I was wondering if the current October weather in the UK is helping people when it comes to not having to put the heating on as much. Our experience here is that October has been, and is forecast to be for the rest of this month, unusually warm... mainly sunny and daytime temperatures between 19-24 and 11-14 at night. By now we would usually have lit the wood stove on odd evenings. The 'fly in the ointment' is that you become acclimatised to the hot weather so, what would feel like a summer evening when we still lived in the UK and came over for visits in late Autumn and early Spring, now has us feeling like the locals so we are reaching for the jumpers, padded jackets scarves and woolly hats. Many bars and restaurants are struggling.. a friend has a local bar/restaurant and pizzeria and her electric bill in September was 1200 euros. Combined with the fact that tourist season is over, locals post Covid and the increase in cost of living means they are not going out as much and spending less when they do. Many will close this winter and some will not re-open. Unlike our house where we specified extra roof insulation when it was being restored, many rural properties are very poorly insulated (very few have even double glazing and no insulation on the roof to speak of), so as soon as the sun goes down their house temperature plummets. A lot of people light their wood stoves at this time but this year there are far fewer doing so. Currently we have a constant 21-22C with no additional heat source other than the sun coming through the windows which makes all the difference. Good insulation also makes a huge difference.!! We have very thick walls and small windows which helps. A new decree, due to gas shortages, from the Italian central Govt has imposed limits on heating and cut 2 hours per day off what is allowed and reduced temperatures to 19C maximum. This covers apartment buildings and private dwellings (although they have no idea how to police and enforce the latter particularly if, like us, they have GPL gas independent supply. Public buildings must turn heating off (except Hospitals, Schools and Old people's homes which are exempt) We are still waiting for our PV system and hybrid air heat pump installation so another winter without means our gas usage will be around 1200 euros for Dec-Feb alone even with wood stoves to supplement the CH. Being near the mountains and with NE winds direct from Siberia down the East side of the Apennines we often get snow in Jan and Feb and it once hit -9C for 5 solid days with ice storms! We were actually snowed in. Our house is also on a ridge so exposed to high winds. Stay warm and keep safe everyone.
Odd evenings in the last two weeks I have put it on for about an hour, just to take the chill off. That’s all that’s needed so far. Plenty of daytime sun here in North Yorkshire.
