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

oldskoo1

Good thread which always emerges in varies forms each year.

Simple fact is no matter which way you cut it, regardless of boiler efficiency or insulation, constant heating will cost more. It might not cost much more at these mild temperatures but it will as heat loss speeds up when it's freezing outside.

I personally moved from timed heating at around 21c-23c 10 years ago, to 24/7 heating, back to timed and now perfectly balanced a 16.5c from 6am to 10pm.

This for me works, the methods changed for each house but i realised after balancing my radiators and monitoring my boiler and rads, a hall stat temp of 18.5c essentially just kept the heating on much longer than necessary. All my radiators have TRV's apart from the hall. By the 30-40 min mark all rooms were warm and most if not all TRV's had switched off the valves. I.e. rooms were between 19 and 22c. But my small hall radiator next to a slightly draft front door has the the task of raising that hall space to 18.5c to satisfy a wall stat 10 ft away. By monitoring the boiler i realised it was simply staying on for 1 radiator the hall stat. It began short cycling so i adjust the stat temp down by 2c at 16.5c and it now turns off just after all my TRV's turn off. That in itself has saved me some money.

So a little bit of monitoring and correctly setting up the radiators, trv's and wall stat can work well and save on how much gas you burn.

Cardew

oldskoo1 wrote: »

I personally moved from timed heating at around 21c-23c 10 years ago, to 24/7 heating, back to timed and now perfectly balanced a 16.5c from 6am to 10pm.

IMO 16.5C is well below the comfort level, unless you are working in the house.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5372296.stm

24C - top range of comfort
21C - recommended living room temperature
Less than 20C - death risk begins
18C - recommended bedroom temperature
16C - resistance to respiratory diseases weakened
12C - more than two hours at this temperature raises blood pressure and increases heart attack and stroke risk
5C - Significant risk of hypothermia

Source: West Midlands Public Health Observatory

DragonQ

Are those figures for people wearing T-shirts and shorts? My living room has been 17-19 degrees for about 2 months now...I just wear a jumper.

donfanatico

"Less than 20C - death risk begins"

Seriously? LOL

Cardew

donfanatico wrote: »

"Less than 20C - death risk begins"

Seriously? LOL

To understand the context, you need to read the article.

He said very few of the deaths were caused by true hypothermia, where the core body temperature drops significantly.



"Most of them are due to strokes and heart attacks.

"This is because the blood becomes more liable to clot in people who are exposed to the cold."











When exposed to cold, the body contracts down the blood vessels in the skin to stop blood flowing to the skin and to prevent heat loss.

This means more of the blood circulates to central parts of the body, which overloads the heart and lungs with blood.
The body gets rid of fluid to reduce this load by excreting salt and water, but the net result is the blood becomes more concentrated and liable to clot.

I know I wouldn't be comfortable at 16.5C reading or watching TV. 20C to 21C is my preferred range.

oldskoo1

16.5c is my hall temperature. I was saying in my post that the time it takes my hall to warm up from 16c to 17c is just slightly longer than the time it takes all my rooms to reach the desired temperatures set by the TRVs. Which ranges from 19c to 22c.

By setting the hall to it's previous setting of 18.5c it simply just keeps the boiler on longer which is already short cycling because all my trv's have closed the radiators.

My hall is large and slightly draft with a small radiator about 10ft from the stat.

So for me 16.5c gives adequate time for all the rooms to reach their set temperatures without taking longer to heat the hall to a higher temperature.

John_Pierpoint

Cardew wrote: »

IMO 16.5C is well below the comfort level, unless you are working in the house.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5372296.stm

24C - top range of comfort
21C - recommended living room temperature
Less than 20C - death risk begins
18C - recommended bedroom temperature
16C - resistance to respiratory diseases weakened
12C - more than two hours at this temperature raises blood pressure and increases heart attack and stroke risk
5C - Significant risk of hypothermia

Source: West Midlands Public Health Observatory

It is inactive old people who are at serious risk of getting a stroke - that is one of the reasons we give them a heating allowance.
Sitting in front of the TV (or even on the internet) without regular exercise also risks other effects such as leg ulcers and all those obesity diseases..

A heated throw uses less power than an old type light bulb.

NowRetired

When I am sitting watching the TV at night when the heating goes off I feel cold when the temperature drops 1 deg C lower, that's when I go to my bed.

bestyman

Oldskool makes a good point.

Setting your roomstat to say 21c and expecting all rooms to be 21 assumes that all radiators are sized correctly, so all room in the house heat up evenly. It also assumes that the room stat is situated perfectly, not above a radiator and not near a draughty door. The height of the roomstat also plays a part.

In reality certain rooms are colder than others. In Oldskools case the hall, so setting the thermostat to lower would work well for him.

I've just bought a Sirus IT500 internet thermostat that can be controlled from my phone. As I work irregular hours and often away at weekend the plan is to turn the heating on 20 minutes before I get home. Hopefully should save a lot of gas this way.

PS Oldskool, you need to sort that draft out ;o)

st999

Setting your roomstat to say 21c

That is assuming your thermostat is accurate and has the temperature on it.

What happens when your room thermostat only has the numbers 1 to 9 on it?

You sit an accurate digital thermometer on top of it and take note of what the temperature shows according to the number on the dial.

Then you disregard what the temperature is anyway and set it to what you are comfortable with.

I always have my thermostat set at 6.5 on its dial.