October seems to be crunch time. I'm keeping close tabs on how much gas I use. The lec usage doesn't change much through the year.
I can well imagine a lot of people trying to heat their homes with wood this winter, which doesn't bode well - I can foresee stories of chimney fires and attempts at warming gone horribly wrong. I remember moving in to my current home and wanting to make a fire in the hearth, not realising there was a plastic baulk in the chimney.
@MikeOxgreen why do you moan so about the Forum? The potting shed is for all sorts of chats and discussions.
I thought it was clear in my post. Because doom and gloom is everywhere these days and it's hard to escape it. Turn the radio on, the TV, the internet, look at a newspaper. There is no respite from it and it's actually damaging to many people as it amplifies a problem which there is nothing you can do about. I'm fed up with hearing about it, that's all.
Red diesel here for the boiler is now 1.55euro per litre. Wood depending on the load is around 70 euros per stere. A loaf of cereal bread uncut at Aldi (not the packet bread) 1.39 euros - pasta (Barilla or Panzani) is 91cents for 500g. You can pay less for pasta if you want sticky glutinous stuff. Our electricity is .1740/euros per kWh with night rates a little less from 11.30pm to 7.30am. Gas 22.30euros for a 13.5kg bottle and we just have to pay.
Summer vegetables have been frozen - glut on courgettes this year, not so good on tomatoes - but made some ratatouille - good through pasta, also frozen. Meat - very expensive, as is fish (even more expensive). Fruit and vegetables are to be expensive due to the drought and of course transport.
Interesting to see how much you pay compared to France. I believe that other areas of France do not have the same prices as here. Do different areas in Britain have different prices?
PS Talking to my friend in Melbourne today said she paid almost $AUS10.00 for a cos lettuce!!! Garlic is something like $AUS65.00/kg (for Aussie grown produce) - Chinese imported garlic is cheaper.
electricity 27.84p/kWh plus charges gas 6.99p/kWh plus charges
All in, a monthly direct debit of £60 a month through the year.
1907, north facing, two bed terraced house.
chopped, seasoned wood was about £60 per tonne (a stere)
One tonne would last about a month to heat the living room in the evening. When I moved in the house was freezing and drafty. I used the wood stove so that I had at least one room that was warm and cosy in the winter and I could have guests over without needing to give them blankets to wrap up in. I curtained the room off from the rest of the open plan house. These days I don't want to burn things and I have done a lot over ten years to make the house more efficient.
@tui34 in Dordogne I pay 80 euro a stere for logs, but they are cut up to between 30 and 50 cm long for my wood burning oven in the kitchen/diner. The oven, a bit like an AGA without lids, heats most of my cottage and I use it for cooking but when it's cold I have an electric radiator on in the sitting room as well. I have bought 12 stere for the winter, 960 euro. There is an electric oven and a gas hob but I use them in the summer.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Posts
Because doom and gloom is everywhere these days and it's hard to escape it.
Turn the radio on, the TV, the internet, look at a newspaper. There is no respite from it and it's actually damaging to many people as it amplifies a problem which there is nothing you can do about.
I'm fed up with hearing about it, that's all.
Summer vegetables have been frozen - glut on courgettes this year, not so good on tomatoes - but made some ratatouille - good through pasta, also frozen. Meat - very expensive, as is fish (even more expensive). Fruit and vegetables are to be expensive due to the drought and of course transport.
Interesting to see how much you pay compared to France.
I believe that other areas of France do not have the same prices as here.
Do different areas in Britain have different prices?
Our wood is probably upwards of £200.00 for a pick up truck full, something like a Hi-lux.
gas 6.99p/kWh plus charges