With the cost of living increasing, the cost of gas & electricity high (although I'm confused as to how as the wholesale price has dropped significantly since the summer) there must be some conversations in households about heating. Most people hate being cold but to choose to be cold in your own home to save money is one thing. To come out, pay for booze and be cold is probably a different thing.
So the debate, for how long and for how often does one put the heating on in the pub? I had set it to be 1 hour 10am-11am and then 1 hour 6pm-7pm which wasn't too bad when the weather was cooling down. However, this week the cold has arrived. Not Sweden cold, not North Pole cold but England cold and its been 1-2 degrees in the mornings. And sadly standing behind the bar is cold. So yesterday I had the heating on most of the day. Only set to 21 degrees but people were still commenting it was cold. I have bought them blankets so I'm not sure what it is they're complaining about 😂
My combined gas & electricity costs for July to end of November is £6k. The gas has had the EBRS applied to it from 1st Oct but the electricity hasn't as yet. Believe me when I say that will not go unmanaged for very long. The fact remains it is expensive to run a pub these days. Very expensive.
But then this is where the balance comes isn't it? You can't run a pub without customers, and customers don't want to stand in the cold and drink, so without the heat on there are no customers and with no customers, simply put, there's no pub.
I've set the heating to come on 3 times a day for 1.5 hours - let's hope that 1. it is enough and 2. it doesn't cost more than I can afford.
As for me, Lee and the dogs - we're just gonna have to freeze!