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Optimal Boiler Settings
Hi
I was surprised not to find any info on this topic on the MSE website so I did a little investigation and testing, thought this might be of interest. It relates to gas central heating with an old boiler, and hot water tank.
1. Is it cheaper to have the heating on all day (tick over) or heat up from scratch again morning and evening - I found the less time the boiler is on the better, regardless of anything else, so i set my timer so in summer it comes on for up to 2 hours twice a day to heat the water (auto-off by stat on HW tank - set this to around 60 degrees C to stop bacteria growth) and in winter set it as short as possible to heat the house while you're in. Common sense stuff I guess but I had to check.
2. What is the best boiler heat output setting? I thought higher would be better, as it would heat the house/water faster, and then turn off sooner. In my case though, lower always uses less regardless of how long its on! So I turned it down a little each day until it heats the house/water just enough (even if it has to come on earlier).
Also I moved my house stat from the hall to the lounge because when the front door is opened the hall is immediately cold and the heating comes on for ages even though the house (apart from hall) is already hot.
To do the tests I took reading of the gas meter every day and charted it against the settings. Thought it would be good to kick off a discussion on this before winter sets in so people can think about optimising their settings. In my case my usage can vary by around half depending on the settings so its a big moneysaver! I expect more modern boilers are a lot better and don't need as much tweaking but who knows.
Would love to hear other's opinions on this!
Andy
I was surprised not to find any info on this topic on the MSE website so I did a little investigation and testing, thought this might be of interest. It relates to gas central heating with an old boiler, and hot water tank.
1. Is it cheaper to have the heating on all day (tick over) or heat up from scratch again morning and evening - I found the less time the boiler is on the better, regardless of anything else, so i set my timer so in summer it comes on for up to 2 hours twice a day to heat the water (auto-off by stat on HW tank - set this to around 60 degrees C to stop bacteria growth) and in winter set it as short as possible to heat the house while you're in. Common sense stuff I guess but I had to check.
2. What is the best boiler heat output setting? I thought higher would be better, as it would heat the house/water faster, and then turn off sooner. In my case though, lower always uses less regardless of how long its on! So I turned it down a little each day until it heats the house/water just enough (even if it has to come on earlier).
Also I moved my house stat from the hall to the lounge because when the front door is opened the hall is immediately cold and the heating comes on for ages even though the house (apart from hall) is already hot.
To do the tests I took reading of the gas meter every day and charted it against the settings. Thought it would be good to kick off a discussion on this before winter sets in so people can think about optimising their settings. In my case my usage can vary by around half depending on the settings so its a big moneysaver! I expect more modern boilers are a lot better and don't need as much tweaking but who knows.
Would love to hear other's opinions on this!
Andy
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Comments
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Hi
I was surprised not to find any info on this topic on the MSE website so I did a little investigation and testing, thought this might be of interest. It relates to gas central heating with an old boiler, and hot water tank.
1. Is it cheaper to have the heating on all day (tick over) or heat up from scratch again morning and evening - I found the less time the boiler is on the better, regardless of anything else, so i set my timer so in summer it comes on for up to 2 hours twice a day to heat the water (auto-off by stat on HW tank - set this to around 60 degrees C to stop bacteria growth) and in winter set it as short as possible to heat the house while you're in. Common sense stuff I guess but I had to check.
2. What is the best boiler heat output setting? I thought higher would be better, as it would heat the house/water faster, and then turn off sooner. In my case though, lower always uses less regardless of how long its on! So I turned it down a little each day until it heats the house/water just enough (even if it has to come on earlier).
Also I moved my house stat from the hall to the lounge because when the front door is opened the hall is immediately cold and the heating comes on for ages even though the house (apart from hall) is already hot.
To do the tests I took reading of the gas meter every day and charted it against the settings. Thought it would be good to kick off a discussion on this before winter sets in so people can think about optimising their settings. In my case my usage can vary by around half depending on the settings so its a big moneysaver! I expect more modern boilers are a lot better and don't need as much tweaking but who knows.
Would love to hear other's opinions on this!
Andy
No it isn't. The longer your boiler is on, the more gas it uses. For a fuller explanation I suggest you browse some of the dozens of other posts made by people who are under this delusion. As you rightly say, common sense stuff.
These usually start to appear with depressing regularity once autumn begins and temperatures drop!No free lunch, and no free laptop
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... Is it cheaper to have the heating on all day (tick over) or heat up from scratch again morning and evening
No, it's not.
That should be 65C.(auto-off by stat on HW tank - set this to around 60 degrees C to stop bacteria growth)
With old boilers, the boiler stat should be a tad under max as a rule of thumb.2. What is the best boiler heat output setting? I thought higher would be better,
Only if you have inefficient old fashioned controls..... lower always uses less regardless of how long its on!0 -
The theory is that the thermostat should be in coldest location. All other rooms should have a thermostatic valve on the radiator (TRV). The idea being that the coldest room takes the longest to warm up - along the way the other rooms will reach their temperature and the TRV turn off that radiator. By the time the coldest room reaches temperature, then the system switches off completely. It will only come back on to top up - all the TRVs will be automatically allow more top up in those rooms as and when is necessary.Also I moved my house stat from the hall to the lounge because when the front door is opened the hall is immediately cold and the heating comes on for ages even though the house (apart from hall) is already hot.
When you're down to only heating a few radiators rather than the whole system, the water probably returns to the boiler still hot, so either the boiler will run, but at a low ferocity or it may only be circulating the existing hot water (some boilers can even circulate at a slower speed so as to allow the water a longer time within the radiators so as to dissipate heat). Don't assume because the boiler is making noise it is running at full capacity.
By moving the stat, you're effectively moving the effect of opening the front door instead to opening the door to the hallway from the living room. You'll have hot and cold rooms, and draughts as a consequence under the doorways. You probably move around within your house more than you come and go out of the living room.0 -
No it's not, by default it should be in the lounge.The theory is that the thermostat should be in coldest location.
No it doesn't. In theory, all rads are sized to match the room's heat loss. The only thing that is evident when there is a "coldest" room, is that the heating capacity for that room is insufficient.The idea being that the coldest room takes the longest to warm up
No it won't. With a properly set up ch system, once the boiler and system have reached the designed working temperature, the water coming out of the rads is the same temperature for each rad, irrespective of how many are still on.When you're down to only heating a few radiators rather than the whole system, the water probably returns to the boiler still hot0 -
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I was surprised not to find any info on this topic on the MSE website
Can't have looked very hard then. It's a sure sign the temperatures are falling!
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Optimal boiler setting? Off ... though my wife tends to disagree!0
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Ha thanks for your replies. I suppose my point was, it might be possible to save even more money by optimising your setup than by switching providers so shouldn't it be mentioned on the website (rather than the forum)? Unless I missed it... sorry for kick starting the heating posts
And yes I did find plenty of posts discussing the heating on all day or not thing, but I didn't find much on boiler heat output settings, hot water tank stat setting, or anyone who had tested different settings and logged the gas/elec usage. I did the tests last winter when it was cold by the way, not just now in the mild weather.0 -
Yeah I put the timer on for 2 hours and then listened for when it turned itself off due to the tank stat. At my current setting it comes on for about an hour before it has heated the tank up to temperature. Interesting because I don't gain anything having it heat up faster, but it costs more (if you put your boiler on max it might take 1/2 hr). If I turn the boiler down to half then it starts taking longer e.g. after 2 hours its still going so its obviously not hot enough.0
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