Saving gas

In an earlier post I said that we were going to experiment with our central heating as I would be at home much more than in the past.  We decided to put the central heating on permanently and then use the thermostat to control the temperature.

At night time, we turn the thermostat to about 14 degrees so that, if it was an extremely cold night the heating would kick in for a short time.  During the day, we set the thermostat to about 16 or 17 degrees when we are in the house and need some extra heat.  If we are doing a lot of physical work or go out we turn the thermostat back to about 14 degrees.  In the evening when we are sitting for longer periods of time, we may push the thermostat up to 18 or 19 degrees - particularly if it is very cold. Interestingly, we have rarely put the thermostat higher than that but would have done in the past when the heating was only set to come on twice a day for a few hours.  The outcome of all this is that we have used 264kWh LESS gas this winter than last winter (Nov to Feb period) - but it cost £24 more as the price of gas has increased since last year.

If any of you reading this try a similar experiment then there are some caveats.  One is that this is not a scientific experiment and I have no idea how last winter's temperatures compared to this winter's temperatures.  Another is that you need to be very disciplined about adjusting the thermostat or you will waste gas.

Based on this limited experiment, we intend to continue in the same way for the reminder of the year and  will then compare the overall usage with last year to see how we really fared.

Work? What's that?

It has been a shock to the system to have some work over the last few weeks.  I was just enjoying not having any to do too!  What an inconvenience it is to have to fit work in around all my other activities!  I guess it will help keep the wolf from the door as I don't get any pension until the end of the year.

It has been fairly chilly of late but at least the wind has died down.  This weekend is supposed to be wet, wet, wet.   At least we are not forecast to have 3 feet of snow like parts of N.E. America.

Peter, our friendly electrician, was in during the week to do the electrics for our bathroom and en-suite refurbishment.  I now realise how much we rely on electricity as, with the power going on and off all day, I could not do anything that required electricity that I could not stop fairly quickly.  So that meant no baking, no washing and no work (good excuse, eh?).  So, what was I to do with myself?  Well, I treated it as a day of leisure and got out a huge jigsaw that my mother-in-law gave me several years ago that I have never done.  It's fiendish but I like a challenge.

Today I am chuffed to bits as my weight has gone down a pound a week since 1 January.....exactly on target. I have mainly achieved this by cutting out a lot of snacks...not all though....and always asking myself  'do I really need this?' before I stuff something in my mouth.  Recording what I eat has been very easy to do with the app I am using and gives me a huge incentive to eat little enough that I hit my end of week target.  Will I keep it up?  Who knows.  Time will tell.

A weekend in the country

This weekend we visited our friends, Marian and Roy, who live in Tutts Clump,  a lovely village in the heart of the Berkshire countryside.  This is not far from where the Middletons lived until recently...apparently they recently moved to a manor a few miles away.  

After we arrived on Saturday we went for a walk from the house along the country lanes. 

I love this walk as the village contains a huge variety of interesting properties, the countryside is beautiful and there is always something new to see from the last time we did the walk.  The sun shone, the sky was blue and the sheep were enjoying the grass in the fields.   We were all enjoying the walk....and then, just after half way round the walk, we had to stop and turn around as the road was flooded.

On Sunday morning we walked around Greenham Common which Lucy loved.  It was rather colder than we expected as the wind whistled across the old airfield.  Interestingly, some of the old hangars that were once used to store missiles were closed.  We understood that they were supposed to be left open so everyone could see they were no longer being used.....but maybe that rule is no longer valid.

Back at Tutts Clump we all enjoyed watching Lucy trying to steal some of the bird food from the feeders.  She knew it was there but just could not reach it!

She was very determined though!