The cost of living... what can we do?

I've had a Combi Boiler for years, British Gas had a new boiler offer on in 2015 for about £800.
It heats the Rads fine although I don't know how that works.

 

Some tips from me, proven to work in my household but of course everyone has their own unique circumstances.

Make a money saving chart, and stick it to the wall somewhere you can't miss it. Our one features a grid, with a column to write the date in, and a box for notes. Underneath is a list of ideas like, reduce a bill, sell something you don't use, devise a main meal that costs less than a quid per serving etc. It turns money saving into a game. As an example of some of the entries on ours, I reduced our mobile bills by switching service providers and reviewing our data needs, and there are several meal ideas on their that cost next to nothing.

Another idea that someone suggested to me is to bin the idea of the weekly shop, increasing the interval to 8, 9 or even 10 days, but still only buying what you'd normally buy for a week. It has the double advantage of reducing food waste and saving money. We've already got our food waste right down, sort of, but only because we have loads in the freezer that often stays there for weeks. But the idea is it gets you really thinking about what's already in stock and what you can make from it

One more, set aside some budget for eating out or takeaways. It sounds counter intuitive, but if you don't (or this is what I find) then when the craving comes, you spend anyway, then because it's not budgeted for, you can kind of slip down the slippery road. Instead of a weekly/fortnightly/monthly treat, it becomes 'occassional', and 'occassional'has a tendency to become increasingly frequent.

 

Really ? ! - find it hard to believe BG with such an offer as even back then know they often quoted £3000 to fit just a new boiler, when local corgi guys would do do it for around £1500.

 

Its 40 years old and still going strong, though it does break down about every 10 years because the pilot light sensor (thermocouple) burns out, though at £5 can just afford that

Yes a new boiler is more efficient and would save money on the gas used, but you have to balance that against the cost of a new boiler, many modern ones only last about 10 years * , the cost of the service contracts you usually have to take out as well etc etc, still far outweigh what our old boiler cost to run and service.

Even with the 2023 predicted rates think it would be still worth keeping, though if we thought it was cost effective to upgrade we would do, though not sure if we would for another boiler for our indirect system or a combi ?

* as @ pete points out the combi boilers seem quiet unreliable though Pete, from what we have seen our neighbours do , a combi will worked fine with their 30 year old existing radiators, the old hot water tank and hot water cyliner, pump and valves etc are all removed.

 

I think my whole system needs up grading If I was to consider a new boiler.
Some of the rads have been turned off for so long I cant actually turn them on anymore.

The main valve seems to be a problem as a couple of rads always heat up when the system is on hot water only, that is if I dont physically turn them off at the valves.

Lots of glupe in the system as well, refilling after draining down is always a nightmare.

The thing is, it still works.

 

I'm sure the boiler systems over there are quite efficient compared to my natural gas forced air furnace but after reading all of the above, I realize that it is a lot less complicated to upgrade an air mover instead of waterworks! That would be a disaster over here because we depend on our central heat for 8 months of the year.

I've been getting the munchies a lot lately (no, haven't needed my fudge in ages now ) and I don't know why I didn't think of this before. Throw a quarter cup of popping corn into a paper lunch bag, micro for a couple of minutes and add a little melted butter. Now I don't need for those expensive pre made microwave popcorn bags with the artificial flavouring which almost as much as a whole bag of popping corn that would give me about 40 servings!

 

To save money on a Combi boiler, You need to adjust the flow rate
there are two dials One with a Radiator pic by it and the other with a tap pic by it

Each have a temerature scale
Now water will only flow once it has reached the flow rate temperature
so it will keep burning gas until that temperature is reached, so it is pointless
having the tap temp flo rate at 80* before the hot water flows at the tap then
running cold water in to make it hand hot

The same with the Rad Flow rate if you have it set high the gas will burn and nor
release hot water to the Rads until it is up to temperature, so again pointless waste
of energy having the flow rate set at 90* when you have room temp set at 18*
so turn the flo rate dial to 55

 

I kind of like the airing cupboard which I think you lose with some systems.
I dont use a tumble dryer so the washing is usually put in the airing cupboard as soon as its touch dry to finish off.
It also keeps the bathroom warm.

 

That is more than a 50% increase. Bet your income hasn't risen 50% in the last couple of months. Unless you are Liz Truss.

 

We had a new Valiant combi boiler fitted a year ago. We wanted the old combi moved for the new kitchen install and as it was 11 years old it was not worth hanging on to. The Valiant had its annual service last month and it is rated A for efficiency. The lady engineer set the temps for max efficiency.