Dave54321

No of course not. Are you serious? Since when has it ever been cold enough to have the heating on "constantly, every day in Winter." At least not for the 12 years I've lived here. Don't know if you've ever visited these flats, but they're so over-insulated and warm, it's air con we need most of the time, not heating. Further, I use an electric shower and electric dishwasher, so the hot water supply is barely used. I'd rather just pay for what I use. No way do I use £650 worth of hot water in this place in one year and have no desire to subsidise those that do. Others can pay for what they use, I'll do the same.

Well, at the moment it's a total rip-off so pay-as-you-go makes more sense I suppose. __________________ Socialism is incompatible with freedom, prosperity, and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of envy and prejudice that is founded on the principle that no one is allowed to be too successful and has no place in the free world. Take Libertarianism. Take freedom (if you can handle it).

She didn't "thieve" children's milk. Milk isn't a God-given right and doesn't come free. The TAXPAYER paid for this milk by force. She decided that wasn't right in a free society. Parents still have the right to voluntarily give their kids milk if they want. I'm not a Tory but I agree with her on that. If you need the Government to decide what's good for you and your kids and to force you to pay for it, then... well, you can finish that sentence. Or maybe you can't and need the government to do it for you!

Believe it or not I don't mind skimmed milk. I was brought up with the stuff in the house (my Mum mainly used it back then) and I now still drink it to this day. That school stuff was watered down, no doubt about it.

Oh, cool. I mean... warm!

Happy to provide pics! There are also a couple of A4 sheets of info stuck behind the facia so I photo'd them as well.

Ignore me - I'm being a right plonker. I lifted the facia of this "boiler" and underneath it's just a collection of pipes and red and blue taps. It's not a boiler at all, there's no tank or anything! There *used* to be a boiler in there which was always switched off (except when I used it a couple of times when the District Heating failed) but looks like it's been replaced by this thing. Sorry again for being a numpty - I was sure this guy referred to it as a "boiler."

Yeah I do know where the boiler is: it's in my kitchen. They fitted a new one of those as well. I always had one but it was always switched off. But now I have a new one which I am told is controlled by the thermostat. And yet at the same time I get a district heating charge on my rent every week. So you see my confusion! By the way I live in one of the Callow blocks. Yeah you're right, it is extortionate, but district heating always has been. Prior to this place I lived in a bedsit (going back 10-15 years) in the dreaded Gaunt area. Even then the district heating charge there was about £8 a week - £96 per quarter to heat a bedsit in the late 90s! Proper rip off. If I was sticking around here I would seriously consider getting it disconnected because apart from the few months a year I use the radiators, there's nothing else I use the heating for. I have an electric shower and a dishwasher so really wouldn't miss hot water in the taps. As it happens I'm looking to get my own place soon anyway, but in the meantime I'm still confused over this.

Leaving aside what a rip-off District Heating is in Sheffield (e.g. my one-bedroom flat costs me about £13 a week in district heating - that's £156 per quarter all year round for radiators that are only on for about 3 months of the year!) I wonder if anyone could clear up some confusion I have? I had a thermostat fitted today by Lovell, and the guy explained how it works. He said the boiler flicks on if the temperature drops too low and flicks off again if it gets to warm, etc. I only stopped to think later: If the district heating is generated externally as a waste by-product, how come I have a boiler generating heat? And is this costing me money on my electric bill? Confused dot com!

The day we stopped having to drink that free muck was a day I'll never forget. My school's (Greenhill) local dairy used to water down the milk and it was disgusting. Once you make a product mandatory and paid for by the taxpayer, it becomes a licence for producers to print money and rip the rest of us off. And that's exactly what happened. Good riddance. OK, that's milk. Next: TV license! (Not that I ever bought one).