Heating this winter to become unaffordable?

[emordnilap]

As I say, we're moving to Ireland in the new year, and it's going to be fun trying to find a place that isn't heated by oil and meets all our other requirements...

Outside Dublin, Ireland's (the republic of) new builds of the nineties in the towns and all in the last twenty years in the country are oil. New builds in many towns are gas and have been for a while. Either fuel is going to be problematic in the fairly near future as we all know. Ireland is at the end of the gas supply chain.

Older houses nearly all have have oil and usually have some form of solid fuel too.

There are a number of houses away from gas mains have 'Calor' type tanks in their gardens.

Irish weather is generally milder than England and so daily winter fuel requirements are lower but the heating season may be longer due to damp.

Which area are you thinking about moving to? Have you decided yet?

[adam2]

As I say, we're moving to Ireland in the new year, and it's going to be fun trying to find a place that isn't heated by oil and meets all our other requirements...

Assuming that you cant find anything suitable with a wood stove, an open fireplace is better than nothing, and might make instaling a wood stove more viable.

[SILVERHARP2]

Shira - if you go to www.tg4.ie (irish language tv station), click "web TV" button and click on a section called Claireile - cartlann, there is an archieved list of tv progs called Teach Glas, it' is mostly in Irish but is subtitled and is quite a good Eco series with reference to local green energy suppliers etc. might give you some useful background info.

[Adam1]

Adam1, that's good stuff; still, if you're not on benefits/relevant tax credits and still can't afford anything, it's not that helpful as it won't cover all the cost. It's moot for us as we're moving to Ireland in a few months anyway, but we wouldn't be eligible for the full-cost grant and we don't have any disposable income so we wouldn't be able to afford even the discounted stuff. Huge numbers of people are in that position. Also, all the free stuff in the world won't help if your landlord doesn't want it done (I know, it would be totally irrational to refuse something like that, but people are strange and will often resist doing the clearly beneficial thing for no good reason at all). Still, I like the fact that those options are available, and they should definitely be more publicised; most people, I imagine, have no idea that such opportunities exist. I'll definitely be telling people about it, thanks for that link.

I agree that what's on offer is pretty inadequate. It is incredible, with high energy bills being in the news every day, that the government doesn't say it is going to take immediate action to get rented accommodation insulated asap. Landlords have to get gas safety certificates and ensure that furniture is not a fire risk. Laws could just as easily passed that require them to improve insulation standards. The Energy Performance Certificates, which if they were being implemented properly, could help facilitate this change.

BTW good luck with your move to Ireland.

[gug]

I'm afraid i dont have solution to this problem, but I am staggered at how folks could spend 280 pounds in a month on heating and *not* have absolutely stuffed their house so full of insulation that they *dont* have to spend that much money.

A lot of people don't own the houses they live in. Insulating your house and much of the other very useful and sensible stuff that would help reduce energy consumption are not options for tenants. The only choice we have is to put up with higher bills, much as we might wish we could make sensible long-term changes. Thankfully we don't have oil heating in our current house, and we don't spend anywhere near £280 a month, but there are all these things people are suggesting - buy a wood-burning stove! put in loads of insulation! install a grey-water system! etc, and we would if we could, but we don't own our home and can't afford to buy one. I just wish people would remember that not everyone is in a position to make these sorts of changes to their homes before spouting off about how astounding it is that they're complaining about high bills when "all they have to do is xyz!"

I didnt realise I was "spouting off" , but there you go.
Even if i rented a property and found that i was spending 280 a month on heating i would insulate the place.

You could do the whole loft of an average house for 280 quid and as someone said earlier, draftproofing a property is easy and cheap. It would pay itself back in a few months. I'm afraid this would mean improving the property for your landlord, but theres not a lot i can do about that.
Better than repeatedly handing over money to the heating oil company though


I guess if I was renting and it was costing me that sort of sum to heat the place and there was nothing i could do about it, I'd probably move.
Think what a great place to rent you could get with an extra 280 a month.

[bigjim]

I'm moving to the Isle of Lewis soon. I may end up with oil central heating. Better invest in thermals, jumpers and big thick duvets!

[RenewableCandy]

I'm moving to the Isle of Lewis soon. I may end up with oil central heating. Better invest in thermals, jumpers and big thick duvets!

...don't forget waterproofs for that horizontal rain.

[pablo]

Why not cap your gas bills now. Even Martin Lewis has been saying it on GMTV. We've just got a year capped gas & electricity through Scottish Power. I don't think these deals will be around for much longer.

