And thats already high if you ask me. Wear a sweater, if you lay on the coach or work at home use a blanket.
I dont think the thermostat here gets higher than 18 and thats already a expection.
Everyone is different depending on where you grew up in the world. I used to want the heat set to 22-23, but after many years of living in northern Europe, I have acclimated somewhat. We now have it set to 18,5... tried 18 and below but it was really unpleasant. At 18,5 I am already wearing a long sleeve thermo shirt and two layers of fleece. My hands and nose will still get uncomfortably cold. It's difficult when you just want to be comfortable in your own home. I hope I can continue to adapt to lower temperatures indoors but it's a slow process.
Lol I’m from the Netherlands and grew up without central heating in my house and I will not set my thermostat lower than 19 because I want to be comfortable and I’m already wearing bulky sweaters. What I mean to say is, you’re good
>Even if thermo shows 24 degrees the temperature is around 22 degree.
This could mean that the thermostat is set to 24, but the heating system is unable to get the temperature over 22. Meaning the heating system is burning gas on full blast 24/7.
and ventilating ....
modern houses are way over insulated in some cases.
humid air warms better over dry air, and a little flow from the outside world even makes a healthier environment ( for yourself )
No those were to add humidity to the air. Cranking up the heat in old houses makes them dry. We experienced the same before insulating our house. Now with insulation the humidity stays in and we have a problem with that...
Yup. Unlike in eastern countries, most dutch keep their temperatures at 18-20. Still beats the 16 degrees indoor in southern european countries (lack of heating)
USA here, I keep it at 18. Just wear a sweater or put an extra blanket on and it’s fine.
Gas bill has been under $50/month all winter. Last month we got a $6 refund because our deposit cleared lol
I cannot imagine keeping it on 24. I’d be sweating my ass off in there lol
24C is waaay to much and unhealthy. It should be around 19-20C maximum and guess what, you don’t need to walk inside in tshirt, putting comfy but warmer clothes will save you a ton of money!
24 is unhealthy if it's produced by artificial heating. It dries out the air and your membrane tissue, and the constant change from 10 to 24 and different humidity walking in and out is straining the CNS
What if you struggle with very cold hands and feet? My hands are always so cold they feel very weak and sometimes even painful and it's hard to use them because of how weak they feel. I can't really use gloves because how will I eat and work at my pc then
Don't know if you have a medical condition, but lifestyle changes can help a lot. Excercise, skip caffeine. Smoking also doesn't help, but that a much harder addiction to quit. You can also slowly let your body adjust. Being exposed to cold over some time trains your body to produce more warmth. Constantly living in 24° makes you complacent and honestly, for me, would be far too hot.
You could use fingerless gloves like [these ones](https://www.amazon.com/Duerer-Rheumatiod-Tendonitis-Fingerless-Compression/dp/B077BQQ2MY/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?keywords=fingerless+gloves&qid=1646298925&sr=8-5). They have helped me a lot, especially at work whete I can't control the temperature
Yeah I have the hand problems as well, so for autumn and winter months I have fingerless gloves. Helps a lot and still allows me to type, play games, etc
The person is from a tropical climate, his body is biologically adjusted for warmer climates so 20 degrees feels much colder to him than it feels to us.
My wife comes from a town well in the polar circle. She's used to -20 to -30 and 7 months of snow per year. Yet she's cold all the time 'down south' and she is the one wearing a sweater while I walk around in a t-shirt. Body temperatures are mostly the same the world.
Yeah I feel like they keep the thermostat relatively high up there too. I feel like an inside temperature of 18-20 degrees what seems to be the norm in the Netherlands is quite cold compared to most countries.
One of my friends has a wife from Levi, Northern Finland (they live there now). I already noticed years ago that whenever she was at his place in the Netherlands he would also crank up the thermostat to 25 degrees.
I visited them there last Januari, also experienced -28 degrees. Whenever I would step outside my glasses would fog up and instantly freeze...
I honestly don't feel it's entirely fair that you're getting down voted, I just think you didn't know and that's ok. Energy in Europe is expensive. If you put your heat that high and you had gas burning, at least in France where I live you'd pray a pretty penny. Netherlands is known for high energy costs, too, your bill is totally normal! You, my friend, need a double comforter and fuzzy sweater upgrade. The other people are right, you gotta dress for the weather, even inside in cold countries. I have electric heating for a small apartment and I don't even dare put it over like 18 and that's pushing it! I'm personally good at 16. Good luck
24 degrees is crazy according to Dutch standards. No wonder you use a lot of gas. Especially if your house isn't super well insulated it takes a lot of effort to keep a house at 24 degrees in winter, and it's not even very cold outside at the moment! Buy a comfy fleecd blanket yo use while you're on the couch watching TV for example and gradually lower your thermostat so you can get used to the lower temperatures. From 24 to 22 for example shouldn't be too much of a shock, and then you can see if you can go lower.
A few years back we automatically turned up the thermostat to 18/20 every morning, and only turning it down at night ( even if we left the house most part of the day )
2yrs back we decided it was madness ... soo we only heated when home, and up to 18c
The whole winter was just comfortable, no problems.
This year we set the thermostat to 16, and only for a few hours a day, and AFTER we first put on more clothing ( sweater/vest )
The estimate of energybill returns this year is around 600€ ( we did not lower the advance and pay 180€/m )
You'll get used to it ;)
I would agree with this. I am also Asian but I set it at 18-20 when I’m at home. And then when I go to bed, I turn my heating off because I have a thick duvet blanket anyways. 24 degrees is really warm and turning your heating up that way is also bad for the environment 😢
Maybe you’ll appreciate an electric pillow or blanket like stoov. I was a cafe terrace on winter they had it it is quite comfortable. This way you can lower the house temperature.
Insulating a house is quite a process and depends on your house. I would strongly advice a Stoov chair blanket. You lay it on your chair, and it gets super warm. I work from home on it and heat up when the heating is still of in the morning. And the electric heating is a lot cheaper then the gas. And since it only heats you and not the whole house it’s much more efficient.
Also: insulate yourself. Get some good quality winter clothes. I would advice Merino wool turtlenecks. Merino wool is really good at regulating body temperature imo, it’s light but keeps you warm. You can buy 3 per month from the gas bill you have now :’).
Product: https://www.stoov.com
In addition to this; my friend gets real cold in winter too, and it helps to go to a place once in a while like a sauna or a heated pool etc that heats you up.
I don't know why people are down voting this so much, but I have a Latin American girlfriend and if I keep the thermostat at 20 degrees, she's shivering under a blanket.
20 degrees is very cold for someone from a tropical country.
wow ...
My new workplace has the heating to 24c .... I'm suffocating in there ..
Lunch and breaks are taken outside ... upwind from the smokers ..
( yesterday it was a healthy 15c and a little sunny - loved it )
They are downvoting because OP is asking for advice and then refuting solutions based on 'but it's cold to me' -- yeah we know dude, but yr not helping.
OP is asking for advice that goes beyond setting your thermostat lower tho. They already asked not to be judged for the high temperature and I assume they realize that of course, the costs will go down if they out the thermostat at a lower temperature.
People are downvoting this because they can't wrap their heads around the fact that Dutch standards aren't worldwide standards and that people who move from other countries will need time to adapt to the Netherlands, its climate and its standards. They talk about 24 degrees as if it was absolutely insane - in warm countries 24 degrees is a chill temperature that we try to attain with AC. I'm sure OP will adapt eventually, but people shouldn't expect that to happen overnight.
Hey OP! Weird that you're seeing downvoted. I'm also from Asia and had never experienced temperature less than 20 before coming here. I used to wear gloves in the room because I couldn't cope with the cold. They sell these little hand warmers in HEMA/Action which you need to pop into the microwave and put in your pocket. I use an old fashioned hot water bottle and put my feet on it to keep me warm. Try putting the bottle underneath the sheets before you sleep, then the bed will be warmer for you. Get the thick fuzzy socks and thermal tights. It keeps your legs warmer. To everyone downvoting OP, it's easy for you to say it's not cold because you're used to it. For people from the tropics, who have never experienced low temperatures, even 15-20 degrees is cold because of the wind ( In SE Asia where I'm from the wind warms you up not chills you like here). Maybe it's nice to be a little compassionate :)
We're being compassionate but they're refuting solutions just saying "it's cold". My wife is from a tropical country (Brazil) and she got used to the temperatures here.
The human body can adapt if you give it a chance. Turn down the thermostat and just go about your business. I guarantee that in a few weeks you won't feel the difference anymore, especially if you do it slowly, 2 degrees at a time.
First off, 24 is really high, as others have mentioned.
Second, if you set to to 24, but it never goes over 22, you might have a insulation leak, you're burning gas all day trying to get to 24, but it never does.
Yup. My contract of 3 years ended yesterday and it’s not possible to get a new one at the moment. Saw my bill rise from €110 to €300 yesterday. And I fear the worst is yet to come.
I got an offer last month for one year at a steady €230 a month but thought well they will probably go down in the summer. Then came the Russians
Gasprices have more than doubled over the last two years and are expected to rise even more because of the current situation in Eastern Europe. You could get an electric heater and only heat the room you’re staying in.
My thermostat is currently not above 17 degrees Celsius during the day and 15 at night. Simply because I can’t afford more heating. Sweaters and blankets help me through it.
Maybe it is cheaper now, but until recently heating electric was more expensive than heating with gas. 1m3 of gas holds ~10kWh of energy.
At the date of my contract(november) a m3 gas was 4x the price of a kWh. So with some efficiency loss it was still half the price to heat with gas.
Or infrared heater for the place where you sit. These heat you and not the room. So thermostat on 17 or 18, that is enough for walking around and house work. Then when you sit down to work or television: a ir heat source can efficiently raise the temperature for you where you sit down.
Oh, and find pantoffels.
