Energy costs (again)
- Thread starter Pondy
- Start date
At the summit of the picturesque fens
I think I have posted this before but anyway:
One of my wife's cousins is a train driver (national network based out of the big London stations; he lives in Sutton).
He used to be a London Bus driver; then had a 'suicide' whilst driving his bus. While he was off work (obviously!) on 'stress' leave someone told him that if he was a train driver and had a 'jumper' he would get much better recompense. So he went for it, did the training (paid for by employer) and became a train driver.
He is/was paid £65k a year basic, plus lots of other benefits; London weighting, considerable additional pay for long haul and staying away from home, overtime (which is guaranteed) huge percentage pension contributions (I think at least 15% pa from memory) plus some other benefits that I can't remember (which the union negotiated).
In real terms he is/was earning over £90k a year average, for sitting on a train and doing pretty much nothing! He said once that the hardest part of the job was keeping awake!
Just saying.
One of my wife's cousins is a train driver (national network based out of the big London stations; he lives in Sutton).
He used to be a London Bus driver; then had a 'suicide' whilst driving his bus. While he was off work (obviously!) on 'stress' leave someone told him that if he was a train driver and had a 'jumper' he would get much better recompense. So he went for it, did the training (paid for by employer) and became a train driver.
He is/was paid £65k a year basic, plus lots of other benefits; London weighting, considerable additional pay for long haul and staying away from home, overtime (which is guaranteed) huge percentage pension contributions (I think at least 15% pa from memory) plus some other benefits that I can't remember (which the union negotiated).
In real terms he is/was earning over £90k a year average, for sitting on a train and doing pretty much nothing! He said once that the hardest part of the job was keeping awake!
Just saying.
I have had three jobs during my life time and all in the public sector, and currently part time on a fourth within the NHS. Never been sacked, leaving each as and when I chose. All well paid and certainly more than a similar role in the private sector.
Add to that, job security, expenses and fantastic pensions that the private sector can only dream of, and it all adds up to being much much better pay than the private sector. If you take all that into account, even nurses are well paid.
Add to that, job security, expenses and fantastic pensions that the private sector can only dream of, and it all adds up to being much much better pay than the private sector. If you take all that into account, even nurses are well paid.
I've had 5 jobs in my lifetime - 3 in the private sector (retail and manufacturing) and 2 in the public sector (University and NHS). Private always seemed better paid on a like for like basis and better resourced. That said the public sector did offer much higher levels of job security, leave entitlement and really fantastic final salary pensions. Those are no longer on offer these days so I think that advantage has diminished somewhat.
If vacancy levels are anything to go by it seems clear that pay in the public sector needs to catch up.
Of course one of the main reasons people choose public sector employment is a desire to do something which directly benefits society but that should not be taken for granted.
If vacancy levels are anything to go by it seems clear that pay in the public sector needs to catch up.
Of course one of the main reasons people choose public sector employment is a desire to do something which directly benefits society but that should not be taken for granted.
Pondrew said:I presume you have some kind of electric 'storage' heating if you are on economy 7?N4LLY said:
You could try only cooking and washing/ showering in the middle of the night, that may help!
Pondrew said:I presume you have some kind of electric 'storage' heating if you are on economy 7?N4LLY said:
You could try only cooking and washing/ showering in the middle of the night, that may help!
Yeah, Storage heating for hot water.
Economy 7 price hike.
Dec' Day 50.83p per kWh / Night 8.77p per kWh
Jan' Day 57.37p / Night 7.71
No price Cap for me then :?
Oh and letter dropped through the door this morning, rent going up 12%
When will it end ? 
I had changed all the radiator valves a few years back to the Honeywell evo home ones which are all individually controlled by an App as well as schedules. That cut my heating bill by about 25% as I ensure that the lounge and other rooms not used during the day are set to 14c, and bring them up higher at around 6 pm or so. The same with the bedrooms and other rooms upstairs - they come on in the morning and evening but are off during the day.
You should definitely do your research before fitting heat pumps.
It's not only the pump itself that needs fitting, I was told all the pipes also had to be replaced to a larger bore which in my home would mean ripping up all the wood floors. You should also find one that has already been fitted as they are not exactly quiet.
It's not only the pump itself that needs fitting, I was told all the pipes also had to be replaced to a larger bore which in my home would mean ripping up all the wood floors. You should also find one that has already been fitted as they are not exactly quiet.
New sceptic tanks (or even septicpvr said:
) are called 'packaged waste treatment plants' and only need a small air pump to operate. For a house of up to 8 occupants, they use around 60 watts per hour. Not exactly straining the grid, or the wallet.pvr said:
While I agree ASHPs are shite, the noise is not an issue. The average 20kW packaged outdoor unit will run normally at around 50 decibels (that is less than most people's background noise). They will increase to around 60 dB on the highest fan speed.
BTW I have installed a packaged treatment plant and I install heat pumps for a living!
That is not true.Nanu said:
To retro-fit a 'standard' wet heating system to an ASHP you would need to replace all radiators to larger capacity, yes, but the general pipework (28mm to 22mm to 15mm) is perfectly sufficient.
ASHPs can only heat the water to around 55 deg C (it's a very boring physics thing), as opposed to 85 ish for a heat exchanger boiler. Therefore your delta T is a lot lower than normal (temp difference of room and heating medium). To counteract this, the surface area of the medium (radiators) needs to be a lot larger.
You can use a cascade system ASHP to raise the water flow temperature, but these are eye-wateringly expensive and use even more leccy than a standard single ASHP. And still don't work properly when it's cold outside!
Pondy - that is £262 per year versus nothing for the system I have now 
50db is quite loud though? On the table I looked at that is the sound of a dishwasher.
In the holiday place it was right under the bedroom window and the kicking in and out of the fan was rather annoying, and that was in the winter with the window only a small bit open.
50db is quite loud though? On the table I looked at that is the sound of a dishwasher.
In the holiday place it was right under the bedroom window and the kicking in and out of the fan was rather annoying, and that was in the winter with the window only a small bit open.
Nope; because they are shite.Nictrix said:
I fought tooth and nail with my local Council when I built my last house, as the 'regs' say a new build has to have one. I eventually managed to make the 'numbers' work for them so they allowed me to put a lovely new, planet-killing, oil-fired boiler in. It worked beautifully and still creates less CO2 than an ASHP (which wouldn't work properly) would.
We are doomed. The people who adopt these 'green' ideas have no clue. But the 'green' installers are making a very handsome living, without a care for the 'planet'!
This is not my opinion, this a hard fact; unfortunately.
That must be a hard job installing something that you think is rubbish.Pondrew said:Nope; because they are shite.Nictrix said:
I fought tooth and nail with my local Council when I built my last house, as the 'regs' say a new build has to have one. I eventually managed to make the 'numbers' work for them so they allowed me to put a lovely new, planet-killing, oil-fired boiler in. It worked beautifully and still creates less CO2 than an ASHP (which wouldn't work properly) would.
We are doomed. The people who adopt these 'green' ideas have no clue. But the 'green' installers are making a very handsome living, without a care for the 'planet'!
This is not my opinion, this a hard fact; unfortunately.
How do you sleep at night :lol:
pvr said:
Us with mains sewerage pay around that to the water board to get rid of the waste. Also, you don't have to install a new septic tank if nothing changes. The new regs are only implemented if you move and generally the new owners would have to address it.
If you sited your dishwasher outside, I doubt you would hear it.
Decibels are always quoted at a distance. Generally at 1, or 2m (dBa and dBb but it's sound pressure so gets complicated). I have to do this noise shite a lot for planning and building regs approval.
I installed a/c in one of my houses once (which use the same type of outdoor units as ASHPs). All were sited outside bedrooms. I never noticed a thing TBH.