how long do you keep your heating on for?

skyepark

i live in a double glazed 2 bed flat, i cook daily, and have the heating on 4 1/2 hrs a day quite low and only on in the living room and bedrooms.

we have one working tv in the flat no internet usage and one person cooks, we barely use the hot water as we use the gym facilities.

How long do you put your heating on for?

Bongedone

I am at work all day. In the evening I set the thermostat to 19c and just leave it run till about 11pm. The last few days it has not come on much as the internal temperature is close to 19c anyway. My heating is electric so I hear the fans starting up when it is heating.

Fire_Fox

Only heat our main living area, for one to two hours a day in the coldest weather. Not been on at all for three days in the last week tho! Unless you use your bedrooms for anything other than sleeping in, you shouldn't really need to heat them in a flat (good insulation from adjacent flats). Heated underblankets are far cheaper to run - about the same as a lightbulb.

thriftyminx13

I put the heat on for about 4 hours everynight at about 17-19degrees and if its going to be very cold in mornings on for 2 hours. i was told keep it on for longer periods at a lower temperature rather than 1 or 2 hours because it costs more when you hit boost let it cool down and hit boost again. 400L - 500 L lasted us a year because we didn't need it on after April.

Fire_Fox

thriftyminx13 wrote: »

I was told keep it on for longer periods at a lower temperature rather than 1 or 2 hours because it costs more when you hit boost let it cool down and hit boost again.

According to the people on the 'Gas and Electricity' board this is an urban myth. Several good threads over there if you are interested.

A_fiend_for_life

I just keep the heating on low and allow the themperature to increase slowly rather than boost. Simple reason there is no one hour boost function and turning it up for a boost your liable to forget. Layers work fine with a hat, scarf and walking socks at 13C as it is here at the moment. If the air was damp / humid the heating would be on.

thriftyminx13

Fire_Fox wrote: »

According to the people on the 'Gas and Electricity' board this is an urban myth. Several good threads over there if you are interested.

Well it works for me, so urban myth or not I save a fortune and have my heat every night in winter. And if the gas and electric people say it I'm sure they have no ulterior motives!;)

Ken68

Hi Skye...am using this year an electric blanket 'throw', helping to keep the heating down to 3 hours a day, as against last year 6 hours a day. Ideal for when you are resting anyway.
80w..12.5 hours cost 14pence. Calls for a change of ways but potential to save, for me, about £100 a year.

greenbee

I have my heating on for an hour in the morning - it comes on for half an hour before I am supposed to get up... so if I get up on time it's nice and warm, and if I don't... it's starting to get cold!

Because I work erratic hours and I'm not sure what time I'm going to get home, I don't have the timer set to come on in the evening. I switch it on when I get in if it feels chilly, and switch it off when I start getting ready for bed.

During the week I shut the doors to the rooms I don't use, and put the TVRs on the radiators onto the frost setting, so those rooms aren't heated. I tend to use more of the house at weekends - although again, if I'm not around, the heating just goes on for the one hour in the morning.

I also run a dehumidifier, which I move around the house, and is on a lot when its damp (like tonight) and less when it isn't. Since getting it I've needed the heating on less (well, that and the thermals!). I use hot water bottles in bed - two at the moment, but up to four when it's very cold!

mannews

We have the timer on twice a day one hour in morning just before we get up and one hour in the evening. We don't have the heating on upstairs as we only sleep and we have a quilt and each other to keep warm. My 9 year old doesn't feel the cold so he doesn't need it on in his room when he is playing. If we do get cold then we have blankets in the living room. If it is still cold after that then we put the boost on. As for the boost we used it in our old property and our gas was still not that high.

tubbee2

I live in an old cottage with cast iron windows that don't close properly - can't be replaced as listed. So, curtains closed at dusk each day, heating on at dusk and off at around 9pm (two woodburners lit at dusk in separate sitting rooms draw heat round the house and up into the next floor) Never put heating on in morning, children complain but it makes them move faster!! So, I reckon around 4-5 hours per day of gas fired heating per day from mid October to mid March (and Aga on constantly)