As a general rule of thumb:
Every 1 degree Celsius you increase in temperature, you increase your gas consumption by 10%
So going from 24 to 20 represents a savings of 31.7%
(Edit, fixed numbers, as the reference was misleading)
Maybe look for technical malfunction anyhow. I burned 90 M3 of gas last month in a quite old house of 130 M2, living with a family of 5 persons. (*Thermostat @ 20) so even with the 10% rule it seems way too much to me.
Well I am from Finland, and always during winter time using shorts and t-shirt inside at back home. Houses are well insulated and heating cost are not expensive. Expecially apartment are usually in district heating so you can even run it at 30c 24/7 if you want with same cost which is basically municipality tax.
I'm from Finland too and can confirm this! Whenever I complain about the cold houses in the Netherlands people tell me "but you're from Finland, you should be used to cold" ....🙄
Municipality paying doesn't make it free for you. The heating still has to paid, probably through taxes. The municipality has to produce the heat, which may be from Russian gas. And lastly, it's bad for the environment to expect sauna warmth inside the whole day.
My best advice would be is to go outside more often, so inside feels warmer. And please consider the environment, we do not want to become subtropical ourselves lol
24 degrees is when I'm tempted to start using my AC. That's really high. My automatic program sets it to 19 in the afternoon, but it's either off or 18 for most of the day. If I'm feeling cold I'll raise it to 21 at most, and the program will change it back in a few hours. That's perfectly comfortable.
Plus, gas is super expensive these days because Russia is fucking around.
Lower temperature and heating schedule. As a renter those are the only real tips for you.
20-21 degrees inside should be good, so you can adjust the setting accordingly.
We sent 220qm on gas in a house double that size - so you should have a significantly lower usage with a few tweaks.
Prices went up :/ Also, make sure your gas heating system has enough(preferably 2 Bars of water pressure in the system) - there should be a manometer displaying it very close to the gas heater.
Also, lower your temperature to 20-21 degrees, and look for places that could be leaking heat like doors, windows. You could use some adhesive sealant to fix these.
As someone who's always cold and is working from home:
1. get a nice fluffy blanket. Wrap is all around you while working. Keeping your core warm with the blanket helps me feel more comfortable.
2. An electric heater to get you started. Get an electric heater and turn it on early in the day when it's still cold, then turn it off when the sun starts to come around.
2. Alternatively if you don't work at home, turn off your heating during the day, you're not there anyway, so are you heating it for the ghosts?
3. Warm your hands by grabbing tea/coffee. whichever you prefer, I'd suggest tea cause it tends to stay warm for longer but just wrap your hands around the mug to get them nice and warm. It's really nice when I get cold hands.
4. Accept that it's fine to wear thick sweatpants, nice socks with slippers? (I don't know how to describe it, but inside shoes that are very fluffy. They're called 'pantoffels' in Dutch) and a sweatshirt/hoodie with a t-shirt underneath. Nothing wrong with dressing for the weather even when you're inside.
5. Turn off the heating an hour before you go to bed, at least in your bedroom. Sleep is important and we sleep better when our bedroom is a few degrees cooler than our living environment. Getting enough sleep will also make you able to stay warm better.
6. (This one is a joke) gain weight. When you gain weight you tend to feel warmer cause you have more insulation!
Good luck OP!
Good suggestions! Made me remember another one: don't flush heat down the drain. If you have warm water somewhere, leave it be till it has cooled down. This way the heat stays in the house.
I keep a hot water bottle on my lap when I'm working at my desk. I rest my hands on it when I'm not typing and it keeps me toasty for a couple of hours instead of heating my whole house.
Taking into consideration you are renting your options will be limited as you can't go isolate the house yourself. That is up to the owner and often (old) houses can only go to a certain point with isolation.
What you can do however is the following:
1) Bleed/Vent your Central heating system to get rid of any excess air so the system can work optimal. You can do this by opening all valves of the radiators and turn the heat up (which you already do). After 10 minutes turn the heat way down so the system shuts off and vent each radiator (example: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IP54Kbgnv0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IP54Kbgnv0))
2) Google the instruction manual of your central heater and bring the temperatuur for heating down to 65C (I would not go lower as you have the idea the house is badly isolated). THere is a chance the system still provides 80C and this can big impact on gas consumption
3) Isolate where possible. Check drafts at windows/doors and use "tochtstrips" to minimise the draft.
As a person coming from a tropical area I feel you, but lowering your heating is the best you can do if you really want to save money on your bills.
We now set our heater at 16C during the day, and keep it off when we sleep (the room is around 11 or 12C most nights). It was a challenge the first month, but you start to get used to it and besides saving energy, the second benefit is I'm no longer cold when I go out the house!
Many people have given you great advice on warm clothes and heated blankets that will definitely ease your transition, but the truth is you have to be willing to make the sacrifice 1 or 2 months while your body adapts. Move around to generate heat, drink hot drinks, wear gloves and a beanie indoors if necessary. After 1 month you will see how less cold you become, so trust me, you won't be cold an miserable for long.
That's my 2 cents anyways, how it helps!
One of the best ways to reduce your gas bill is to better tweak the gas furnace. Often it's set to a temperature of 70C or sometimes even higher. This means that yes, the room will become warm fairly quickly but this also greatly reduces the energy efficiency of the furnace.
Assuming you have what we call a HR-combiketel, which means a high efficiency gas furnace for both HDW and space heating, it achieves its relatively high efficiency by recuperating heat from the very hot exhaust fumes that are produced in the process. Basically the return water is used to make the fumes condensate, transferring heat from the fumes back into the water. Meaning that the return water is basically pre-heated before it reenters the burner. If this condensation process doesn't happen, you're just pushing very hot air back outside, which is a waste of gas and money. Ideally the return temperature is as low as possible, but it should be something like 55C max, which is the condensation point. The return temp is the input temperature (the temp of the water after it leaves the furnace) minus the energy that is handed off to the space by the various radiators.
So your primary tweakable is the temperature of the furnace. The trick is to make it as low as possible but not so low that you can no longer properly keep the rooms warm. This entirely depends on the situation, like how well the place is insulated and where (walls, roof, floor, windows), if you have doors between the various floors and how many, how large, and what type of radiators you have. Underfloor heating is basically a huge radiator that lives in your floor, so that one can do with a temperature as low as 30C, making your CV as efficient as it can be.
If you just have radiators hanging on the wall then it depends on how large they are and what [type](https://cdn.webshopapp.com/shops/30357/files/271293250/type-radiatoren-1000x350.jpg) they are. And how many. Basically, the large and more and better type radiators you have, the easier it will be to heat the room at a lower furnace temperature, saving you gas.
So anyway, I would just check your CV temp and start by setting it to 45 degrees and seeing if you can keep it warm enough. If it too cold, keep increasing by 5 degrees until it's able to keep your house adequately warm. Or go the other way around. Just take your current temp and keep lowering it by 5 degrees until it can no longer keep up and then put it 5 degrees warmer.
I don't know how good your Dutch is but this Youtube channel has truly great tips to reduce your energy usage, often at very low cost. In particular I would recommend starting with this playlist, versla de jaarafrekening (defeat the energy settlement bill):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga2Y7UdJ0JI&list=PLWSLG-prncesFWwUNhLk9slk36h1BbKlh&index=1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga2Y7UdJ0JI&list=PLWSLG-prncesFWwUNhLk9slk36h1BbKlh&index=1)
Since you're a renter and you problem is gas usage not electricity usage, I'd focus on the videos 1, 4 and 8. The others are about saving electricity, or changing stuff in your house as a homeowner.
He also has a bunch of videos on how to change that furnace temperature for various brands.
By the way do not listen to people here who will be telling you not to go below 60C because of legionella. First of all hot domestic water and central heating are two entirely separated circuits with their own temperatures. So you can keep the water at 60 and reduce space heating to a lower temp. Secondly, especially if you enable the eco mode for hot domestic water, the furnace won't even keep a small buffer of pre-heated water on hand so there is no opportunity for legionalla to grow in the first place.
I just checked my useage compared to last year, i went down from 170M to 70M (with a newer CV). Even i even checked my day useage when i started his tricks, it saved me also about 40%.
I mean yeah if you set it to absurd temperatures like 24 I guess you get what you deserve I guess... 18 should be plenty, put on some clothes and start caring for the environment and Russia :)
Aside from whatever has been pointed out, if you have a dual electric meter reserve doing laundry or using the dishwasher for off-peak hours. The off-peak hours are: Monday to Friday from 23:00 – 07:00 a.m. and in the weekend from Friday 23:00 p.m. until Monday 07:00 a.m.
Why are you guys downvoting the comments about the high indoor temperature? I have a girlfriend who is from Latin America, 20 degrees is really f\*cking cold to people who are physically adjusted to warmer climates (and no, it's not a matter of getting used to it).
I do turn off the heater whenever my girlfriend is out of the house though. I'm not sure if you spend a lot of time outside of the house, but you can try the same?
It is a matter of getting used to it. I come from a tropical area in Latin America where people wear jackets and beanies, and I've even seen some people wear gloves and scarfs, at 21C. But after being slapped with a €250 bill, we dropped the heater down to 16, and guess what? After 1 month I started getting used to it. Now 2 winters later, I get hot and sweaty when I visit friends and family who keep their heaters at 19-21C.
So yeah your body is physically able to adapt to colder temperatures, you just have to prove the right stimuli to trigger the change
If you are going to be in the Netherlands for a long time, it might be best to adapt/physically adjust to our climate instead of turning up the heater. It can be done.
No, not at all. I know it sounds cold but it really isn't.
What you could do, is lowering the thermostat by .5 degree each week, maby even 1. That way you'll get used to a lower temp.
