What are you all up to
Comments
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We use only TRVs, so no thermostat to tweak, our system is old but works just fine.
OH decides how warm we have it, and sets the times, I just put on or take off my sweater as necessary!
We do not run heating overnight, but the house is well insulated so we are warm enough.
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We have TRV's on all our radiators, each room is adjusted to how we like it, rooms unused are down low just to keep them aired. The timer is set at this time of year to come on 30 mins before we get up(ish) and goes off at 21.30, no heating required over night as we are in bed. Living room usually at 20c same in bathroom but bedroom, hall and kitchen about 17c. We tend to walk around in T shirts most of the time. Once it starts to get warmer (Spring) during the day the heating goes off around 10.30, then back on for 2 hrs at lunchtime (if required) them off again until teatime. When it eventually gets hot (well hot for Scotland) it goes off altogether.
Today has been a lovely day bright and sunny, flipping cold though. We've been busy out at the van now its back home. Boy is it filthy, can't wash it just yet as its still freezing but hope we get a chance before going away.
We've been playing with the new roof satellite all seems to be good and easy to use. Just need to put everything back into it once the temp comes up a bit over the next day or so, no point in putting the cushions and bedding in while its still freezing. I've got boxes of food and bits and pieces sat on the dinning room floor, the spare bedroom has all the cushions and bedding in there, OH has at least managed to get some of the (kit) back into the van, so the attic floor has for the time being stopped moaning
more to do tomorrow.0 -
Tried to reply with a lengthy post, timed out but no message to say so, it just wouldn't post, copied what I had typed, logged in again, pasted........and something that I had typed several days ago appeared!??
Can't be bothered to do it again.
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Ordered floor mats and boot tray, all now arrived, and towbar fitting organised, so I think we have covered everything meantime.
Congratulations on the new car Kjell. Did you order your mats etc on line? If so which company did you use and are you satisfied with them? I'm after some for our new Volvo but there seems to big differences between companies and type of mat. Any help would be gratefully accepted.
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We have our heating set at 21 C from 6.30am to 11.30pm. It is set overnight at 15 C. If its going to be cold overnight I increase the overnight temperature although it seldom comes on. During the day we will nudge the temperature down if we are going out and up during the evening. About two years ago we had a Power Flush which has been pretty successful. We have TRV's in most rooms although of course they shouldn't be in the room where you have your thermostat.
David
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Yes, we ordered on line, we wanted decent quality so did not go for the cheapest available.
The mats are a good heavy-weight rubber type, £35 for a set of 4, delivered very quickly, from Amazon , seller was Travall UK
The boot tray we splashed out on as it will get a lot of wear, that was from The Roof Box Company, £61.50 + carriage £5.50. Also delivered within a couple of days. It has the raised edges to contain spillages. Flat mats are cheaper.
We could not find a company that could provide both the boot tray and the floor mats.
Remains to see how they will all wear, but the quality seems good and everything fitted exactly, so we are pleased so far.
VW offered carpet mats for £25,rubber trays for a lot more, so we decided to source our own. When we went to pick up the car we found they had fitted carpet mats for free, after decling to provide any!
They are now packed away, maybe we could sell them!
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While I gather it is "best practice" to fit the room stat as well as TRVs these days, to give what I think is called boiler interlock, I fail to see how this gives the best results.
The whole point of TRVs is to allow each room to be set to the required temperature and to receive heat on demand from the TRV.
If one room has priority and the system is turned off when it reaches the set temperature, then the other rooms cannot always keep their set temperature.
We are not normally early risers, unless we have something special on, so our heating comes on at 08.30 and goes off at 10.30. In the afternoon it comes on at 16.30 at present, and goes off at 22.30. Evenings will have less heating as the weather improves.
On very cold, dull days we do turn it on again if we are at home, but as we are south facing we get a lot of heat into the house when it is sunny and use a fan to circulate it to the colder rear rooms, driven by "free" power from the PV panels.
