Central heating question

At this time of year is it more efficient and cheaper to set your central heating on a low setting and leave it on all the time or power it up on a morning and night and leave it off while you're out at work?

TIA.

 

Good question.

 

Thanks. I thought so too.

 

Think mrx answered a similar enquiry to this one last year. It's his area of expertise and, if I recall correctly, it's keep it on. That's what I've been doing anyway so hope my memory is serving me well.

 

Depends how long you'll be out....if I were out all day IMO it would be more economical to set it on the timer for an hour before you get back in,but it's easy to test, check the meter reading, and do one method one day and the other another day and the numbers will tell you.

 

set it low and leave it on matey

I asked a mate who is a heating technician and he told me that. Also it keeps condensation down too apparently. Set it about 2 or 3 on the boiler control and 18 - 20 degrees on the thermostat then leave it on...just adjust up or down a few clicks if it gets too warm or too cold.

 

I haven't got any central heating or hot water at moment ,boiler has died and can't get another fitted till next week (hopefully),using one of these beauties http://www.hozelock.com/spraying/sprayers-for-leisure-use/portashower-7.html, saving me a fortune in water and gas

 

According to the energy saving trust people I work with, it is always more cost-effective to switch off the heating/lights/computer when they aren't being used.

However, with central heating systems it is worth leaving them running at a low temperature during particularly cold times to prevent pipes from freezing over and bursting.

 

Re: set it low and leave it on matey

18-20 on the thermostat while you are out? Damn you are nesh Dragon

 

Re: set it low and leave it on matey

14 degrees through daytime and cranked up to 20.5 degrees 5:30pm till 11pm. Fires up for an couple of hours from 6am.

To be fair, room temperatures around 16 degrees with the heating off anyway.

 

Re: set it low and leave it on matey

Like l say to the missus, turn it off and put a jumper on.

 

I have mine on all the time at a low temp and then turn it up when I get cold. With the tariff i'm on it works out cheaper to do it that way as it's a higher unit price for the first amounts used then the unit cost drops after it's been on for so long.

 

Well I think I am going to leave mine on a low temperature all day and turn it up a notch if it gets too cold. Thanks everyone, advice appreciated.

 

I have measured them r kid over a month on each. Both months were similar in weather. You use a lot more energy by leaving it on.

 

I had a wireless room thermostat fitted last year, you can program it to do different things at different times, you can have a ''fall back period'' ie a low temp setting for through the night or when your out and a heat setting for other times. The heat setting I use is from 6am to10pm set at 21deg. which you can manually alter up or down and the fall back is about 17 deg the rest of the time. You can program it for different periods on different days to suit your circumstances, we're retired so ours is set for the same periods every day. If you want any info on make etc pm me.

 

Did you have it on a low setting in the month it was always on?

 

About 18 when in, about 10 when out. Kept turning it down when in at tines.

 

Re Did you have it on a low setting in the month it was always on?

Do you mean the boiler, if so, I leave the boiler on a highish setting all the time and let the thermo switch it on and off, the higher the boiler setting the quicker the climb time and the quicker the rads heat up. Obviously different systems/houses will need different set ups but I highly recomend a programmable stat and leaving the boiler on all the time and regulating it with the thermostat. If you have TRV's, set the TRV in the room where the stat is to it's highest setting and regulate individual rooms to suit your comfort and if the room with stat in is too warm then turn the boiler down and reset the other TRV's. It took me a while to get it right but unfortunatly I've got a large system (16 rads) and a bl00dy big boiler. Since having it fitted we've found the house to be more comfortable heat wise, ( sometimes too warm ) with no percievable increase in gas usage. The bills keep going up Thanks to Maggie selling everything to the French, but thats another thread.

 

Re: Re Did you have it on a low setting in the month it was always on?

Mines like yours t'owd man.

Had a new boiler fitted last year with a wireless thermostat.

Boiler setting is on max and control from the thermostat. The boiler has a setting that won't allow it to drop below 5c so it won't freeze. The timer has aout 5 or 6 different time periods per day that you can hve and you just set accordingly. So during the day when we're out it's set about 15c and then 20c an hour efore we are due home. Can adjust temporarily when in, so we do put it up 1 or 2 degrees. Depends on the house but ours seems cold, and remember that the temp is only the temp of that point of the house so whilst us having it up at say 23c that doesn't mean the whole house is at that temp, it's just what we need to set the thermostat to in order to get a comfortable temp in the living room.

 

That's the best energy deal ever

Kanecat - if you've got a tariff where the more you use the lower your bill is then it's the only one of its kind in the world. Please tell and we'll all have some.