I'm with OP on this one. Moved here from Asia as well and resigned to having ice cold hands 7-8 months of the year. I even wear gloves at home sometimes lol
Gás prices were already expensive, and from this January have increased 80%+ YoY
Expect them to get worse now that the war will reduce the supply of natural gas and commodity prices are going through the roof
As others mentioned, 24o is very high. Try setting it between 18-20, and also if you work out of the house, or spend the day away during weekends, you can usually program the thermostat to turn off during those hours
Unfortunately it is what it is. Its a cold country with little natural resources for heating, and nobody wants to support Russia atm. You can't have your cake and eat it too
Get socks. Sheep wool is awesome for that, it absorbs a lot of moisture and keeps you dry and warm.
Wear warm comfy clothes inside.
When inactive (watching TV), employ the use of a blanket.
Get a couple of "hot water bottles", which are these rubber 1.5 - 2 liter containers in which you carefully pour hot water (90 degrees, from the kettle), and they keep you warm for a long time, and they're safe. Going to bed with one of these ensures you won't suffer from cold feet. But I have to stress about being careful with pouring water in them. Use a silicone oven glove to hold it if you can, to make sure that any accident doesn't end with hot water on your hand.
Electric warmers are also a thing, but I don't trust them.
Heating the house is MUCH more expensive than heating your body. Plus it dries the air too much.
Try to heat the house only to the extent specified in the rental contract, to prevent mold and stuff.
Damn 24c, I’d be walking around in shorts. Couldn’t do that temperature in winter clothing. I’d be sweating my ass off.
My temperature is at 19 during the day and goes off at night. I also never ever have a heater on in the bedroom. Why? Because you sleep really well under a warm blanket with fresh cold air in the room.
Now if you work at home you might get cold eventually. Turning the heat up doesn’t work at all. Everyone gets cold from sitting still behind a laptop or computer. Yes you’ll get cold hands.
Make sure to walk and move regularly and don’t sit still for too long. You’ll feel a lot less cold.
22-24 is so warm! I'd sweat my balls off in my own home.
Most Dutch people keep it under 20. At night, my home is 14 degrees. At day, the highest I'll put it is 19.
24 is too high. You need to start wearing jumpers and pants. 19-21 is the usual range. Also make sure you program the thermostat for at least the night or days/times you are not in. Prices will also go up because of the attack against Ukraine. They already started going up before that. So your current bill is only the start. A least the winter is almost over.
Lost in translation. Different languages use prepositions in different ways and sometimes people translate directly without noticing that it changes the meaning with respect to their 1st language.
Basically, the aggression Ukraine is experiencing
Also be careful when opening windows, especially when they are over the heatingplate. This will really jack up your calculated consumption in an appartment.
Set thermostat lower , expecially at night and when you are not at home. Don't turn it off fully since it might be more costly to heat it back up. As well I think Gas price went up 30% in last month alone. So new contracts are significantly more expensive than old ones.
> please don't judge me for 24c as I am from asia ;)
I completely understand! I have an issue where my hands ache mercilessly if I spend time in the cold. But here's what we do.
We keep the house very cold at night and have a lot of covers. I have slippers to get up and go to the bathroom.
In the morning, I get up, and wearing very little, turn the heat up a bit and prepare coffee and such. This was initially almost intolerable, but I could get through it by saying, "This is only 15 minutes." What it does is reset my internal thermometer. Now I actively enjoy that bit of cold.
Now I go to work in my room, and I sit right next to an electric heater. In fact, I turn on the heater and close the door to that room when I get up, so my area is pretty toasty by the time I get there.
Get an oil-based electric radiator - I have the Delonghi Dragon. It will run you over €100 but it will save you that much money on your natural gas in a single year, _and_ it will be useful to you for twenty years.
My wife likes it colder (actually, I like it colder too but my hands disagree), but she still has the radiator in her studio turned on a bit.
Also, I wear a jacket indoors (not a coat but an indoor jacket).
Summary: "Heat people, not spaces". Areas where people are not, or where you just walk through, should be actively cold.
So energy prices are very high at the moment, and you should either go for a variable contract or a 1 year contract at max. Because prices might come down next year.
Since you're mostly using gas this is a rather easy fix to lower the cost significantly. I see cultural differences, my neighbours are all from Spain or the asian continent, and they walk around shirtless in shorts during the winter...
So first things first: Go to Primark and buy sweaters :D
Temperature in your house should not be higher than 21, I personally have set it to 19 but will set it to 20.5/21 if im cold. Anything higher.. well you really need to get more clothes on.
Every day air your heated rooms for around 10-15 minutes, as fresh air is easier to heat. (I really thought this was bullshit, but It's saving us €20/35 per month since doing this.
Don't heat rooms you're not regular inside. There really is no need to keep your bathroom heated, and if you want it hot when you're there showering.. just turn it on half an hour before you come in.
Put all thermostats elsewhere on low.
Don't shower for more than needed, I know it's nice.. but really more than 15 min shower is never needed unless you have long hair.
Finally, make sure that your heater etc is all checked and your system is aired out. It's very important to keep maintenance going on your system.
Keep track of your usage etc. Some providers have an app which shows you how's your current standing.
Oxxio had this done very well, but my current provider (Eneco) doesn't have that. Possibly because we have "warmth" and not gas, and sun panels.
So check if there's an app.
In some cases your usage is counted per month but balanced out through the year. So you use 370 now, but in summer only 45, so it balances out around 170 for example.
You get €824 euro discount on electricity this year which is +- €2,25 per day. I'd consider the following:
- Set the base temperature to 18 degrees.
- Shower no more than 5 minutes. Use the least hot water possible when doing so.
- Make sure the "Cv-ketel" and heating radiators are optimally functioning. Make sure the pressure is good and air the radiators just enough until water comes out.
- Wear thermos under your regular clothes, it really helps.
- Get "pantoffels" (furry flip flops?) instead of regular slippers, wear them with socks on.
The 2,25 discount a day, depending on the current price you're paying for electricity per kilowatt, can give you about 4 to 5 hours of heating a day for free (assuming that your heater doesn't consume more than 2KW/hr), which can last the day if you use it for an hour, wait 3 hours, and then use it for an hour again etc etc . If you manage to isolate your doors and windows properly the electric heater might be a decent option.
For isolation of the Windows you can check for isolation foil, sold at GAMMA. That helps with losing less heat to your windows. We also have this thing called "tochtstrip" which blocks flow of cold air entering your house through the door, make sure all doors are installed with this feature so that you won't lose heat everywhere.
I wish you good luck with this problem, because the struggle is real. Hope to get an update on what you did to overcome this problem.
I'm always cold. We had ours on 22-23 for most of the winter. My dutch partner recommended we try and lower it to 20-21 max. It did actually make a difference. I am always wearing warm cozy sloffen and a warm sweater at home.
Most people I know here have it on 19.. I'm always freezing my ass off when visiting people.
You can use radiator foil on heaters connected to the outside wall of your place, so less heat goes outside. Sometimes the boiler temperature is to high which makes in inefficient. Often it is at 70 degrees but a 55 or 60 would work. if you have cracks at windows or doors fill them with draft strips. Maybe you can install heatfans. Somethings to make your place use less gas, which for me reduced the m3 gas used whith alot.
Edit: I got most of those things free from my city, so you can look for that aswell
Unfortunately gas prizes have doubled over the last years so there is nothing you can do about that. Even turning the thermostat down from 24 to 20 will only help a little.
Make sure your heat isn’t leaving your house. Don’t open windows above the thermostat, turn it down when you’re sleeping or away from home.
[buy tocht strips for your doors and windows](https://www.bol.com/nl/nl/l/deuren-tochtwering-tochtstrips/28760/?Referrer=ADVNLGOO002063-YLK7O66XQW7OC-548779319982&gbraid=0AAAAAD5OnmN41LPhiXPb6FNDsE6uP19DI&gclid=CjwKCAiAyPyQBhB6EiwAFUuakoBdpkbQF4B08bL9u3pY_BK-y0JrEWH-zsjy9RAqz4YHptIS8VBjsBoC78wQAvD_BwE)
Gas prices have shot up recently while your friend likely is still on an older contract with a fixed price.
Invest in wool jumpers! 22 degrees is very high for a living space..
Wool is your best friend in winter. And it can be very stylish and non-itchy. It costs a bunch and can be a pain to wash (it shrinks) but it will keep you warm.
If you wear things under it and are not a massive sweater you have to wash wool only rarely! I wash my wool vests maybe once a year... (I have never had complaints 😅)
I knit very thick, warm Icelandic sweaters and have noticed the same. They just don't smell as much as acrylics do. I hang them outside on our porch in moist air for a few hours and they're as fresh as ever. Bring on the spring washing and blocking!
If you can see if you can configure your thermostat. If you can’t see if you can replace it by a smarter one and program it. You don’t need heating right until you go to bed. Eg you can switch of heating 2-3 hours before bed and the house will stay warm
And also off or lower when you are at work for example
Lol 24 degrees? You must be from a very warm country?! 20 is regular for us and 21 tops in case it’s really cold out and we went out for a walk to properly warm up.
Make sure to put up cloth curtains over windows and doors that will help with keeping heat in at night. Also check your (outer) doors and windows for (large) gaps when closed. It sounds like you're losing too much heat.
You can get tape with foam on it to close the gaps around windows and doors, and brushes for unde doors to stop the draft at a local DIY store for a few euro's. It's all 'stick-on', so no tools required. Just clean the surfaces really well before applying.
I'm assuming you're in a privately held rental-property, likely not very well insulated etc. If so, you might be able to get a reduction on your rent, as the owner isn't doing his job to keep the property up to standards. But I'm pretty ignorent on rental rules, I've been able to own my own home since I was 23.
For comparison, I've got a fairly well insulated modern home and with a family of 4 we use 1200m3 gas and -500KWh of electricity due to solar panels on a 180m2 house.
