Energy myth-busting: Is it cheaper to have heating on all day?

BUFF

Spies said:

Temperature in my front room raises 1c per hour which I thought was the average? 

with my heating system as currently run (& I always have the option to crank up the flow temperature) in my brick/stone Edwardian mid-terrace (not the best insulated) I am probably half that .
But then again, over a normal working day (10 hours) in Winter it would probably only lose ~1.5C. Today, between 09:30 & 17:30 it lost 0.5C. 

Spies

Lose 1.5c from what temperature?

When my heating goes off at 9pm (19c or therabouts) I seem to lose 0.5c an hour until it stabalises to about 16c - so that's what my setback is at. 

BUFF

Spies said:

Lose 1.5c from what temperature?

When my heating goes off at 9pm (19c or therabouts) I seem to lose 0.5c an hour until it stabalises to about 16c - so that's what my setback is at. 

16C. It loses about 0.25C/hour (obviously varies subject to external temp. & time of day [solar gain]) in Winter without heating on. Stabilises at ~13C if left off long enough to get down that far.

orrery

Cardew said:

I will re-visit this burning issue; but I have yet to calculate exactly how much heat is wasted by heating the body of the kettle.

You could just stick a power meter on it!

Keruge

Cardew said:

BikingBud said:

You'll be telling me I make coffee the wrong way next

In the spirit of this thread may I make the following suggestion:

If you make the coffee with cold water and then put the cup in a microwave to heat to your required temperature it is more efficient.

Making some assumptions I have calculated that a 3 cups a day person will save 4.12kWh a year!

I do not have heating on, I noticed that the temperature of my home does increase after I get up and make instant coffee.

I always have the kettle empty and I use a cup to only boil what I need. 

I reheat in Microwave if and when it gets cold but it never comes out right if microwaved from the beginning.

Now you have got me interested in total cost per day on coffee as I need a detox anyway.

I have the kettle and the Microwave on same adapter so I will find out.

Honestly, best tip I can give is to turn down the fridge temp while using a thermometer inside the fridge, put meat in bottom which is coldest part.

Also reduce brightness on TV, I saw that tip and I think it saved me 15 to 24 kwh per month.

I also found it is cheaper to use things like bluetooth speakers on mains than the cost of charging them.  So Amazon globe shaped device means only have to charge the battery speaker every 40 days rather than every 6 or 7 days.  

I am now doing same for laptop, making sure I only use battery when essential.

I have started to use Alexa to turn things off periodically nothing on standby overnight or even during the day.

Philips Hue also turned off at night

All of this seems pointless with standing charge hike.

Ultrasonic

Keruge said:

Also reduce brightness on TV, I saw that tip and I think it saved me 15 to 24 kwh per month.

It's the backlight/OLED light setting that most directly affects power consumption by a TV when playing the same content. The brightness setting actually does something rather different (it, bizarrely, is for optimising black level calibration).

Do you have an old plasma TV? If not I'm very skeptical you've really saved as much electricity as you think have.

gpr1

My house has room thermostat in kitchen diner with underfloor heating supplied from combi boiler and rest of house with radiators fitted with thermostatic valves.. The thermostat for rest of house( aside from kitchen diner) is located in hallway just inside front door.. would this be better sited in front lounge and hallway controlled by use of thermostatic radiator valve? Never understood why most ? people have room thermostat in hallway. Thanks for replies.

Cardew

gpr1 said:

My house has room thermostat in kitchen diner with underfloor heating supplied from combi boiler and rest of house with radiators fitted with thermostatic valves.. The thermostat for rest of house( aside from kitchen diner) is located in hallway just inside front door.. would this be better sited in front lounge and hallway controlled by use of thermostatic radiator valve? Never understood why most ? people have room thermostat in hallway. Thanks for replies.

Anywhere the room thermostat is situated is a compromise and there is no ' one size fits all' solution.

It is possible, and normally not too expensive, to get a portable thermostat that controls the heating wirelessly and by trial and error you can move it from room to room to cater for your changing requirements.

Chrysalis

Most of the answers seem common sense, but the cling film got my interest, I have really draughty windows which my landlord is never going to fix.

For that reason I dont really use heating because it all just escapes.

luvchocolate

Chrysalis said:

Most of the answers seem common sense, but the cling film got my interest, I have really draughty windows which my landlord is never going to fix.

For that reason I dont really use heating because it all just escapes.

In winter I put clear tape round the opening of draughty windows