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The problem with having TRV's in the same room as the thermostat is that whilst that room may reach the temperature the rest of the house can be very cold, at least that is what we found. The TRV's control the heat in the actual system, if the room with the main thermostat is up to temperature it won't heat anything. We had an immediate improvement from the Power Flush but asked BG to come in and move the thermostat from the lounge to the hall. As its wireless we can move it around if we wish. As a result we have had much better balanced heating around the house. We do have TRV's which are turned down quite low in the rooms we don't use a lot and they are pretty effective. Perhaps we are in a more fortunate position than some in that we don't have to stint on heating. We save by being away from the house for about 100 days a year when the heating is completely off.
David
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I usually turn the heating down at night too. 15 degrees is warm enough when you're in bed covered with a duvet. If the temperature is too high, it can get much too hot under the duvet. I turn it back up when I get up in the morning.
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We upgraded our thermostat and it's in the hall with a non thermostat radiator, we've got TRVs in most of the rooms and if it's cold we set the max to around 22C. We haven't run the timer on our new boiler yet as we just adjust the main thermostat when needed, we move it to 14C overnight but so far it hasn't had to work overnight, the insulation must be ok. We adjust it when we get up, lovely after years of early starts for work and timers to match, no set times any more.
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Our system is 37 years old so doesn't have all the bells and whistles, works perfectly well although probably no as efficient as a modern system, but doesn't break down! We also have a log burner which I light in the afternoon and let it burn to about 10pm. So heating system isn't on all day and we never leave it on overnight.
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Well, what a grey and dismal wet morning it is here in East Kent.Persistent rain,so had a lie in.No B/Yd today due to the wet,rained off !!Makes a change .Suppose I,ll have to do some housework instead 
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Ours is coming up on 29 years now, has never needed any boiler repairs, but I did renew all the TRVs about 10 years back, and fitted a new timer about 5 years back.
The rad in the hall is the "bypass" so has no TRV and is always on. The hallway is large, this rad is very small and has the coat hooks above it, so great for drying wet things, and for having a nice warm jacket to put on when going out.
We keep discussing getting a new, more efficient boiler, but it would take many years of fuel saving to break even, so we have kept putting it off. Seems modern boilers are not as long lived as the old ones anyway.
As we have a "granny flat" there is a separate boiler for that, so if the main one fails we would still have heating and hot water there to use.
TRVs in unused rooms and bedrooms are set to the bare minimum and doors left open to allow air circulation, we prefer a cool bedroom. Lounge/dining room, bathrooms and kitchen/diner are on 20-22 degrees. Despite the size of the house bills are reasonable, especially, as David said, as we are away for around 4 months each year at present.
In the caravan we use 13 degrees overnight on the Alde, and it does kick in for short periods in cold weather.
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Was a grey start here too but sun has just broken through and some patches of blue sky are appearing. Looking forward to some "free solar heating" today. OH is off tp put on the W/M to use the electricity.
If it stays nice she is going to try out the new car later on..
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Thanks DaveFL2,Am doing that (with your permission) but also writing some chords to my lyrics & playing the guitar.Coffee & brandy just now though.Off later to our new 'micro pub' with a couple of baskets of 'nibbles for them for Sunday lunchtime treats,hot cut up "Merguez" on sticks ,,,Mmmm !!They normally also do hot roast potatoes too....Mmmm again !!!
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Triky
I had a lovely walk last Sunday around Faversham Creek (where the listed boats are moored)
Spent ages in the Tool shed building looking at tools and equipment my father and grandfather would have used.
Read about the restored Thames Sailing barge used in WW2 and caught up in an IRA bombing.
Not sure the wife was as interested as me though.
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Back to heating.
We don't have central heating, so nothing at all upstairs. We do put portable electric heaters in the bedrooms for visitors.
