Heating - on timed or on low all day?

MumofCR

What's the most cost effective way to heat my house? Is it to have the heating on for a couple of hours in the morning and again in the evening or to have in on a lower setting all day?

I live in a large 4 bed victorian end of terrace and don't have a thermostat or thermostatic valves on the radiators (hopefully will have next winter). The radiators are turned down low in the rooms that we don't really use (only a couple). We have good loft insulation and cavity wall insulation but I'm still worried about our heating costs. Any other tips?

latecomer

If you are in the house all day then I guess you can just put it on timed and then manually override if you feel its getting cold.

If you are not in the house all day then I'd go for timed.

moneysavingplumber

Timed, especially as you don't have a room thermostat as the boiler will cycle on and off all day reacting only to the temperature of the water in the boiler, not the temperature of the rooms.

You could get a wireless room thermostat installed like the Drayton RF1, and doing something as simple as setting it to 18 degrees as opposed to 20 will make a big difference, especally as you don't currently have one installed at all. They cost around £80 and are simple for an electrician to fit, especially if the receiver can be sited as close as possible to the central heating wiring centre, which is often in the airing cupboard.


http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/calculator/checklist