Energy myth-busting: Is it cheaper to have heating on all day?
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IMO 16.5C is well below the comfort level, unless you are working in the house.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5372296.stm
24C - top range of comfort
21C - recommended living room temperature
Less than 20C - death risk begins
18C - recommended bedroom temperature
16C - resistance to respiratory diseases weakened
12C - more than two hours at this temperature raises blood pressure and increases heart attack and stroke risk
5C - Significant risk of hypothermia
Source: West Midlands Public Health Observatory
Surely the death risk only begins if you sit in a chair all day in your living room? You're supposed to exercise every so often which will keep your body temp up.0 -
Simple fact is no matter which way you cut it, regardless of boiler efficiency or insulation, constant heating will cost more. It might not cost much more at these mild temperatures but it will as heat loss speeds up when it's freezing outside.
Sorry but you just contradicted yourself. If the boiler is more efficient on half power than full then running longer on half power is going to use less fuel that running shorter but flat out. Most people have condensing boilers and these are 8-10% more efficient at low power (low water temperature). Hence it is possible to save fuel running constantly. This isn't true all of the time and really what is needed is a good understanding of heating dynamics to get the best fuel consumption. But it isn't as cut and dried as the shorter time you run the less it costs.0 -
IMO 16.5C is well below the comfort level, unless you are working in the house.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5372296.stm
24C - top range of comfort
21C - recommended living room temperature
Less than 20C - death risk begins
18C - recommended bedroom temperature
16C - resistance to respiratory diseases weakened
12C - more than two hours at this temperature raises blood pressure and increases heart attack and stroke risk
5C - Significant risk of hypothermia
Source: West Midlands Public Health Observatory
Oh dear, we [who live in Scotland] are all doomed
Honestly, the way the BBC reports weather make me wonder why heating is required at all in England what with being hotter than the Maldives
Seriously, I suspect this is only for the ill, inactive elderly and unfit couch potatoes?
Cheers0 -
In reality certain rooms are colder than others. In Oldskools case the hall, so setting the thermostat to lower would work well for him.
After having a new boiler fitted, I've had the opposite problem.
If I set the hall for 21C (which, in reality is too high for a hall) then all the other rooms (with radiator thermostats) are too cool as the system has shut down too early.
I've had to throttle the hall radiator (which has no rad stat) back so that it heats the hall less. The other rooms were just getting comfortable last night as the hall approached 19C, which I guess is about right.
I appear to be suffering a nightmare of 'over-control' with the new system - the boiler modulates to control the level of heating going in and varies its mark-space ratio to increase efficiency, the pump can be set to constant speed, constant pressure or some sort of dynamic flow mode, the hall thermostat is variable with time of day. It is devil to work out just why the system reacts as it does and what to adjust (and I spent time working on industrial control systems so how Joe Public is meant to do it I really don't know).
I'm sorely tempted to break all my own rules and just set the hall stat to maximum when I want the system to be on.4kWp, Panels: 16 Hyundai HIS250MG, Inverter: SMA Sunny Boy 4000TLLocation: Bedford, Roof: South East facing, 20 degree pitch20kWh Pylontech US5000 batteries, Lux AC inverter,Skoda Enyaq iV80, TADO Central Heating control0 -
A heating engineer once told me it would be cheaper to leave the heating on when it is cold.
Think of it like a car engine, when the engine is cold the car uses a lot more fuel than when the engine is hot.
If your heating is switched off the enviroment gets cold, and when the heating is switched on it uses a lot of fuel to heat the enviroment back up.
Everything in your house absorbs heat i.e furniture,carpets etc so all these things have to be heated back up and these things contribute to the heat in a house. A house that is kept at a steady temperature the heating just switches on every so often to keep the temperature steady & so does not use that much when the house is already warm.0 -
I leave my car engine running all night so that it is much more efficient (and warm as a bonus) when I have to actually go somewhere in the morning. Can anyone suggest a way I can save fuel?
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In todays MSE email it says:
Q. Should I turn individual radiators down at the valve or will it only make a difference if controlled via the main thermostat?
a. There's little difference. By turning your radiators down or off using thermostatic radiator valves on the side of them, or by reducing your room temperature via a thermostat, you decrease the amount of heat your heating system has to generate.
Your room thermostat only switches your heating off when the set temperature has been achieved, so turning your thermostatic radiator valves down will mean your radiators will not get as hot and will gently heat your home to the set temperature.
This is incorrect. The radiators get as hot as they would without a thermostatic valve fitted, they simply shut off when the ROOM is at the correct temperature.
With misleading information like that, its no surprise that TRVs are rarely used correctly. Time after time I see people turning them to number 5 on the belief that the room will heat up quicker.On the internet you can be anything you want.It`s strange so many people choose to be rude and stupid.0 -
jeepjunkie wrote: »
Seriously, I suspect this is only for the ill, inactive elderly and unfit couch potatoes?
Cheers
I don't think the article implies otherwise!0
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