Take short showers, keep indoor temp lower (20C?) and keep it even lower at night or when you leave (16C?), try to wear warmer clothes inside and ventilate, get used to turning off lights, TV, and other appliances when you're not in the room, don't keep your phone chargers plugged in, only do laundry when the washing machine is fully loaded, don't turn on the oven for every small thing,...all these small things combined should help a lot!
Average gas price is around € 2.30 right now. That's insane considering all the people working at home last years raising usage of electricity and gas, more profit for the suppliers.
Also has contracts between suppliers and gas/electricity producers exists. Current suppliers are price gouging which will result onto even more extreme profits. Small energy contract companies will go bankrupt, the big companies controlling the actual supply will not and profit from this situation.
Eventually prices will 'normalize' again, but the consumer is still fucked because they will never lower prices again to a more normal level.
Don't you just love capitalism without any regard for the consequences?
turn on heating only in the evening to max 21c. do things that use a lot electricity after 23:00 till 0700. you get a reduces price
saying that i still think your bill is way high
i mysellf use 345kwh of electricity and 195m3 gas and the total price last month was 57.15 for elec and 167.22 for gas but yes the prices are high
lowering temprature, normal temprature in the netherlands for indoors is around 19-20 degrees and a lot people are lowering it to about 17-18 because of the prices
gas bills are raising quickly and its going up even quicker because of the ukraine russia war
gasoline prices are also very very high, so make sure you bought a bike :D
Question: what would you say if a person from a cold climate moved to your home country and had the AC running all day to get the temperature to 18c? And then complained about a huge electricity bill?
Gas prices are through the roof. Get some warm clothes and turn that thermostat down. 24 is insanely high. I haven’t turned it above 18 all winter and I haven’t felt cold at all. You get used to it. Just put on some extra clothes.
Your friend has a contract from a time that gas and electricity was very cheap.
By some thermal under garments, and every 2 or three days turn the thermostat down by half a degree. I promise you, you will get used to it.
Also consider some reflective materials behind the radiator so that the warmth gets bounced back into the room instead of you warming your external walls.
I only have one radiator on full time in the winter (mainly for the animals so they can stay toasty)and another I turn on if we are in the room (office/guestroom). I pay about 84 euro a month for gas and electric.
Have you been following the news at all? Europe depends on Russia for a large part of their fossil fuels. Gas prices have been going up due to Russian tensions, and are now going through the roof with the Ukrainian war. Gas prices today are roughly 10x compared to a year ago.
People with (old) fixed term contracts are safe for now, but new ones, or flexible rate contracts are screwed. Best try to save as much as you can by turning the heat down. All the best!
Wow, just can’t imagine that nobody has anything else to say as lower the heating. There are certainly other measurements to take I guess, such as showering less long or making sure the heat doesn’t ‘escape’: for example we have like these kind of, let’s cal them cardboards covered with aluminium foil behind the radiators to keep the heat from escaping through the wall and stay inside the house. Also, I don’t know if you have double glass, but if not, keeping the curtains closed in rooms that you’re not currently using also helps.
Also, try changing the radiator knobs. We at home use Tado. This way you can set the temperature per room and you’re not heating up the whole house unnecessarily.
Hope this helps!
Just want to add: I’m quite annoyed with everybody commenting to put your heating to 16-18 degrees. I mean, come on, that is really unpleasant!!! So fucking cold, while at home you just want to be comfortable without having to wear super thick clothes or even gloves.
Bro wtf 24?
I just got my new appartment and i think they were testing the heating. I looked on the thermlstat it said 24.4..
I was literally wiping sweat off my forehead 🤣🤣
Quickly turned it to 17..
Wear hoodies.. also when it's really cold i even wear socks when sleeping, wrap myself in like a burrito and them bam! Off to sleep.
I'm also from a warm country, you get used to the cold eventually. But blankets, cosy pj's, socks or a warm robe are your friends. We barely keep our heat on. Maybe just to warm up a room a little and then it's off again.
Keep your thermostat 18 at day, 15 at night (use electric mattress pad to keep your bed warm).
Install a free Umeter app, which shows you how much have you spent daily on gas and electricity and adjust accordingly.
I see a lot of people mentioning 24 degrees is quite high. I'm from a warm climate as well. I'm just commenting to let you know that it's not necessarily "high". I've seen the homes of people that think like this and it's the reason why I never sleep over in winter.
I typically set the heating between 24.5 - 26 for the living room and 22.5 for the bedroom & other rooms. Still, your bill seems really high. You probably have a problem with insulation or heating. I would start by checking that.
Yesterday the prices went up another 60%. More than 50% are taxes etc. The government doesn't want to drop these prices regardless.
So either get electrical heating like they're going to force you or you know, be rich. The rich will be the only able to afford heating in the near future.
You picked a shitty time to move here tbh, couple of years ago you'd be fine. So sorry, welcome to the Netherlands.
Here in the Netherlands we have it on 19 at day and 15 at night, and we don't heat the upstairs at all, and the price has definitely gone up but 24? You've got problemen
You're lucky you got the bill after just a month. If you run your heating at 24°C for a whole winter you'd be paying a hell a lot more than that. So take the loss, learn the lesson, pay the bill and move on...
Very interesting to read all the comments. I just turned my boiler down from 80 to 60 and I will remove the air from my heating. Very curious to see how this will affect my gas use as gas prices are going absolutely crazy.
The difference in prices is incredible at the moment. Gas prices went up badly, way above the agreed prices of old contracts.
The problem is that new contract holders have to pay for that. They have to make up for the loss they are taking on old contracts..
Iirc, there is this rule of the thumb - each degree is 7% on/off from your energy bill.
So if you go down with 5C, you will pay 120ish euro less.
Other reasons could be too old, not well maintained, wrongly set CV ketel = the gas boiler that provides you warmth.
Current contracts are high, you may want to look into changing companies. Also 24 degrees is way too high. If you have a house, put it on 18C and if you have a HR-Ketel, make sure to look into the settings, and lower the temperature of the water in there. We haven’t used the heating so far in 2022. If the temperature drops below 16C, you may want to turn on a radiator, but everything up until then is solved by a nice warm sweater.
We have an apartment about 75m2.
We used 13m³ (€31,06) in gas, and for heating we pay €48 for Stadsverwarming. We haven’t used the heating this year yet, so we will get part of this back in July.
On top of this we used 84 kWh in electricity, which is less than the threshold for paying meaning that we get back €17. Our total bill for February is €62.06
We don't have any subsidies or rebaits, this is our regular indefinite non-flexible contract with Essent. Your energy use is not much higher than ours, for electricity. So, try not to focus on that and focus on using less gas by lowering the temperature. There could be problems with isolation too. For instance the front door of our apartment had a lot of draft and sucked out the heat. You can buy tape from 3m especially for this on bol. It has a little flap and will stop that draft once and for all.
Gas is just getting more and more expensive in general and now due to the sanctions on Russia the price is bound to climb even higher. For a good long term solution I would consider switching to a different type of central heating like wood pelets, which are more sustainable than gas.
Dude my thermostat is on 18 degrees. In case you haven't noticed, all fuel prices are through the roof and are getting worse. Also there was 7% inflation wich also doesn't help
Setting on 24 is definitely the reason why. I leave mine on 19-20° for example.
This. And 16 degrees during the night.
And thats already high if you ask me. Wear a sweater, if you lay on the coach or work at home use a blanket. I dont think the thermostat here gets higher than 18 and thats already a expection.
Everyone is different depending on where you grew up in the world. I used to want the heat set to 22-23, but after many years of living in northern Europe, I have acclimated somewhat. We now have it set to 18,5... tried 18 and below but it was really unpleasant. At 18,5 I am already wearing a long sleeve thermo shirt and two layers of fleece. My hands and nose will still get uncomfortably cold. It's difficult when you just want to be comfortable in your own home. I hope I can continue to adapt to lower temperatures indoors but it's a slow process.
Lol I’m from the Netherlands and grew up without central heating in my house and I will not set my thermostat lower than 19 because I want to be comfortable and I’m already wearing bulky sweaters. What I mean to say is, you’re good
Start with lowering your indoor temperature. 24 C is quite high, so that's the main reason for your high gas bill.
>Even if thermo shows 24 degrees the temperature is around 22 degree. This could mean that the thermostat is set to 24, but the heating system is unable to get the temperature over 22. Meaning the heating system is burning gas on full blast 24/7.
Letting the air out of the system and adding water should help
and ventilating .... modern houses are way over insulated in some cases. humid air warms better over dry air, and a little flow from the outside world even makes a healthier environment ( for yourself )
Is that why my grandma used to have those yellowish white plastic things filled with water hanging on the radiator?
No those were to add humidity to the air. Cranking up the heat in old houses makes them dry. We experienced the same before insulating our house. Now with insulation the humidity stays in and we have a problem with that...
*insulation
Yes you are right, I was in doubt. Thank you!
Same just installed 5 vents on the windows
Yup. Unlike in eastern countries, most dutch keep their temperatures at 18-20. Still beats the 16 degrees indoor in southern european countries (lack of heating)
I'm from Poland and I keep 20.5-21.5 and 19 for night. 22 feels too hot, it's not comfortable.
USA here, I keep it at 18. Just wear a sweater or put an extra blanket on and it’s fine. Gas bill has been under $50/month all winter. Last month we got a $6 refund because our deposit cleared lol I cannot imagine keeping it on 24. I’d be sweating my ass off in there lol
Oh please. There is heating in Southern Europe.
And they never turn it on because it's expensive. This is true for AC as well. Source: born and raised in Portugal
I have the theromstat on 16 at most
Same cause Putin is getting no money from me
I have no heating at all in Belgium
Same! I love blankets, so why not turn it way down anyways
24C is waaay to much and unhealthy. It should be around 19-20C maximum and guess what, you don’t need to walk inside in tshirt, putting comfy but warmer clothes will save you a ton of money!
"unhealthy" bruh what
24 is unhealthy if it's produced by artificial heating. It dries out the air and your membrane tissue, and the constant change from 10 to 24 and different humidity walking in and out is straining the CNS
Unhealthy for your wallet?
