Is your heating ON or OFF?

debtmess

mine was on for a few hours earlier its now off until tomorrow night unless its so cold it comes on itself during the night, not done too badly since i last put credit on, still have 31 on it and topping up more tomorrow

Sylvan

Our boiler's set at 1. I've no idea what that equates to.
The gravity-fed radiator on the landing just stays warm till the water in the tank has cooled down:(
We never have hot water downstairs anyway, no matter how hot it is in the tank, because the pipes that bring it down are embedded in the outside wall and all the heat disappears en route (Sometimes the water from the hot tap is colder than the water from the cold tap:rotfl:).

YORKSHIRELASS

Fed up now. Ran out of heating oil on Sunday (this is OH's fault - dont ask, safe to say he feels pretty bad about it). Our local supplier says they would try and get to us Weds/Thurs this week and we know some people are waiting weeks for a delivery so thats pretty good. However, no oil yet and the house just seems to be getting colder and colder, or is that my imagination?

We have still got a foot of lying snow, hasnt moved at all since it started coming down 2 weeks ago. Night-time temperatures have been down to -15 and daytime temperatures never get above -3 or -4. We have got heating, in the form of open fires and electric heaters but its just not warming the house up properly. I am ashamed to say I let DS go to bed without brushing his teeth tonight, the bathroom was just so cold.

My heart goes out to anyone who cant afford to put their heating on, its horrible getting up on a morning to a freezing cold house. I guess this situation is our own fault but I just needed a moan. Like I say I am really really sympathetic to anyone who is cold because they cant afford heating.

Anyway, off to my nice warm bed with a hot water bottle now. Keep safe everyone.

Ben84

keicar wrote: »

To put to bed the debate on if its cheaper to keep the heating on low all day, next week going to do a little experiment and leave my heating on low during the day and track my useage, and compare to a normal week of 3 and a half hours per day, will report back on my findings!

Unfortunately, you may find it difficult to prove, or worse come to an incorrect conclusion. The weather is a very variable factor and this week is unlikely to match last week day by day to any great extent. Last week we had one night that went down to -7, which was certainly an expensive night for our boiler, but with a bit of luck it won't happen again this week. The amount of heat you gain each day from the sun will be very different, and I suspect that you may be using gas for cooking and hot water, which too will be potentially very different each day. Then there's how often and how long you open the windows, and if you use a gas fire that's adding even more variables. Unfortunately, there are likely to be too many variables in the average house to use it to really get a clear answer. I've been tracking my average gas and electric use for a while now, and despite rarely changing the heating controls, total weekly spend goes anywhere from £20 to £35 for no obvious reason, often with big dips and peaks in use that I just can't explain.

However, there's no real doubt that leaving the heating on all the time costs more. It's really a maths and physics problem. All the variables that are significant, the efficiency and gas input are fixed, for example my boiler is about 60% efficient and has a 16 kW burner that can be either on or off. The only variable that can change is the number of hours a day the boiler runs.

Fortunately there's no penalty for stopping or starting, in fact your boiler normally stops and starts itself in response to the thermostat many times an hour while heating your house without any loss of useful energy. This is how for example a 16 kW boiler can deliver any number of kW per hour between 0-16 to your house depending on how hot you want it and how cold it is outside. The kW output is fixed, but not the kWh consumption as this is a product of time and the boiler run time can vary to give any output you want up to it's maximum.

The main point is that time matters, and only time. You can't save gas by increasing the running time, and as all the other important variables are fixed, there's no way to break the rules and get more heat out your radiators while putting less gas in to your boiler - or conversely there's no situation where your use habits cause the boiler to use more gas and deliver less heat. You can look at it however you like, it's the same thing.

ixwood

There is no debate. Leaving it on constantly and especially when the house is unoccupied WILL cost more.

Does anyone leave the kettle on 24/7 just so it's ready when you need it?

[Deleted User]

We have a very similar wood pellet stove to our neighbour, who lives in an identical detached house and both houses are are extremely well insulated (eco standard 5) so the outside temperature does not have a big effect if the doors are kept shut. They are away and their stove is set on a timer to come on twice a day for a short time. We are looking after their house for a few days so go in to check things are ok. The timer setting is how they usually have it and they use a similar amount of pellets to us. When their stove comes on it really blazes the whole time as it brings the room up to temperature and the pellets are gobbled up but the rest of the house has no chance of being warmed in the time

Our stove is on from 5am to 11pm and our house never really cools down, the difference between us and next door at the moment is that our doors are opened more often as we are here all the time. Going into their house, there is a chill and coming back to ours, there is no chill and it feels warm. Our stove just ticks over all day and the fabric of the building stays warm

so my conclusion is that keeping the heating on low retains the warmth in the fabric and leads to a much more comfortable living temperature. The amount of fuel used is the same

This of course is dependent on the level of insulation being of platinum standard, otherwise heat will keep escaping from the `normal` home and the above conclusion won`t apply

Lotus-eater

ixwood wrote: »

There is no debate. Leaving it on constantly and especially when the house is unoccupied WILL cost more.

Does anyone leave the kettle on 24/7 just so it's ready when you need it?

I would agree, but in practice I've found the opposite.

I think it depends on temperature inside wanted, also, I've found it depends on the house and the level of insulation, it also depends on the temp outside.
There is also a trade off between increased comfort and maybe a tiny increase in fuel usage.

In practice I've found it better to leave the heating on at a low rate when we are not in the house for short periods, say up to a working day. For longer periods we leave it on, but lower.
14 degrees for the day and 12 for longer periods.

If it is turned off completely, the house is too cold when we get home, then takes ages to warm up, using large amounts of fuel.
I've been monitoring my fuel usage for 12 or so years and I've found this way to be the best for fuel and for the amount of comfort.

keicar

Ben84 wrote: »

Unfortunately, you may find it difficult to prove, or worse come to an incorrect conclusion.

Absolutely, and aware of it, however as the weather forecast is more mild over the weekend and early next week, if I do use more gas (which I suspect I will) its obvious what the answer will be.

I fully understand all the science, and I've no doubt you're right, but sometimes its good to prove things for yourself! It would also give me an idea to the difference in cost, it may be minimal, in which case I may consider leaving it on low all day.

uolypool

Mine is off atm . It is set to come on for couple of hours in morning then again in evening.As it is really only me and dog here during the day we snuggle up under the duvet on the settee.Seriously the heat he pumps out on my toes is greatly recieved:D.Much better than socks or hot water bottle. Wish I could convince him to sleep on bottom of my bed but he just won't as has always slept in his basket downstairs.I think he must think he will be told off if he puts so much as a paw on the stairs.

shegar

Its absolutely freezing all day here again,weather forecast said temps would warm up well we are waiting...!! had heating on all day, still all my garden paths have ice on them, and the front concrete drive is still like a ice rink....no thaw at all, im tired and grumpy of this dam weather enough is enough..:mad: