What's your central heating timer settings?

mizfiesta

Hi everyone, I'm currently trying to reduce my gas/elec bills by using my heating more conservatively. The days are gone now I could switch it on and off when I felt a bit chilly. Now that the kids have grown up and left home I don't feel the need to have the heating on as much. I usually walk around in the day with a fleece jacket on if I'm cold.
Anway, I just wanted to gauge the habits of the rest of you with regards to your timer setting on your central heating. For example, do you have it come on for brief period several times a day or just in the evenings? I also wanted to ask if I needed to have the hot water advance 'switch' and central heating advance 'switch' to come on at the same time? Or does the heating part of the system heat the water anyway? Thanks in advance.

HappyMJ

Mines on all the time. Currently set to the night setting of 10 degrees. It rarely kicks in.

purple45

My central heating stays off until I have to use it. At the moment I use a convector heater to heat the room I'm in, when absolutely necessary. The central heating will come on when I get desperate and mainly to ensure the house doesn't get damp. In the worst of winter I'll set it to come on for 1 hour in the morning to help me get out of bed. Other than that, it is just an extra hour here and there if I have to.

spinningsheep

Ours is still off, we have had it on a few times over the last month or so just for an hour to take the chill off but we are using the multifuel stove in the lounge which heats the ground floor up to about 23 degrees in the current temperature outside. I'm guessing we will put it on when the temps start to fall below 5 or so in the evenings. First winter with new central heating system so we're going to try:

ON - 6.30am

OFF - 7.45am

ON - 5.00pm

OFF - 7pm

ON - 9pm

OFF - 10pm

Just to see how we get on. May turn it on or off manually if the need be like weekends or days when people are at home as we all work different shifts in this house!