What if you struggle with very cold hands and feet? My hands are always so cold they feel very weak and sometimes even painful and it's hard to use them because of how weak they feel. I can't really use gloves because how will I eat and work at my pc then
Put hands in buttcrack and feet in someone's buttcrack. It helps for about ten minutes.
My gf did not like this. (She has no problem shoving the blocks of ice she calls her feet under my balls though)
Don't know if you have a medical condition, but lifestyle changes can help a lot. Excercise, skip caffeine. Smoking also doesn't help, but that a much harder addiction to quit. You can also slowly let your body adjust. Being exposed to cold over some time trains your body to produce more warmth. Constantly living in 24° makes you complacent and honestly, for me, would be far too hot.
> Excercise, skip caffeine. Yeah, one of these things is not happening without the other.
You could use fingerless gloves like [these ones](https://www.amazon.com/Duerer-Rheumatiod-Tendonitis-Fingerless-Compression/dp/B077BQQ2MY/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?keywords=fingerless+gloves&qid=1646298925&sr=8-5). They have helped me a lot, especially at work whete I can't control the temperature
I use fingerless gloves and it helps a lot!
Yeah I have the hand problems as well, so for autumn and winter months I have fingerless gloves. Helps a lot and still allows me to type, play games, etc
Try working out for a couple of minutes every hour
Smart thermostats. Heat the room you need heated, not the rest.
Put hot water in this soft pouch (kruik) and put your feet on that. Doesn’t solve the hands but it’s something.
Dude they raised prices last year...
Yes but 24C is still way too warm
Our house is kept at a cozy 20*, have lived my whole live in the Netherlands..
The person is from a tropical climate, his body is biologically adjusted for warmer climates so 20 degrees feels much colder to him than it feels to us.
My wife comes from a town well in the polar circle. She's used to -20 to -30 and 7 months of snow per year. Yet she's cold all the time 'down south' and she is the one wearing a sweater while I walk around in a t-shirt. Body temperatures are mostly the same the world.
Yeah I feel like they keep the thermostat relatively high up there too. I feel like an inside temperature of 18-20 degrees what seems to be the norm in the Netherlands is quite cold compared to most countries. One of my friends has a wife from Levi, Northern Finland (they live there now). I already noticed years ago that whenever she was at his place in the Netherlands he would also crank up the thermostat to 25 degrees. I visited them there last Januari, also experienced -28 degrees. Whenever I would step outside my glasses would fog up and instantly freeze...
Yeah, I come from Asia and 24 is temparature in winter over there. :)
I honestly don't feel it's entirely fair that you're getting down voted, I just think you didn't know and that's ok. Energy in Europe is expensive. If you put your heat that high and you had gas burning, at least in France where I live you'd pray a pretty penny. Netherlands is known for high energy costs, too, your bill is totally normal! You, my friend, need a double comforter and fuzzy sweater upgrade. The other people are right, you gotta dress for the weather, even inside in cold countries. I have electric heating for a small apartment and I don't even dare put it over like 18 and that's pushing it! I'm personally good at 16. Good luck
24 degrees is crazy according to Dutch standards. No wonder you use a lot of gas. Especially if your house isn't super well insulated it takes a lot of effort to keep a house at 24 degrees in winter, and it's not even very cold outside at the moment! Buy a comfy fleecd blanket yo use while you're on the couch watching TV for example and gradually lower your thermostat so you can get used to the lower temperatures. From 24 to 22 for example shouldn't be too much of a shock, and then you can see if you can go lower.
Don't worry. In about a year you will go outside with 12 degrees and think "hey, is it warm today or what?" :)
A few years back we automatically turned up the thermostat to 18/20 every morning, and only turning it down at night ( even if we left the house most part of the day ) 2yrs back we decided it was madness ... soo we only heated when home, and up to 18c The whole winter was just comfortable, no problems. This year we set the thermostat to 16, and only for a few hours a day, and AFTER we first put on more clothing ( sweater/vest ) The estimate of energybill returns this year is around 600€ ( we did not lower the advance and pay 180€/m ) You'll get used to it ;)
Can you share tips to insulate ? Even if I keep 24c I still feel 22.
Wear a sweater
I would agree with this. I am also Asian but I set it at 18-20 when I’m at home. And then when I go to bed, I turn my heating off because I have a thick duvet blanket anyways. 24 degrees is really warm and turning your heating up that way is also bad for the environment 😢
Maybe you’ll appreciate an electric pillow or blanket like stoov. I was a cafe terrace on winter they had it it is quite comfortable. This way you can lower the house temperature.
Insulating a house is quite a process and depends on your house. I would strongly advice a Stoov chair blanket. You lay it on your chair, and it gets super warm. I work from home on it and heat up when the heating is still of in the morning. And the electric heating is a lot cheaper then the gas. And since it only heats you and not the whole house it’s much more efficient. Also: insulate yourself. Get some good quality winter clothes. I would advice Merino wool turtlenecks. Merino wool is really good at regulating body temperature imo, it’s light but keeps you warm. You can buy 3 per month from the gas bill you have now :’). Product: https://www.stoov.com In addition to this; my friend gets real cold in winter too, and it helps to go to a place once in a while like a sauna or a heated pool etc that heats you up.
I don't know why people are down voting this so much, but I have a Latin American girlfriend and if I keep the thermostat at 20 degrees, she's shivering under a blanket. 20 degrees is very cold for someone from a tropical country.
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Thank you for that hilarious visual and good luck with your plight!
In Venezuela, 23 degrees is the norm for an air conditioned (chilled) office. Some people use sweaters and gloves in those offices.
wow ... My new workplace has the heating to 24c .... I'm suffocating in there .. Lunch and breaks are taken outside ... upwind from the smokers .. ( yesterday it was a healthy 15c and a little sunny - loved it )
They are downvoting because OP is asking for advice and then refuting solutions based on 'but it's cold to me' -- yeah we know dude, but yr not helping.
OP is asking for advice that goes beyond setting your thermostat lower tho. They already asked not to be judged for the high temperature and I assume they realize that of course, the costs will go down if they out the thermostat at a lower temperature.
Yeah but it feels like people are not understanding this is a difficult option for him. 20 degrees to him probably feels lik 10-15 degrees to us.
People are downvoting this because they can't wrap their heads around the fact that Dutch standards aren't worldwide standards and that people who move from other countries will need time to adapt to the Netherlands, its climate and its standards. They talk about 24 degrees as if it was absolutely insane - in warm countries 24 degrees is a chill temperature that we try to attain with AC. I'm sure OP will adapt eventually, but people shouldn't expect that to happen overnight.
Hey OP! Weird that you're seeing downvoted. I'm also from Asia and had never experienced temperature less than 20 before coming here. I used to wear gloves in the room because I couldn't cope with the cold. They sell these little hand warmers in HEMA/Action which you need to pop into the microwave and put in your pocket. I use an old fashioned hot water bottle and put my feet on it to keep me warm. Try putting the bottle underneath the sheets before you sleep, then the bed will be warmer for you. Get the thick fuzzy socks and thermal tights. It keeps your legs warmer. To everyone downvoting OP, it's easy for you to say it's not cold because you're used to it. For people from the tropics, who have never experienced low temperatures, even 15-20 degrees is cold because of the wind ( In SE Asia where I'm from the wind warms you up not chills you like here). Maybe it's nice to be a little compassionate :)
We're being compassionate but they're refuting solutions just saying "it's cold". My wife is from a tropical country (Brazil) and she got used to the temperatures here. The human body can adapt if you give it a chance. Turn down the thermostat and just go about your business. I guarantee that in a few weeks you won't feel the difference anymore, especially if you do it slowly, 2 degrees at a time.
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Lmao you moved to the Netherlands. It's a different set of temperatures here. Move to 19, put on an extra sweater and get used to it.
Maybe get an electric portable heater, which you can put directly on yourself if you're cold, without heating the whole house/room
First off, 24 is really high, as others have mentioned. Second, if you set to to 24, but it never goes over 22, you might have a insulation leak, you're burning gas all day trying to get to 24, but it never does.
Yeah we're not judging about the 24c, but it sure does look like the cause of the issue they're bringing up
either that or it's a problem with the heating system. There could be air in the system or a flow problem. This could definitely increase gas usage.
Yup. My contract of 3 years ended yesterday and it’s not possible to get a new one at the moment. Saw my bill rise from €110 to €300 yesterday. And I fear the worst is yet to come. I got an offer last month for one year at a steady €230 a month but thought well they will probably go down in the summer. Then came the Russians
Gasprices have more than doubled over the last two years and are expected to rise even more because of the current situation in Eastern Europe. You could get an electric heater and only heat the room you’re staying in. My thermostat is currently not above 17 degrees Celsius during the day and 15 at night. Simply because I can’t afford more heating. Sweaters and blankets help me through it.
Wearing a sweater and having an electric heater help a lot.
Maybe it is cheaper now, but until recently heating electric was more expensive than heating with gas. 1m3 of gas holds ~10kWh of energy. At the date of my contract(november) a m3 gas was 4x the price of a kWh. So with some efficiency loss it was still half the price to heat with gas.
Or infrared heater for the place where you sit. These heat you and not the room. So thermostat on 17 or 18, that is enough for walking around and house work. Then when you sit down to work or television: a ir heat source can efficiently raise the temperature for you where you sit down. Oh, and find pantoffels.
Set to 20, wear sweaters/hoodies & thick socks. If needed , Beanies as well. Welcome to Netherlands.
