Gas on constantly or on and off...?

SuzieSue

JasX wrote: »

The notion that keeping the heating on all day to 'maintain' temperature uses less energy is completly spurious and the reasons have been explained several times over .

Need proof? start at 10pm when your heating is just going off for the evening, note your meter reading, note it 24 hours later when operating your system on a timer. then switch your system to 'always on' and see how much gas you use over the next 24 hours.

Make sure the weather is 'broadly' similar on both days so its fair, ideally repeat several times for similar days with different outside temperatures.

Finally look at how much more gas you use every time to keep your house 'warm' and avoid 'warming it from cold' and consider how foolish you were to think keeping it warm was ever going to be remotely efficient.......

But as I have said several times before, if the house is empty, you need to turn the thermostat down to a level around 15 degrees (this depends on the property so it takes trail and error before you get it right). Obviously, if you keep the thermostat on at the same temperature (say 21 degrees) even when the property is emply, then of course 24/7 will cost more. The dowside of doing this if you are at work all day is that when you come home, the thermostat is still at 15 degrees and so the house will be colder than you would like but you can now buy programmable thermostats so you can set the themostat to 21 degrees an hour or so before you get home

stevemcol

So I decided I would try both approaches and measure my gas usage. I'm half way through and I'll report the outcome on Friday. However, allowing the house to cool down yesterday, the heating never did bring it back up to temperature in the evening. I left the fire off so it didn't skew the result.

I may end up trying the experiment again during milder weather.

PennyPinchingMiser

I use a programmabke thermostat, a Danfoss tp5.

Weekdays
From midnight to 8am, it's set to 12DegC, then from 8am to 4pm, it's set at 14DegC, then from 4pm to 6pm, it's set at 18DegC, then from 6pm to midnight, it's set back to 14DegC again

Weekends is similar, except there's an 8am to 10am segment of 18DegC.

So far I get the feeling that this is providing me with the best cost/comfort ratio

YMMV

SuzieSue

PennyPinchingMiser wrote: »

I use a programmabke thermostat, a Danfoss tp5.

Weekdays
From midnight to 8am, it's set to 12DegC, then from 8am to 4pm, it's set at 14DegC, then from 4pm to 6pm, it's set at 18DegC, then from 6pm to midnight, it's set back to 14DegC again

Weekends is similar, except there's an 8am to 10am segment of 18DegC.

So far I get the feeling that this is providing me with the best cost/comfort ratio

YMMV

Did you get this fitted on an exsiting boiler or can it only be fitted when you change boilers?

stevemcol

Most reasonably modern boilers will accept a digital thermostat / programmer. The boiler just sees it as an on/off switch.
Mine is similar. You can have a different programme for 7 days of the week and each day can be split into 8 (I think) periods. Very useful.

[If it isn't a combi boiler you will probably need a combined water / heating programmer]

PennyPinchingMiser

SuzieSue wrote: »

Did you get this fitted on an exsiting boiler or can it only be fitted when you change boilers?

It replaces your room thermostat.

It has a couple of AA batteries powering it, and a 'volt free' change-over contact, so it looks like a normal room thermostat to systems which use these.

Basically, you leave the boiler set to constant. The thermostat knows the time and day ( 'cos it has a clock in it ), and you set at what time of day what you would like the temperature to be. If the temperature is below the set-point, the boiler comes on. If it's above it, it goes off.

You can override the current temperature setting for the current time segment, and it will revert back to the pre-programmed ones when it reaches the next time segment.

It's 'similar' to this, which I believe is the 24Hr one, not the 5/2 day one



HTH

SuzieSue

PennyPinchingMiser wrote: »

It replaces your room thermostat.

It has a couple of AA batteries powering it, and a 'volt free' change-over contact, so it looks like a normal room thermostat to systems which use these.

Basically, you leave the boiler set to constant. The thermostat knows the time and day ( 'cos it has a clock in it ), and you set at what time of day what you would like the temperature to be. If the temperature is below the set-point, the boiler comes on. If it's above it, it goes off.

You can override the current temperature setting for the current time segment, and it will revert back to the pre-programmed ones when it reaches the next time segment.

It's 'similar' to this, which I believe is the 24Hr one, not the 5/2 day one



HTH

Yes thanks, but I just wasn't sure if it was easy to replace an existing non-programmable room stat or whether to wait until I changed my boiler to fit a programmable one?

PennyPinchingMiser

SuzieSue wrote: »

Yes thanks, but I just wasn't sure if it was easy to replace an existing non-programmable room stat or whether to wait until I changed my boiler to fit a programmable one?

I can be easily fitted by a 'competent' person.

Ambersuccubus

As an aside, have any of you rabid "use a timer!" advocates considered the waste of money inherent in the damage to your belongings you're doing by allowing the "warm up - cool down" cycle to happen over (quite large at the moment) temperature gulfs several times a day?
It's the frequency of the cycle which will damage, and therefore your (flawed btw) analogy to a long period away from home will not apply...

Both the National Trust AND several environmental charities advise constant temperature of up to 17-19 degrees as background, with radiant heat sources where necessary (not that I think they ever are, but some folk don't have the insulation I have personally) for comfort to prevent damage to wood, books, metals etc.

24/7 at 17 degrees (except for when away on holiday, obviously) if necessary (since early December, and did switch it off for that brief warmer spell). Otherwise OFF. Consistency is everything if you want to protect yourself (skin etc), your belongings and the fabric of your home.

Chrysalis

I am sitting here wondering if in 3-6 months times come spring/summer are we going to see the same people who dont turn their heating off posting complaining that their direct debits have been tripled due to a large winter bill?