a little heating goes a long way or does it?

miss_shillingworth

can anyone advise on whether or not to keep gas central heating on really low but all day - is it more economical this way or should the heating be set to twice a day at a much higher temperature. if set low, how low should it be? there is usually no-one home during the day mon-fri and there's a gas fire in the sitting room Also, we have an adult daughter who often watches tv in her bedroom and this needs adequate heating.

mech_2

It's generally considered best to have your heating on a timer, switching it off during working hours and at night. Theory bases this on heating the house to the same level (same thermostat setting) in both cases. As the house cools down when the heating is off, it loses heat energy proportionally less quickly.

Making a comparison between low/constant or high/timed is when everything becomes a lot less clear and we tend to get long discussions on the subject. If you find in your house that you can tolerate a much lower temperature (by a degree C or more) on constant, then I'm not aware of any reference material that can tell you if that's likely to be more or less expensive. Even trying to measure it yourself by taking daily meter readings is fairly futile as gas consumption changes with the weather.

Most sources claim you save 10% if you turn the heating down 1 degree C. Putting the heating on twice a day on timed could save exactly the same amount for all anybody really knows. Personally I think other factors, such as insulation, boiler efficiency, draughtproofing etc make more important difference to consumption. And unless you're comparing timed at 24C with constant at 18C (an extreme case when constant would surely win) it's probably a better bet to put it on timed in the absence of better information.

Best of all would be to not have the heating on in the morning at all, so the house has all night and all day in which to cool down (but then I'd find mornings a bit of a challenge in winter!)