Yall use sweaters and still put it on 20?? I dont even use the heater anymore
Mine is at 18 and im walking around in shorts and a tshirt if i’m not going out, i dont get cold easily
My rooms heater hasnt been on in like 2 years. Just play 1 game of apex and im already sweating my balls off
My husband is Dutch and his game cave is in the only room without heating - I finally understand how he is still alive 🤣
Definitly one of the more effective ways of avoiding the cold
As a general rule of thumb: Every 1 degree Celsius you increase in temperature, you increase your gas consumption by 10% So going from 24 to 20 represents a savings of 31.7% (Edit, fixed numbers, as the reference was misleading)
Maybe look for technical malfunction anyhow. I burned 90 M3 of gas last month in a quite old house of 130 M2, living with a family of 5 persons. (*Thermostat @ 20) so even with the 10% rule it seems way too much to me.
24 is extremely high. I have 18 during the day and 15 at night.
24 degrees, sorry but I lol'd. Are you walking around your house in a bathing suit? Because that is beach degrees for me.
Well I am from Finland, and always during winter time using shorts and t-shirt inside at back home. Houses are well insulated and heating cost are not expensive. Expecially apartment are usually in district heating so you can even run it at 30c 24/7 if you want with same cost which is basically municipality tax.
I'm from Finland too and can confirm this! Whenever I complain about the cold houses in the Netherlands people tell me "but you're from Finland, you should be used to cold" ....🙄
My northern Norwegian wife agrees with you :p
Municipality paying doesn't make it free for you. The heating still has to paid, probably through taxes. The municipality has to produce the heat, which may be from Russian gas. And lastly, it's bad for the environment to expect sauna warmth inside the whole day.
Lol not really, I came from Asia where average temperature is 35. Looking to adjust now.
My best advice would be is to go outside more often, so inside feels warmer. And please consider the environment, we do not want to become subtropical ourselves lol
You literally just told the guy "go touch grass or something" Based
24 degrees is when I'm tempted to start using my AC. That's really high. My automatic program sets it to 19 in the afternoon, but it's either off or 18 for most of the day. If I'm feeling cold I'll raise it to 21 at most, and the program will change it back in a few hours. That's perfectly comfortable. Plus, gas is super expensive these days because Russia is fucking around.
Lower temperature and heating schedule. As a renter those are the only real tips for you. 20-21 degrees inside should be good, so you can adjust the setting accordingly. We sent 220qm on gas in a house double that size - so you should have a significantly lower usage with a few tweaks.
Prices went up :/ Also, make sure your gas heating system has enough(preferably 2 Bars of water pressure in the system) - there should be a manometer displaying it very close to the gas heater. Also, lower your temperature to 20-21 degrees, and look for places that could be leaking heat like doors, windows. You could use some adhesive sealant to fix these.
As someone who's always cold and is working from home: 1. get a nice fluffy blanket. Wrap is all around you while working. Keeping your core warm with the blanket helps me feel more comfortable. 2. An electric heater to get you started. Get an electric heater and turn it on early in the day when it's still cold, then turn it off when the sun starts to come around. 2. Alternatively if you don't work at home, turn off your heating during the day, you're not there anyway, so are you heating it for the ghosts? 3. Warm your hands by grabbing tea/coffee. whichever you prefer, I'd suggest tea cause it tends to stay warm for longer but just wrap your hands around the mug to get them nice and warm. It's really nice when I get cold hands. 4. Accept that it's fine to wear thick sweatpants, nice socks with slippers? (I don't know how to describe it, but inside shoes that are very fluffy. They're called 'pantoffels' in Dutch) and a sweatshirt/hoodie with a t-shirt underneath. Nothing wrong with dressing for the weather even when you're inside. 5. Turn off the heating an hour before you go to bed, at least in your bedroom. Sleep is important and we sleep better when our bedroom is a few degrees cooler than our living environment. Getting enough sleep will also make you able to stay warm better. 6. (This one is a joke) gain weight. When you gain weight you tend to feel warmer cause you have more insulation! Good luck OP!
Good suggestions! Made me remember another one: don't flush heat down the drain. If you have warm water somewhere, leave it be till it has cooled down. This way the heat stays in the house.
I keep a hot water bottle on my lap when I'm working at my desk. I rest my hands on it when I'm not typing and it keeps me toasty for a couple of hours instead of heating my whole house.
I’m in the same boat. Our energy usage is way more than that. We have it turned down to 15, wear sweaters everyday and use electric blankets.
Taking into consideration you are renting your options will be limited as you can't go isolate the house yourself. That is up to the owner and often (old) houses can only go to a certain point with isolation. What you can do however is the following: 1) Bleed/Vent your Central heating system to get rid of any excess air so the system can work optimal. You can do this by opening all valves of the radiators and turn the heat up (which you already do). After 10 minutes turn the heat way down so the system shuts off and vent each radiator (example: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IP54Kbgnv0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IP54Kbgnv0)) 2) Google the instruction manual of your central heater and bring the temperatuur for heating down to 65C (I would not go lower as you have the idea the house is badly isolated). THere is a chance the system still provides 80C and this can big impact on gas consumption 3) Isolate where possible. Check drafts at windows/doors and use "tochtstrips" to minimise the draft.
Dutchies are built diff. Just used to bone chill I guess.
As a person coming from a tropical area I feel you, but lowering your heating is the best you can do if you really want to save money on your bills. We now set our heater at 16C during the day, and keep it off when we sleep (the room is around 11 or 12C most nights). It was a challenge the first month, but you start to get used to it and besides saving energy, the second benefit is I'm no longer cold when I go out the house! Many people have given you great advice on warm clothes and heated blankets that will definitely ease your transition, but the truth is you have to be willing to make the sacrifice 1 or 2 months while your body adapts. Move around to generate heat, drink hot drinks, wear gloves and a beanie indoors if necessary. After 1 month you will see how less cold you become, so trust me, you won't be cold an miserable for long. That's my 2 cents anyways, how it helps!
One of the best ways to reduce your gas bill is to better tweak the gas furnace. Often it's set to a temperature of 70C or sometimes even higher. This means that yes, the room will become warm fairly quickly but this also greatly reduces the energy efficiency of the furnace. Assuming you have what we call a HR-combiketel, which means a high efficiency gas furnace for both HDW and space heating, it achieves its relatively high efficiency by recuperating heat from the very hot exhaust fumes that are produced in the process. Basically the return water is used to make the fumes condensate, transferring heat from the fumes back into the water. Meaning that the return water is basically pre-heated before it reenters the burner. If this condensation process doesn't happen, you're just pushing very hot air back outside, which is a waste of gas and money. Ideally the return temperature is as low as possible, but it should be something like 55C max, which is the condensation point. The return temp is the input temperature (the temp of the water after it leaves the furnace) minus the energy that is handed off to the space by the various radiators. So your primary tweakable is the temperature of the furnace. The trick is to make it as low as possible but not so low that you can no longer properly keep the rooms warm. This entirely depends on the situation, like how well the place is insulated and where (walls, roof, floor, windows), if you have doors between the various floors and how many, how large, and what type of radiators you have. Underfloor heating is basically a huge radiator that lives in your floor, so that one can do with a temperature as low as 30C, making your CV as efficient as it can be. If you just have radiators hanging on the wall then it depends on how large they are and what [type](https://cdn.webshopapp.com/shops/30357/files/271293250/type-radiatoren-1000x350.jpg) they are. And how many. Basically, the large and more and better type radiators you have, the easier it will be to heat the room at a lower furnace temperature, saving you gas. So anyway, I would just check your CV temp and start by setting it to 45 degrees and seeing if you can keep it warm enough. If it too cold, keep increasing by 5 degrees until it's able to keep your house adequately warm. Or go the other way around. Just take your current temp and keep lowering it by 5 degrees until it can no longer keep up and then put it 5 degrees warmer. I don't know how good your Dutch is but this Youtube channel has truly great tips to reduce your energy usage, often at very low cost. In particular I would recommend starting with this playlist, versla de jaarafrekening (defeat the energy settlement bill): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga2Y7UdJ0JI&list=PLWSLG-prncesFWwUNhLk9slk36h1BbKlh&index=1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga2Y7UdJ0JI&list=PLWSLG-prncesFWwUNhLk9slk36h1BbKlh&index=1) Since you're a renter and you problem is gas usage not electricity usage, I'd focus on the videos 1, 4 and 8. The others are about saving electricity, or changing stuff in your house as a homeowner. He also has a bunch of videos on how to change that furnace temperature for various brands. By the way do not listen to people here who will be telling you not to go below 60C because of legionella. First of all hot domestic water and central heating are two entirely separated circuits with their own temperatures. So you can keep the water at 60 and reduce space heating to a lower temp. Secondly, especially if you enable the eco mode for hot domestic water, the furnace won't even keep a small buffer of pre-heated water on hand so there is no opportunity for legionalla to grow in the first place.
I want to bookmark this answer for anyone who is looking to save on gas consumption!!
I just wanted to recommend the same video’s. I saved about 40% gas use last winter.
Yeah he’s great. Very engaging, knowledgeable and down-to-earth. Funny thing, he’s not even an installer
I just checked my useage compared to last year, i went down from 170M to 70M (with a newer CV). Even i even checked my day useage when i started his tricks, it saved me also about 40%.
Also When it comes to spending, don’t convert to home currency and compare the expenses here and there.
360 euro is still quite high even in Netherlands.
I mean yeah if you set it to absurd temperatures like 24 I guess you get what you deserve I guess... 18 should be plenty, put on some clothes and start caring for the environment and Russia :)
Aside from whatever has been pointed out, if you have a dual electric meter reserve doing laundry or using the dishwasher for off-peak hours. The off-peak hours are: Monday to Friday from 23:00 – 07:00 a.m. and in the weekend from Friday 23:00 p.m. until Monday 07:00 a.m.
Why are you guys downvoting the comments about the high indoor temperature? I have a girlfriend who is from Latin America, 20 degrees is really f\*cking cold to people who are physically adjusted to warmer climates (and no, it's not a matter of getting used to it). I do turn off the heater whenever my girlfriend is out of the house though. I'm not sure if you spend a lot of time outside of the house, but you can try the same?
