Do you turn on all your radiators?

PinkPeach

Hi, please can anyone tell me if there is much diffence in the cost of running central heating if you turn on all the radiators in your house? I'm sure I read somewhere on here once that you ought to only heat the rooms you use as this is cheaper.
I live in a 3 bed end of terrace house and feel like it's really cold in the evenings, especially upstairs. I was wondering if this is because we don't heat the 2 bedrooms that we don't really use (we just have the radiator knob turned on at the snowflake setting).
Any advice would be appreciated as I'd be interested to know whether there really is much of a differene in cost.

larmy16

I would be interested in this too, but I think you maybe need to post on the utilities board?? I never use my heating upstairs and my gas bills are on the low side. We do have a very small house though and the heat seems to rise to keep the upstairs fairly warm. I don't like to have a bedroom heated though as it's too stuffy for me.

Pink.

During the day when the rest of the family are at work/school, I turn off all radiators except for the bathroom and the room that I'm in.

As larmy has said you should get more help with this on the Utilities board so I'll move your thread across.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email .

Lotus-eater

You should always turn off or down the radiators in the rooms you aren't using, yes of course it will be cheaper to run, how much? Who knows, but the fact that it is cheaper should be reason enough to do it.

The boiler will heat the CH water running through your pipes to a pre determined temp, the water cools as it runs through the pipes and radiators, when it cools enough the boiler will reheat the water, less radiators in use, mean less heat loss.

bluekaw

ok, my logic is a little different and probably mad to some, but we have all the rads on in our three bed house, but our heating temperature on the boiler is set quite low, the heating is almost always on in the winter, as the wife only has to feel a tad of cold and the heatings on full, so found this a more economical way of heating the home, all the internal walls are brick/block and retain heat well so seem more efficent to keep the heating low and constant, than let the house cool, to have to re heat the air and wall which tain heat, with the heating on full belt for hour's at a time , and our gas bill is about average,

I'd rather pay a few penny extra that have the kids cold

GSXRCarlos

normally when thinking about building fabric, you should heat the house and then attempt to keep it at a constant temperature.

Therefore bluekaws comments should ring true, but i wouldn't know i haven't even moved into my house yet - lol

Lotus-eater

bluekaw wrote: »

but our heating temperature on the boiler is set quite low,

Do you mean the temp on the cylinder? That should always be above 55 degrees C.

Cardew

GSXRCarlos wrote: »

normally when thinking about building fabric, you should heat the house and then attempt to keep it at a constant temperature.

Therefore bluekaws comments should ring true,

Whilst they might ring true to you. they actually are not correct.

This debate comes up time and time again in various guises.

As lotus-eater states above, the cheapest way is to turn off radiators in rooms not used and the longer you have the heating off - the cheaper it will be.

There is an 'Urban Myth' that comes up time and time again that it is cheaper to keep a house at a constant temperature, rather than let it cool down. The faulty reasoning being that it takes more heat to warm up from cold than keping it warm. It most certainly is not cheaper.

If you went away for, say, a year, would you think it cheaper to keep the heat in the house on constantly? How about a month?, a week? a day,? The principle is exactly the same. The longer your heating is off - the more money you save.

We don't keep a kettle constantly boiling, because it costs more to let it cool down and re-heat - again the same principle.

First let me make it quite clear, I am talking purely from a money saving aspect. Nobody is suggesting that that you should do other than have the house at a temperature that you find acceptable - but don't kid yourself that it is cheaper to be on constantly rather than timed.

Usually someone comes up and states it is cheaper to have the heating on 24/7 at, say, 17C rather than timed at, say, 20C. Well indeed it might be, but it depends on individual circumstances. - Insulation in house, how long are the timed periods etc.

ariba10

We only heat the rooms that we use.

No rads on upstairs.