[Shira]

emordnilap: we're looking at Wicklow or Kildare, as James' new job is in Dun Laoghaire. We're going to start off by seeing how likely it is that we could find something suitable in Blessington or thereabouts, as I've asked around and heard good things about it. I've noticed (mostly from spending a lot of time on daft.ie) that there are loads of new-build houses, and we're not mad keen on those, but we're in no position to buy and in the end it comes down to what we can afford and who will allow tenants with three cats. We're no strangers to bunging on extra jumpers and sitting under blankets, though; if we have to live in a house with oil heating I'm sure we'll manage. I lived in the Negev desert as a kid, and the winter we were there was the coldest in 100 years, and of course none of the buildings were designed with truly cold weather in mind, but we got on with it.

adam2 - you're right, I've been told that the weather is generally milder, which suits me very well. There seem to be more houses with open fireplaces than there are here, and some rental places have a stove in the kitchen/living room, which would be really handy.

SILVERHARP2 - thanks for that link, I can see it being really useful, especially as I want to learn Irish!

Adam1 - I don't understand the lack of action from the government at all. Sometimes it seems as if the authorities are doing precisely the opposite to what would be helpful, and I've pretty much given up on common sense having any bearing on decision-making from On High.

gug - I didn't mean you specifically were spouting, your post just put me in mind of how so many people do spout, but I was irked by the assumption that everyone can afford to do stuff. I can see what you're saying, but if you have to spend all that money on heating etc, where are you supposed to find the money to insulate the loft? Measures which save money in the long run often involve upfront costs. As for moving if the heating's costing too much - well, as I keep having to explain to my mother who thinks our money problems would be over if we "just moved", moving itself is very expensive. Even if you don't have to pay for removals and someone you know is happy to hire and drive a lorry for you, you still have to come up with a month's rent in advance and often a deposit as well. If you're short on cash, you are kind of stuck where you are. A lot of people can do the things you've suggested, but plenty of people would like to but simply cannot afford it.

[emordnilap]

Shira

Wicklow is beautiful in parts, a lovely county, especially the Sally Gap and Glendalough. It's known as the 'garden of Ireland'.

If you can find somewhere north-east of the county, Greystones. Kilmacanogue etc, you might easily reach the DART to get to Dun Laoghaire and Dublin.

Blessington, I'm pretty sure you'd need a car. Not sure about buses. Maybe silverharp would help there.

[SILVERHARP2]

Shira

Blessington, I'm pretty sure you'd need a car. Not sure about buses. Maybe silverharp would help there.

not possible from blessington, for quality of life stick to South Dublin maybe Shankill or Bray (20min DART to Dun Loaghaire) (btw I live in Sandymount). At a push maybe one of the commuter towns on the train line south of Dublin eg Arklow but the further you go the longer the commute.

Shira feel free to PM me if you want more info

[Adam1]

Adam1 - I don't understand the lack of action from the government at all. Sometimes it seems as if the authorities are doing precisely the opposite to what would be helpful, and I've pretty much given up on common sense having any bearing on decision-making from On High.

At some point TPTB will realise that it is in their selfish interest to act, however - depending on how long it takes to reach that point - the options will be more limited and any responses will be more painful and challenging to implement.

[RenewableCandy]

Has anyone ever noticed how much more likely riots are to break out when it's too hot than too cold? People in Iraq rioted on power cuts because their buildings became unusable, and life generally unbearable, without artificial cooling (which of course they were sort of promised). Brixton etc happened in hot summers (I'm showing my age now), as did historic French food roits (harvest failure due to drought, erm no I wan't there!). Some research showed that, at least here in the UK, crime in general goes up when it's hot. But what will people do when they're too cold? Basically, are we man enough to take to the streets in the sleet?

[Kieran]

Has anyone ever noticed how much more likely riots are to break out when it's too hot than too cold?

"The day drags by like a wounded animal
The approaching disease, 92 degrees
The blood in our veins and the brains in our head
The approaching unease, 92 degrees

Long ago in the headlines, they noticed it too
But too late for the loved ones and nearly for you .....

Shaky lines on the horizon
Snakey lines invade each person
Watch the red line creeping upwards
Watch the sanity line weaken
The volcanic depths of Hades' ocean
Bubble under, these crazed eruptions
It wriggles and wrythes and bites within,
Just below the sweating sun

I wondered when this would happen again
Now I watch the red line, reach that number again
The blood in our veins and the brains in our head .....

Drink the water with jagged glass
Eat the cactus with bleeding mouth
Not 91 or 93, but 92 Fahrenheit degrees

Shaky lines on the horizon
Snakey lines invade each person
Not 91 or 93, but 92 Fahrenheit degrees"

92 degrees by Siouxsie and the Banshees

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3QYaO59Q5A
YouTube - Siouxsie and the Banshees - 92° - The Tube 1986 Part 2

[Silas]

Heat-loss home sparks 'cannabis factory' raid

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn%5Fvi ... ?ID=335240

Doh!