Central Heating - which is more cost effective

moneybunny123

Probably the wrong time of year to be asking this, but...

Is it more cost efficient to have your boiler/thermostat turned low and all your radiators turned up to their highest setting

OR

to have the boiler/thermostat turned up really high, and the radiator valves on their lowest setting?

Something I've always wondered...

MX5huggy

Both will have the same effect, a cold grumpy wife, if the stat is set low then it will never demand heat from the boiler no mater what the TRVS are set to.

If the rads are low and the stat high then the boiler will fire briefly until the water getting back to the boiler is too hot and it will switch off, and repeat the cycle.

diable

Best to have a programable stat and to keep an ambient temperature throughout the house.

muckybutt

Reply deleted

Norman_Castle

Radiator valves, TRVs should be set midway (70 degrees), and then adjusted up or down in small amounts for comfort. Not overheating a room will save money. On my boiler there are two temperature adjustments, one for water temperature and one for radiator temperature. I have tried to find info on the most economical setting for radiator boiler temperature without success. Mine is set to around 75 degrees, my bills are low.

moneybunny123

Thanks for all your replies, but the question still hasn't really been answered. Obviously a thermostat helps to keep a house at a convenient temperature, but there must be an answer to my question. Boiler/thermo high and radiators low OR boiler/thermo low and radiators high. One way MUST surely use less gas or oil than the other???

Mankysteve

The most efficient temp on the boilers will be one that cuts out the boiler shortly after all the TRV's have cut out the water supply to the rads. In reality this is hard to determine. The additional pipework in the house won't leak a large amount of heat in compared with what your rads do and don't need much energy input to raise the water temps to tell the boiler its time to cut out. So the boiler temp won't make a huge difference if your using TRV's.

ariba10

What ever way you look at it, it takes X amount of heat to get Y temperature.

The hotter and bigger the the heat source the quicker it will get there.

john_white

moneybunny123 wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies, but the question still hasn't really been answered. Obviously a thermostat helps to keep a house at a convenient temperature, but there must be an answer to my question. Boiler/thermo high and radiators low OR boiler/thermo low and radiators high. One way MUST surely use less gas or oil than the other???

Why 'must' there be an answer. Surely the only way to determine this very specific question, relating to your property and lifestyle is to try both methods taking meter readings. Give a reasonable amount of time when it's cold outside.

Most people have different answers as it's totally subjective. Some support firing the boiler for a short time but high heat, other longer periods of lower heat.

Fulham_Mark

Look into Newton's laws of thermo-dynamics. 4th one (i think) would suggest that heating something to a higher temperature is less efficient that using the same amount of energy to heat more stuff to a lower temperature. So avoid turning up the boiler.

Underfloor heating only heats water to about 23 degrees but you heat the whole floor.

Another problem with radiators/heaters is that they create air-currents that actually cool you as the warmer air moves over your skin.

For homework, look into reverse refridgeration heating systems that can be 3x more efficient than conventional systems

aboard_epsilon

I hear the gas boilers are modulating theses days ..that means they can be set at barely ticking over .

I haven't got one yet ..but have done some reading ..i don't quite know whats what yet ..

but would assume, if you turned the boiler down as far as it would go ..and turned the wall stat to the temperature you required ..then that sort of boiler would would stay on a low setting all day ..just turning off occasionally when the wall stat cut out ..

it's bound to be more efficient that way ...than it doing the standing quarter of a mile, it would do, if it came on full throttle to get the results quickly..
Less heating up and cooling down, in the long ON cycles would also make the boiler last longer ...this only applies to a regular condensing modulating, tank in the loft type boiler, i plan to have ..and not, i dont think to a combi boiler.

it's like a car ..you drive at one low steady speed ..don't accelerate hard and you will save more fuel..and you will still get to your destination.

you need very efficient large capacity radiators for you to make the most of this

OF course, i can still be wrong on this ...maybe the way they design them ...will not meet my expectations...but if i was designing something ..that's how it would be designed ....you could always have the fast acceleration option ..just in case you need fast heat.

Alll the best.markj