spend Christmas with my parents in Germany the house will not be heated for 10 days, unless we get arctic conditions here. In which case my friend and neighbour who looks after my cat shall have power to switch the heating on a few times, just to keep a little warmth going until we return.
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