on timer or all the time

portland44

Hi

Just moved into a new house where the previous owners kept there heating and hot water on all the time, regulating the temp with the thermostat.

I have always put my heating on a timer for a few hours each day.

What is more cost effective?

ariba10

If you ran your car engine all the time or only when you needed to.

What would be the cheaper?

portland44

Yeah point taken but you would never run your car all the time.

If you turn on your heating would it use more to heat a cold house or less to maintain the heat in the long run?

Farway

There are numerous threads on this, it is more cost effective to turn them off when not needed


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=38033

macman

portland44 wrote: »

Yeah point taken but you would never run your car all the time.

If you turn on your heating would it use more to heat a cold house or less to maintain the heat in the long run?

Another analogy then? Would you keep your kettle boiling 24/7 because it's cheaper to boil it from 'hot' than from 'cold'? Thought not.
The longer it's on, the more it costs, because the house is constantly losing heat unless the insulation is 100% efficient.
Leaving heating and hot water on 24/7 may be more convenient, but it's certainly not cheaper. Although heat loss from a properly lagged cylinder is very low., and (at least in winter) serves to heat the house.

daveyjp

With modern thermostats and timers on auto the system works on thermostat anyway. Ours is set to frost temp at 5 degrees then at set periods the temp is set to either 16 or 18 degrees depending on time of day. If the actual room temp is more than 1.5 degrees above the temp set on the thermostat the heating is off.

The only time it is off is in summer when the thermostat controller is turned off.

portland44

Thanks Farway

Just taken a look and still none the wiser

portland44

My boiler therm is set at 60. Is is better to lower it and if so to what?

MillicentBystander

Said this before on here, I've completely stopped using a timer. They were surely designed by the industry to get more cash out of you. My theory is we have become so incredibly wuss when it comes to the cold that we are wasting £££££s by timing our heating so that everything is toasty warm when we wake up/return home etc. I come from an era when such a thing just wasn't possible, there was no central heating and in Winter, on occasions, there was actually ice on the inside of my bedroom window. I survived, I'm in my 50s now and recently passed a full medical MOT with flying colours.

My (pampered) kids think I've gone mad scrapping the timer but, you see, they don't pay the bills! I'm lucky enough to be in a position to comfortably pay my heating bills WITH a timer but choose not to pay this industry a penny more than I absolutely need to. You get up, you put your dressing gown on, you put the heating on, 15 mins later the temp is fine. What's the problem?

portland44

Thanks for that so do I lower the boiler temp?

macman

portland44 wrote: »

Thanks for that so do I lower the boiler temp?

DHW circuit (which I presume is what you are referring to) should be set to minimum 60C to avoid legionella in the tank.
If you lower the CH flow temp, it'll just take longer to warm the house to the temp set by the room 'stat-it won't save you any energy.