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Is it best to keep heating on?

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I hope someone can help me as I am confused about what is best! What is the cheapest way to warm your house, is it to keep your heating on all day but on a low temperature? or is it cheaper to just put on for an hour or so in the morning and when I get home from work? (NB: I work from 8:45am to 6:30pm weekdays) Your help will be greatly appreciated.
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  • KimYeovil
    KimYeovil Posts: 6,156 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    What does your meter tell you?

    Try both and see which your bones and your pockets prefer.
  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,059 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Rampant Recycler
    Timed is cheapest!
  • JasX
    JasX Posts: 3,996 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    KATELM76 wrote: »
    I hope someone can help me as I am confused about what is best! What is the cheapest way to warm your house, is it to keep your heating on all day but on a low temperature? or is it cheaper to just put on for an hour or so in the morning and when I get home from work? (NB: I work from 8:45am to 6:30pm weekdays) Your help will be greatly appreciated.


    the following will drive up your costs:

    -The longer you have your heating on
    -The higher the temperature you have it set at

    Also the longer your house is 'hot' for the more heat you lose to the outside as you lose heat faster when its hotter. (good insulation and keeping doors closed helps here).

    Finally adjust your radiators to not heat rooms you don't need to.



    Ideas about keeping your heating on all day to save money are the preserve of people who failed basic science at school i'm afraid.

    Look at your meters.
  • If its not on its costing nothing simples
  • I used to work and had my heating timed to come on in the morning so I would be warm when I got up, the heating went off when I went to work and then the heating came on when I got home from my work.

    07:00 to 08:00 then 16:30 to 22:30.

    Then I retired and now my heating is on all day. 08:00 to 24:00. I go to bed later now but get up later as well.

    And surprise, surprise, or maybe not, I use more gas now than when I worked. 19,100 kWh in the last year as against 17,500 when I worked, which at my present tariff .03p per kWh approx, is costing me £48 more which works out at £6 per month for the 8 months of the year my heating is switched on.

    In conclusion, it costs more to have the heating on all day but the cost is not horrendous, at least for me, less than £1 more each day.

    Which I reluctantly pay because I like to be comfortable.

    However if I go out I turn the thermostat down to about 14 deg C and turn it back up when I return but only because it is easier to turn the thermostat down as I go out the door than switch the heating off. And the house returns to my desired temperature quite quickly.

    In fact most of the time the temperature has not dropped to below 14 deg C when I return, so I might not even do that if I am only out for a couple of hours.

    Another in fact, even though here in Scotland the temperature is dropping to minus 10 deg C or more, when my heating is off all night, the temperature in my kitchen has never dropped below 10 deg C despite the fact that there is a large ventilator for my gas heating, probably the 9 kWh of pilot lights help.
  • Sublime_2
    Sublime_2 Posts: 15,741 Forumite
    Its cheaper for me on timed.

    I've recently put it on constant, and my gas useage has nearly doubled, so will be going back to timed.

    I've turned my boiler flame down to the 1/2 way mark, and all radiators are on a minimal setting.
  • cbrpaul
    cbrpaul Posts: 756 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 6 December 2010 at 1:12PM
    this is my food of thought!!!

    My working week, heating comes on low at 5am, and is timed off at 7am

    Home at 5pm , heating on for evening comfort,

    heating off 10pm , Unless its a very very cold one ie -4 and below then heating left on low on stat , say 14degC,

    Same in the day day , if its a very -4 and below day then its left on very low,

    I find this is far better than turning off all day and night , as it takes a good few hours of full blast to take the chill out of the house before you feel any benefit,

    Weekends heating left on low all day , stat raised at night !!

    So my way is to take the outside temp into consideration , and either

    A: Timed on and off during the day and night
    B: On 24/7 but controlled via the room stat , if exceptionally cold ,
    and there has beena few of them lately !!

    Hope that helps you make your decision,
  • KimYeovil
    KimYeovil Posts: 6,156 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Cardew wrote: »
    Timed is cheapest!
    Untimed is even cheaper. (That is, not having it go on and off twice a day at the same times regardless of what you are doing.)
  • j2011
    j2011 Posts: 238 Forumite
    as it takes a good few hours of full blast to take the chill out of the house before you feel any benefit

    One of the reasons to have the heating on but at a lower thermostat setting.

    If your house cools down to 10 deg C when the heating is off during the day and takes 4 hours at full blast to get to 21 deg C yet if the thermostat is set at 16 deg C and the heating is on and then it only takes 1 hour to raise the temperature to 21 deg C it sometimes might be more economical to have the heating on but at a lower temperature.

    This is where a programmable thermostat would be ideal.

    The only way to find out is to experiment and read your meter every day to find out what is economical compared to comfort.
  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,059 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Rampant Recycler
    KimYeovil wrote: »
    Untimed is even cheaper. (That is, not having it go on and off twice a day at the same times regardless of what you are doing.)

    The OP's question asked for the cheapest method between two alternatives , constant or timed!

    Timed is cheapest!!!!
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