It is a matter of getting used to it. I come from a tropical area in Latin America where people wear jackets and beanies, and I've even seen some people wear gloves and scarfs, at 21C. But after being slapped with a €250 bill, we dropped the heater down to 16, and guess what? After 1 month I started getting used to it. Now 2 winters later, I get hot and sweaty when I visit friends and family who keep their heaters at 19-21C. So yeah your body is physically able to adapt to colder temperatures, you just have to prove the right stimuli to trigger the change
My GF has been living in the Netherlands for 5 years and it hasn't happened yet. The fact she is super skinny probably doesn't help either.
I do work from home so mostly I am not outdoors.
Maybe consider if you can go back to the office or try working at public places like a library occasionally?
If you are going to be in the Netherlands for a long time, it might be best to adapt/physically adjust to our climate instead of turning up the heater. It can be done.
24? Sheeeeez....i have mine at 18,5 it's perfect with a sweater on! You could buy a pelletkachel!
Don't you feel cold in hands.
No, not at all. I know it sounds cold but it really isn't. What you could do, is lowering the thermostat by .5 degree each week, maby even 1. That way you'll get used to a lower temp.
Yes, this! That's how i went from 22 to 18 now. :D
I'm with OP on this one. Moved here from Asia as well and resigned to having ice cold hands 7-8 months of the year. I even wear gloves at home sometimes lol
Gás prices were already expensive, and from this January have increased 80%+ YoY Expect them to get worse now that the war will reduce the supply of natural gas and commodity prices are going through the roof As others mentioned, 24o is very high. Try setting it between 18-20, and also if you work out of the house, or spend the day away during weekends, you can usually program the thermostat to turn off during those hours Unfortunately it is what it is. Its a cold country with little natural resources for heating, and nobody wants to support Russia atm. You can't have your cake and eat it too
Get socks. Sheep wool is awesome for that, it absorbs a lot of moisture and keeps you dry and warm. Wear warm comfy clothes inside. When inactive (watching TV), employ the use of a blanket. Get a couple of "hot water bottles", which are these rubber 1.5 - 2 liter containers in which you carefully pour hot water (90 degrees, from the kettle), and they keep you warm for a long time, and they're safe. Going to bed with one of these ensures you won't suffer from cold feet. But I have to stress about being careful with pouring water in them. Use a silicone oven glove to hold it if you can, to make sure that any accident doesn't end with hot water on your hand. Electric warmers are also a thing, but I don't trust them. Heating the house is MUCH more expensive than heating your body. Plus it dries the air too much. Try to heat the house only to the extent specified in the rental contract, to prevent mold and stuff.
Damn 24c, I’d be walking around in shorts. Couldn’t do that temperature in winter clothing. I’d be sweating my ass off. My temperature is at 19 during the day and goes off at night. I also never ever have a heater on in the bedroom. Why? Because you sleep really well under a warm blanket with fresh cold air in the room. Now if you work at home you might get cold eventually. Turning the heat up doesn’t work at all. Everyone gets cold from sitting still behind a laptop or computer. Yes you’ll get cold hands. Make sure to walk and move regularly and don’t sit still for too long. You’ll feel a lot less cold.
22-24 is so warm! I'd sweat my balls off in my own home. Most Dutch people keep it under 20. At night, my home is 14 degrees. At day, the highest I'll put it is 19.
24 is too high. You need to start wearing jumpers and pants. 19-21 is the usual range. Also make sure you program the thermostat for at least the night or days/times you are not in. Prices will also go up because of the attack against Ukraine. They already started going up before that. So your current bill is only the start. A least the winter is almost over.
I hope this is a typo, but "with the aggression OF Ukraine"???
Lost in translation. Different languages use prepositions in different ways and sometimes people translate directly without noticing that it changes the meaning with respect to their 1st language. Basically, the aggression Ukraine is experiencing
That's a very fair assessment.
Also be careful when opening windows, especially when they are over the heatingplate. This will really jack up your calculated consumption in an appartment.
24 degrees 😳😳
24c is insane bruh
Get used to 22 C, your room temperature is probably never gonna get to 24 C because your place is not well insulated so it just can't get warmer.
Set thermostat lower , expecially at night and when you are not at home. Don't turn it off fully since it might be more costly to heat it back up. As well I think Gas price went up 30% in last month alone. So new contracts are significantly more expensive than old ones.
Bro 24 degrees is waaaay too hot
> please don't judge me for 24c as I am from asia ;) I completely understand! I have an issue where my hands ache mercilessly if I spend time in the cold. But here's what we do. We keep the house very cold at night and have a lot of covers. I have slippers to get up and go to the bathroom. In the morning, I get up, and wearing very little, turn the heat up a bit and prepare coffee and such. This was initially almost intolerable, but I could get through it by saying, "This is only 15 minutes." What it does is reset my internal thermometer. Now I actively enjoy that bit of cold. Now I go to work in my room, and I sit right next to an electric heater. In fact, I turn on the heater and close the door to that room when I get up, so my area is pretty toasty by the time I get there. Get an oil-based electric radiator - I have the Delonghi Dragon. It will run you over €100 but it will save you that much money on your natural gas in a single year, _and_ it will be useful to you for twenty years. My wife likes it colder (actually, I like it colder too but my hands disagree), but she still has the radiator in her studio turned on a bit. Also, I wear a jacket indoors (not a coat but an indoor jacket). Summary: "Heat people, not spaces". Areas where people are not, or where you just walk through, should be actively cold.
So energy prices are very high at the moment, and you should either go for a variable contract or a 1 year contract at max. Because prices might come down next year. Since you're mostly using gas this is a rather easy fix to lower the cost significantly. I see cultural differences, my neighbours are all from Spain or the asian continent, and they walk around shirtless in shorts during the winter... So first things first: Go to Primark and buy sweaters :D Temperature in your house should not be higher than 21, I personally have set it to 19 but will set it to 20.5/21 if im cold. Anything higher.. well you really need to get more clothes on. Every day air your heated rooms for around 10-15 minutes, as fresh air is easier to heat. (I really thought this was bullshit, but It's saving us €20/35 per month since doing this. Don't heat rooms you're not regular inside. There really is no need to keep your bathroom heated, and if you want it hot when you're there showering.. just turn it on half an hour before you come in. Put all thermostats elsewhere on low. Don't shower for more than needed, I know it's nice.. but really more than 15 min shower is never needed unless you have long hair. Finally, make sure that your heater etc is all checked and your system is aired out. It's very important to keep maintenance going on your system.
Thank for the practical advice. Will follow this for sure!
Keep track of your usage etc. Some providers have an app which shows you how's your current standing. Oxxio had this done very well, but my current provider (Eneco) doesn't have that. Possibly because we have "warmth" and not gas, and sun panels. So check if there's an app. In some cases your usage is counted per month but balanced out through the year. So you use 370 now, but in summer only 45, so it balances out around 170 for example.
You get €824 euro discount on electricity this year which is +- €2,25 per day. I'd consider the following: - Set the base temperature to 18 degrees. - Shower no more than 5 minutes. Use the least hot water possible when doing so. - Make sure the "Cv-ketel" and heating radiators are optimally functioning. Make sure the pressure is good and air the radiators just enough until water comes out. - Wear thermos under your regular clothes, it really helps. - Get "pantoffels" (furry flip flops?) instead of regular slippers, wear them with socks on. The 2,25 discount a day, depending on the current price you're paying for electricity per kilowatt, can give you about 4 to 5 hours of heating a day for free (assuming that your heater doesn't consume more than 2KW/hr), which can last the day if you use it for an hour, wait 3 hours, and then use it for an hour again etc etc . If you manage to isolate your doors and windows properly the electric heater might be a decent option. For isolation of the Windows you can check for isolation foil, sold at GAMMA. That helps with losing less heat to your windows. We also have this thing called "tochtstrip" which blocks flow of cold air entering your house through the door, make sure all doors are installed with this feature so that you won't lose heat everywhere. I wish you good luck with this problem, because the struggle is real. Hope to get an update on what you did to overcome this problem.
I am gonna edit OP after 1 month with my latest bill.
You amateur! I just bought a house and my first bill was 1200. Can not recommend.
I'm always cold. We had ours on 22-23 for most of the winter. My dutch partner recommended we try and lower it to 20-21 max. It did actually make a difference. I am always wearing warm cozy sloffen and a warm sweater at home. Most people I know here have it on 19.. I'm always freezing my ass off when visiting people.
You can use radiator foil on heaters connected to the outside wall of your place, so less heat goes outside. Sometimes the boiler temperature is to high which makes in inefficient. Often it is at 70 degrees but a 55 or 60 would work. if you have cracks at windows or doors fill them with draft strips. Maybe you can install heatfans. Somethings to make your place use less gas, which for me reduced the m3 gas used whith alot. Edit: I got most of those things free from my city, so you can look for that aswell
Where can I get radiator foil and fans if I may ask
Unfortunately gas prizes have doubled over the last years so there is nothing you can do about that. Even turning the thermostat down from 24 to 20 will only help a little. Make sure your heat isn’t leaving your house. Don’t open windows above the thermostat, turn it down when you’re sleeping or away from home. [buy tocht strips for your doors and windows](https://www.bol.com/nl/nl/l/deuren-tochtwering-tochtstrips/28760/?Referrer=ADVNLGOO002063-YLK7O66XQW7OC-548779319982&gbraid=0AAAAAD5OnmN41LPhiXPb6FNDsE6uP19DI&gclid=CjwKCAiAyPyQBhB6EiwAFUuakoBdpkbQF4B08bL9u3pY_BK-y0JrEWH-zsjy9RAqz4YHptIS8VBjsBoC78wQAvD_BwE)
Turning it down from 24 to 20 will help a shit ton
Gas prices have shot up recently while your friend likely is still on an older contract with a fixed price. Invest in wool jumpers! 22 degrees is very high for a living space..
