Is it cheaper to leave central heating on?

plantgirl

Am pondering if it is cheaper to leave the central heating on all day when we are at home ie weekends etc because it will reach the temperature and then switch off and fire up only periodically throughout the day rather than work really hard to reach the temperature later in the day after it has been off for a good while. Would anybody know? Thanks

TimBear

No! It's not cheaper!

Just think - you use a lot of fuel turning your car on but you wouldn't leave it on all day just in case you need it, because clearly that wouldn't be cheaper.

DVardysShadow

plantgirl wrote: »

Am pondering if it is cheaper to leave the central heating on all day when we are at home ie weekends etc because it will reach the temperature and then switch off and fire up only periodically throughout the day rather than work really hard to reach the temperature later in the day after it has been off for a good while. Would anybody know? Thanks

Done to death many times over every year. Search this forum.

Ben84

If you want to save energy, you should turn it off when you don't want heating.

If you were to leave in running all day it might only appear to switch on occasionally, burning small amounts of gas each time, but if you add them up it will always use than turning it off and back on again later. The key difference is the time during which you maintain your house at a higher temperature. It doesn't just take energy input to heat houses, it takes energy to keep them heated as they're constantly losing heat through the external surfaces. Overcoming these heat losses for a longer time requires more heat input.

Now, admittedly in a well insulated house the difference in gas use, particularly if you only turn the heating off for a short while, could be fairly small. However, the basic principles here are the laws of physics and heat transfers, so I can be very confident of the statement it will be using less gas to turn it off. How much less though depends. It might not be much of a saving, while for some houses it can be a big saving.

MarkyMarkD

Boilers are also more efficient when working "hard" than when cycling on and off all the time.

Definitely not better to leave it on all the time.

C_Mababejive

Dohhh...

Heating on ? > meter turns
Heating off? > meter doesnt turn

Simples....

redboy1

Yes leaving it on for 24 hours will cost less than a few hours :undecided

You could always try it by checking the meter

jalexa

plantgirl wrote: »

Am pondering if it is cheaper to leave the central heating on all day when we are at home ie weekends etc

Do you want to save money or to be comfortable?

If you want to save money don't put the heating on at all:cool:. If you want to be comfortable have the heating on as low as you are comfortable with when you are in all day. But heat infrequently occupied rooms less than living areas.

A good programmable stat located in a living area would allow you to choose your own steady temperatures at different times of day, for example higher in the morning and evening, but lower during the day when you are more active. If you heat "high" at times you will simply feel cold when it is "not high".

Pincher

The Church of the Fuel Poverty rises on the wave of cold and misery spreading up the economic spectrum.
A Siberian monk called Boris Putin comes forth, claiming to be 5th Generation descendant of Vladimir Rasputin.
He moves around in a thermal lined cassock and Birkenstock sandles, which are indeed warm when outdoors.
He advocates mutual help, and sets up pooling schemes where people take turns heating their house up,
and have other members coming to stay, like car pooling. As the movement gathers pace,
they build Mongolian yurts from recycled materials in winter to save the homeless.
With coming of spring. They burn the yurt and have a party.

All goes well, until a schism develops in the ideology.
One group contends that it is better to heat the house continuously, whereas the other group wants to heat on and off.
For a start, it means the guest members who heat continuously at home feel the cold when staying at the on/off household.
Secondly, it is inherently unfair in that the continuous heating household burns more gas.
The on/off householders insist on their way of heating is better, and construct an entire system of rationalisation around it,
when basically they rather save money than stay warm.
Obviously, on/off households only shared with on/offers, and the continuous households shared with like minded.
As the continuous heaters tend to be slightly better off economically, an apartheid mentality develops.
With social separation, suspicion and animosity grow. The on/offers call the continuous heaters "conts",
and the continuous heaters call the on/offers "offals".

Dwindling world fuel resources lead to collapse of civil order,
but the Church with its ready made social bonds managed to maintain organisation amongst its members,
and becomes a force to be reckoned with.
This power is now irressistible to the power hungry,
and the church elite now divide into the natural Cont and Offal factions.

The struggle to gather and control food, water and fuel intensifies, and cannibalism become acceptable.
Hundreds of years down the line, and people have forgotten the original mutual idea.
One rule only is sacresanct: Conts don't eat Conts, and Offals don't eat Offals.