Heating your house

redstar1965

Hi there
I wondered if anybody can give me some info about heating houses. As it is coming into summer and the need for heating should decline I have turned off most of the radiators in my house. But my lodger feels the cold so she wants the heating on throughout the summer. As I pay the heating bills I don't really have a problem with this as I assumed by turning off most of my radiators this should significantly and proportionally reduce my gas bills, but somebody told me the other day it doesn't matter if you have 1 radiator or 10 running you will pay the same amount in your bills. This can not be correct can it? Any advise will be gratefully received.

jimexbox

Your boiler will run off your main thermostat located in your living room or hallway. So Im not sure if you can have the rads off everywhere except your lodgers room as the the temperature the thermostat is set at will never be met as the rads are turned off, so you boiler (I think) will run continuously trying to heat a room that the temperature cannot be altered. If you have a TRV fitted to your lodgers rad, it would turn off the rad when the set temperature in his/her had been reached, but I think the boiler would still be trying to alter the main room temperature. Of course you can still run it for an hour on timer during the day to heat your lodgers room, then automatically turn itself off.

I may well be talking complete bollox, but Im sure someone more knowledgeable will put me right.:cool:

Magentasue

It will cost less with just the one radiator, but it's not going to be, say, a tenth of the cost of running ten. It'll be much more than that. You can calculate the approximate cost by reading the meter before the heating goes on and then reading it, say, four hours later. More gas is used in the first hour. If you do this several times, you'll have an average. For every metric gas unit, it costs about 35p and about three times as much for an imperial unit.

redstar1965

Thanks guys. One thing I didn't point out was the previous owner was a plumber and I think he scavenged parts and cut corners for everything plumbing related. But it is only a few years later you start to realise when problems occur. Two such problems are there is no thermostat (don't know what impact that has?) and I have a 7 foot high radiator in the corner of my living room that I am unable to turn off as it has no visible valve to do so. So even more annoying if somebody else wants the heating on when I don't!

LittleMissAspie

My dad told me that turning the radiator thermostats down doesn't make any difference because the boiler will heat the same amount of water, it just won't get to the radiators. So I always have the radiator dials up to full and just control it with the main dial.

I don't know if that helps or hinders you... sorry.

Or you could look into getting something that just heats her room.

wishiwasarichgirl

tell her to wear a jumper?