How to use gas central heating?

llh189

Hi!

Sounds like a really dumb question but for the first time in 10 years I have moved to a rented place that has gas central heating, all my other homes have just had electric heating!

My heating has a timer, so on for an hour in the morning and on at 6 ish in the evenings for a couple of hours!

I have turned of the radiators in the rooms that I am not using.

My sitting room has both a large radiator and a living flame wood burning stove - in a quandry about which one to use. I have double glazing, long curtains and will probably go use the sitting room for about 3 to 4 hours each evening. So which one is more is cheaper to run?

My second question ( which is probably dumber than the last) - I have a thermostat - which I assume runs all the radiators, even though radiator has their own! What should I set that at?

If I turn the timer on and set the thermostat to 20, do the radiators only heat up, if the temp drops below 20 degrees.

I basically know nothing about central heating :-(

At least I have shopped around to the cheapest tariff in my area :-)

Any advice for novice central heating girl!

Thanks

spiro

With GSH you need to set two things: hot water heating times and radiator times. For hot water if its just you you probably get away with half hour early morning (before you get up) and early evening depending on when you shower and wash up.

Heating - the main thermostat switches off the boiler once that area reaches the temp it is set to, the thermostats on the rads cut the hot water flow to them when the reach the temp you set them to. Most people suggest you set the main stat to about 20 and then set each room as required. Again you probably want it on when its colder overnight to come on for about half hour before you get up and again set to switch on half hour before you get home from work.

When you say "living flame wood burning stove" I assume you mean a wood burner and not a gas fire that looks like a wood fire. If its the former I would use this if yuo can get wood cheaply. You can also make brickets to burn using old newspaper. If its the latter dont use it as most heat goes up the flue.

llh189

Thanks Spiro!

My water is a combi boiler, which I assume is a good thing!

My fire in the sitting room is a gas living flame to I presume I should avoid using this and switch the radiator on instead?

Shame though as when it is on it is really pretty!

The only problem with the radiator, is that my sofa has to go against that wall an kind of blocks the whole thing!

Still very glad mind to even have heating - my last place had none and was flippin' freezing!

shortchanged_2

llh189 wrote: »

Thanks Spiro!



My fire in the sitting room is a gas living flame to I presume I should avoid using this and switch the radiator on instead?

Shame though as when it is on it is really pretty!

Not sure about this, gas fires use a fraction of an amount that a combi boiler would use. Go and look at your meter while each one is on for proof! If you are confining yourself mainly to the 1 room then I'm sure it will be fine to use the gas fire, you probably won't need it set too high, particularly if the place is reasonably well insulated.

Joyful

Living flame gas fires can be very uneconomical especially the older ones. It is usually cheaper to run the central heating at the correct temp on the radiators rather than the fire especially if you set the thermostatic valves correctly .

shortchanged_2

Joyful wrote: »

Living flame gas fires can be very uneconomical especially the older ones. It is usually cheaper to run the central heating at the correct temp on the radiators rather than the fire especially if you set the thermostatic valves correctly .

But they are so much more cosy.

Joyful

If you want to pay lots of money to heat just one room you are of course at liberty to do that. I agree they give the room a cosy feel but I'll stick with my central heating.

dannymccann

Its probably worth leaving the radiators in the rooms you dont use on 1 just so they heat up a little bit, otherwise if the doors are shut you can end up with cold zones in the house and this encourages damp?

edit - im asking rather than telling here

Cardew

dannymccann wrote: »

Its probably worth leaving the radiators in the rooms you dont use on 1 just so they heat up a little bit, otherwise if the doors are shut you can end up with cold zones in the house and this encourages damp?

edit - im asking rather than telling here

Having rooms cold does not 'encourage damp'. They get damp because(mainly) of lack of ventilation or a leak.

If a room is warm the air can carry more moisture which masks the damp. This is why you see condensation on cold surfaces - outside windows or cold drinks from a fridge.

So there is no need to heat unused rooms in a house to prevent damp.

Ken68

It would be interesting, IIh189, how long it would take for the heat to equalize throughout the
house if only one room was heated. Maybe it never would reach, say, 20 degrees if the warmth is going to the cold areas.

dannymccann

Thanks Cardew for that

Ken, I know in our old 1920's terrace you could set the thermostat to 20 during the winter months and the radiators on 5 and it would belt heat out all day long and the boiler would never go off because the insulation and draughts were so bad it could never reach 20 before it lost all the heat!