Downstairs in the kitchen/living room (very big room) we have an old solid fuel Aga, so there is always some heat. We also have a large wood burner there. We control the room temperature by opening or closing doors - the door to the hall (heats more of the house), the door to the pantry (another very big room) lets in an icy blast, or the outside door in summer.
Another wood burner heats the sitting room (only used when we have visitors.
I'm very good at dressing in removable layers.
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Fozzie ,Oh ,if you'ed ventured round to " Oare Creek" ,i was there all day (as MANY DAYS ) .FREE park up on my B/Yd for members ANYTIME !! Just give me a shout on the mobile ,and I'll talk you in !!
07716-430.430.
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Dave FL2 ,
Mmmm!!0 -
Blue sky did not last long, now more clouds and only feeble sunshine. Fortunately OH did not rush to put on the W/M as she reckoned there was not enough for a full load.
Busy now sorting out all the stuff from the old car and deciding what we need in the new one. Far too much clutter......almost as bad as the caravan!
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Damp, mizzley day -- all grey & horrible so sitting on P.C.
between loads of "Washing & Drying" must get it out of the
way 'cos to-morrow the 'van is in for service & M O T
Always a bad time peering thro' the window & seeing a big
open space ! Still should be ok for Aged Sister to get into for
her shopping trip tho'
!!Must come on here a little more than I am doing, 'cos I
turned the Squwark Box on and got a burst of "Oh Come All
Ye Faithful" { D S B would have been proud of me !! }
So I've swapped C.D.s for some of The Sheringham ShantyMen
to remind me of the weather over on the East Coast !!
Keep Warm & Dry you lot !!
B
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Miserable day here, very wet.😢
Went to see a friend this morning, had a really good catch up, and compared knitting. ☺
OH has got the Freelander's door and lock in bits, it's not been locking properly and the new lock he ordered arrived in the week, judging by the swearing it's not going to plan😂 😕
Booked our first caravan trip for 2017 today too, gives us something to look forward to. 😊
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When you take the ice off the ponds, Pippah if you can
leave it by the side of the water. Then any little water-bugs
can crawl back into the pond -- its like putting the sliced
meats back into the cool box for tomorrow
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Getting dark here now. OH has now tried the new car and we have found out what several of the buttons and switches do. Still a few to be tried out!
We took a circuit round the block and then outt onto the main road, down into the village and back the other way, so about 4 miles.
Brakes are very nippy and accelerator too, so will take a little getting used to. However she has decided she likes it fine, which is just as well!!
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Very miserable here too today, misty damp and chilly but the snow is melting slowly. Had Mum for a few hours so didn't go out to the van to do anything just gathered a few more things that will need to go back into it.
Heating, we have TRV's on all the radiators we also have a wireless controlled thermostat, we had this introduced to the system 5 years ago and it works very well. They stop the boiler cycling which makes it more efficient (seemingly) we have tried it around the house but have now settled with it in the front hall, the radiator there is small and we don't heat it very much. The thermostat is set around 17/18c during the day and if we feel chilly at night we turn it up to 20c, the radiator TRV's we have played with until we have the rooms as we like them, we now don't touch them. We were told that if you have the rooms you live in TRV's set to the highest then set the wall thermostat to the required temp, the radiators cannot get any hotter than the overall wall thermostat, as it controls the boiler, however if you want your other rooms cooler then just keep turning the TRV's down until you get to a temp you're happy with. So in our house the lounge and dining room TRV's are at the highest setting, the bedroom set to 3, bathroom highest, hall low, spare bedrooms low. Since doing this we have cut our gas consumption down in winter by about half. Winter is the time of year that we are around more and of course use the heating more. We do have cavity wall insulation and good double glazing, all interior walls are brick the floors are concrete and good loft insulation as well. It seems to hold its heat quite well and in summer the house never gets uncomfortably hot, despite the fact our front is south facing.
We like to have the heating coming on before we get up in the morning, hate getting up to a cold house, but it goes off at 21.30 even though we tend to not go to bed until after 23.00.
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