gas or electric heating in evening

st999

A friend asked me this so I thought I would get opinions.

They only use their central heating in the evening now as the house is empty during the day, they don't bother putting it on in the morning as it is basically get up, get showered, get dressed, get out.
They work, poor souls:eek:.
Me retired:rotfl:.

So would it be more economical for them to get a fan heater to use in the lounge in the evening for say 6 hours or have their gas central heating come on at 4:30 pm for 6 hours?

I have no idea how much gas they are using at present but they use about 18,000 kWh a year.

Me, I still have mine on from 8:30 am to 10:0 pm as I prefer the whole house to be warm not just one room.

Of course it does not run continuously as the thermostat switches it off and on to maintain the temperature:).

I told them if they want to live in a house with just one warm room that was up to them but I could never do that after experiencing that when my heating broke down.

Two days of that was enough for me:eek: I even left the oven on with the door open to heat the kitchen

Stan.

richardc1983

Cheaper to turn all the other rads off and use the one in the lounge... gas is cheaper so get them to use the central heating and just have one radiator on!

Owain_Moneysaver

If the other rooms are cold then the heated room will lose heat to them, also the risks of condensation increase.

Probably best is to use thermostatic radiator valves to set the lounge to warm and other rooms to cooler-but-still-comfortable.

Also once the house is warm it should stay warm for several hours, if properly insulated, so if they run the heating 4.30pm-6pm it should still be reasonably comfortable at 10pm.

Personally I find half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening is enough.

Mrs_Thrify

Hi Stan. Heating the house in the evening would depend on whare you live as down south it is getting warmer and in Scotland it is freezing.
If your friends own their home I would recomend insulate it as much as they can. Putting the oven on for their dinner will throw out heat, tell them to leave the oven door ajar afterwards to throw out the heat.
It would depend on income to how much heat they could use. I would think most people have the CH on for a few hours.

I live in Hampshire and the CH has been off for 6 days as the weather turned mild. I am also doing an experiment to see how low I can get the fuel bills. It will be interesting to see the diffrence in gas bill this week.

I guess the answer is to to be comfortable in your home and live with in your budget. If they are cold put the heating ON.