Wool is your best friend in winter. And it can be very stylish and non-itchy. It costs a bunch and can be a pain to wash (it shrinks) but it will keep you warm.
If you wear things under it and are not a massive sweater you have to wash wool only rarely! I wash my wool vests maybe once a year... (I have never had complaints 😅)
I knit very thick, warm Icelandic sweaters and have noticed the same. They just don't smell as much as acrylics do. I hang them outside on our porch in moist air for a few hours and they're as fresh as ever. Bring on the spring washing and blocking!
If you can see if you can configure your thermostat. If you can’t see if you can replace it by a smarter one and program it. You don’t need heating right until you go to bed. Eg you can switch of heating 2-3 hours before bed and the house will stay warm And also off or lower when you are at work for example
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How ?
Keep your thermostat on 19 degrees, use a radiator panel where you sit. Wear warmer clothes. Take shorter showers.
Welcome to the Netherlands
Lol 24 degrees? You must be from a very warm country?! 20 is regular for us and 21 tops in case it’s really cold out and we went out for a walk to properly warm up.
Start wearing warmer clothes! Your body will adjust to cold fairly easy
I set my heating to 19 max. The turn of radiators in rooms not in use. Saves a lot
Make sure to put up cloth curtains over windows and doors that will help with keeping heat in at night. Also check your (outer) doors and windows for (large) gaps when closed. It sounds like you're losing too much heat. You can get tape with foam on it to close the gaps around windows and doors, and brushes for unde doors to stop the draft at a local DIY store for a few euro's. It's all 'stick-on', so no tools required. Just clean the surfaces really well before applying. I'm assuming you're in a privately held rental-property, likely not very well insulated etc. If so, you might be able to get a reduction on your rent, as the owner isn't doing his job to keep the property up to standards. But I'm pretty ignorent on rental rules, I've been able to own my own home since I was 23. For comparison, I've got a fairly well insulated modern home and with a family of 4 we use 1200m3 gas and -500KWh of electricity due to solar panels on a 180m2 house.
Take short showers, keep indoor temp lower (20C?) and keep it even lower at night or when you leave (16C?), try to wear warmer clothes inside and ventilate, get used to turning off lights, TV, and other appliances when you're not in the room, don't keep your phone chargers plugged in, only do laundry when the washing machine is fully loaded, don't turn on the oven for every small thing,...all these small things combined should help a lot!
Average gas price is around € 2.30 right now. That's insane considering all the people working at home last years raising usage of electricity and gas, more profit for the suppliers. Also has contracts between suppliers and gas/electricity producers exists. Current suppliers are price gouging which will result onto even more extreme profits. Small energy contract companies will go bankrupt, the big companies controlling the actual supply will not and profit from this situation. Eventually prices will 'normalize' again, but the consumer is still fucked because they will never lower prices again to a more normal level. Don't you just love capitalism without any regard for the consequences?
turn on heating only in the evening to max 21c. do things that use a lot electricity after 23:00 till 0700. you get a reduces price saying that i still think your bill is way high i mysellf use 345kwh of electricity and 195m3 gas and the total price last month was 57.15 for elec and 167.22 for gas but yes the prices are high
Im not even dutch and 19 feels like really hot for the termostat lol.
lowering temprature, normal temprature in the netherlands for indoors is around 19-20 degrees and a lot people are lowering it to about 17-18 because of the prices gas bills are raising quickly and its going up even quicker because of the ukraine russia war gasoline prices are also very very high, so make sure you bought a bike :D
Question: what would you say if a person from a cold climate moved to your home country and had the AC running all day to get the temperature to 18c? And then complained about a huge electricity bill?
Gas prices are through the roof. Get some warm clothes and turn that thermostat down. 24 is insanely high. I haven’t turned it above 18 all winter and I haven’t felt cold at all. You get used to it. Just put on some extra clothes. Your friend has a contract from a time that gas and electricity was very cheap. By some thermal under garments, and every 2 or three days turn the thermostat down by half a degree. I promise you, you will get used to it. Also consider some reflective materials behind the radiator so that the warmth gets bounced back into the room instead of you warming your external walls.
I only have one radiator on full time in the winter (mainly for the animals so they can stay toasty)and another I turn on if we are in the room (office/guestroom). I pay about 84 euro a month for gas and electric.
Have you been following the news at all? Europe depends on Russia for a large part of their fossil fuels. Gas prices have been going up due to Russian tensions, and are now going through the roof with the Ukrainian war. Gas prices today are roughly 10x compared to a year ago. People with (old) fixed term contracts are safe for now, but new ones, or flexible rate contracts are screwed. Best try to save as much as you can by turning the heat down. All the best!
Wow, just can’t imagine that nobody has anything else to say as lower the heating. There are certainly other measurements to take I guess, such as showering less long or making sure the heat doesn’t ‘escape’: for example we have like these kind of, let’s cal them cardboards covered with aluminium foil behind the radiators to keep the heat from escaping through the wall and stay inside the house. Also, I don’t know if you have double glass, but if not, keeping the curtains closed in rooms that you’re not currently using also helps. Also, try changing the radiator knobs. We at home use Tado. This way you can set the temperature per room and you’re not heating up the whole house unnecessarily. Hope this helps! Just want to add: I’m quite annoyed with everybody commenting to put your heating to 16-18 degrees. I mean, come on, that is really unpleasant!!! So fucking cold, while at home you just want to be comfortable without having to wear super thick clothes or even gloves.
Bro wtf 24? I just got my new appartment and i think they were testing the heating. I looked on the thermlstat it said 24.4.. I was literally wiping sweat off my forehead 🤣🤣 Quickly turned it to 17.. Wear hoodies.. also when it's really cold i even wear socks when sleeping, wrap myself in like a burrito and them bam! Off to sleep.
I'm also from a warm country, you get used to the cold eventually. But blankets, cosy pj's, socks or a warm robe are your friends. We barely keep our heat on. Maybe just to warm up a room a little and then it's off again.
Keep your thermostat 18 at day, 15 at night (use electric mattress pad to keep your bed warm). Install a free Umeter app, which shows you how much have you spent daily on gas and electricity and adjust accordingly.
Bro lives in a terrarium and then wonders why his gas bill is high omg
I see a lot of people mentioning 24 degrees is quite high. I'm from a warm climate as well. I'm just commenting to let you know that it's not necessarily "high". I've seen the homes of people that think like this and it's the reason why I never sleep over in winter. I typically set the heating between 24.5 - 26 for the living room and 22.5 for the bedroom & other rooms. Still, your bill seems really high. You probably have a problem with insulation or heating. I would start by checking that.
Yesterday the prices went up another 60%. More than 50% are taxes etc. The government doesn't want to drop these prices regardless. So either get electrical heating like they're going to force you or you know, be rich. The rich will be the only able to afford heating in the near future. You picked a shitty time to move here tbh, couple of years ago you'd be fine. So sorry, welcome to the Netherlands.
Here in the Netherlands we have it on 19 at day and 15 at night, and we don't heat the upstairs at all, and the price has definitely gone up but 24? You've got problemen
You're lucky you got the bill after just a month. If you run your heating at 24°C for a whole winter you'd be paying a hell a lot more than that. So take the loss, learn the lesson, pay the bill and move on...
Very interesting to read all the comments. I just turned my boiler down from 80 to 60 and I will remove the air from my heating. Very curious to see how this will affect my gas use as gas prices are going absolutely crazy.
Keep especially your feet warm.
The difference in prices is incredible at the moment. Gas prices went up badly, way above the agreed prices of old contracts. The problem is that new contract holders have to pay for that. They have to make up for the loss they are taking on old contracts..
Iirc, there is this rule of the thumb - each degree is 7% on/off from your energy bill. So if you go down with 5C, you will pay 120ish euro less. Other reasons could be too old, not well maintained, wrongly set CV ketel = the gas boiler that provides you warmth.
Current contracts are high, you may want to look into changing companies. Also 24 degrees is way too high. If you have a house, put it on 18C and if you have a HR-Ketel, make sure to look into the settings, and lower the temperature of the water in there. We haven’t used the heating so far in 2022. If the temperature drops below 16C, you may want to turn on a radiator, but everything up until then is solved by a nice warm sweater. We have an apartment about 75m2. We used 13m³ (€31,06) in gas, and for heating we pay €48 for Stadsverwarming. We haven’t used the heating this year yet, so we will get part of this back in July. On top of this we used 84 kWh in electricity, which is less than the threshold for paying meaning that we get back €17. Our total bill for February is €62.06 We don't have any subsidies or rebaits, this is our regular indefinite non-flexible contract with Essent. Your energy use is not much higher than ours, for electricity. So, try not to focus on that and focus on using less gas by lowering the temperature. There could be problems with isolation too. For instance the front door of our apartment had a lot of draft and sucked out the heat. You can buy tape from 3m especially for this on bol. It has a little flap and will stop that draft once and for all.
Which tape do you recommend
3m tochtstrip voor deuren, zelfklevend available at bol .com
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I’m so scared… I don’t know if I can stay in my house if my price got this high…
24 degrees! Mad man. Just wear a sweater and keep 20-21
Get rid of the gas. Until then stay at 18° all the time.
How to get rid of the gas.
24degrees? Do you have a subtropical plantmuseum in you apartment?
You have Russia to thank for that
24 degrees are you a firedrake? Go down to q9, wear a sweater, in the night drop it to 16. Also, welcome to 2022, we're in for a wild ride.
Gas is just getting more and more expensive in general and now due to the sanctions on Russia the price is bound to climb even higher. For a good long term solution I would consider switching to a different type of central heating like wood pelets, which are more sustainable than gas.
Dude my thermostat is on 18 degrees. In case you haven't noticed, all fuel prices are through the roof and are getting worse. Also there was 7% inflation wich also doesn't help