Best option?

ABetterLife

Hey all,

Really need to reduce my high energy bills (mainly gas) so was wondering if you can advise which is cheaper:

A) Heating on low at all times

Heating switched on at all times but adjusted at the thermostat (e.g - if I'm cold, put it up to 30 degrees and when I'm hot, put it to 0 degrees)

C) My current method of switch it on for a bit if I need it and put it on a timer when I'm out of the house a lot.

Thanks!

matelodave

get yourself a programmable thermostat so that the temperature gets adjusted according you your requirements. If you want heat in the morning when you get up turn the heating on a bout half an hour before you need it and then off about half an hour before you go to work. If that's not enough turn it on a bit earlier. Likewise set the timer/stat to turn the heating on again just before you get home and off about an hour before you go to bed. Most places have enough thermal mass that they wont cool right down unless it's really cold. You don't usually need to heat the place overnight or during the day if you aren't there - if you are then just adjust the temperature for comfort.
Turning it up to 30 won't speed up the heating time, it will just eventually make the room too hot so you'll be wasting energy by over heating the house. Also there's no point it getting cold either.

JJ_Egan

Set your boiler by lowering until you get a not overhot at the radiators .
Set radiators individually to a lower heat setting in rooms that dont get much use . Either by radiator thermo stats or by turning down the radiator valves .
Set room thermostat to a just on position and mark then another mark for hot radiators .
Heating on all day and starts one hour before anyone gets up . Later in the day i drop the room stat slightly off the mark .
The aim is to have the rads as barely warm to warm most of the day a sort of trickle charge .Its on 7am to 10pm as i have a 96 year old to keep warm .
Dual fuel dd winter period £79 pm .

ABetterLife

matelodave wrote: »

get yourself a programmable thermostat so that the temperature gets adjusted according you your requirements. If you want heat in the morning when you get up turn the heating on a bout half an hour before you need it and then off about half an hour before you go to work. If that's not enough turn it on a bit earlier. Likewise set the timer/stat to turn the heating on again just before you get home and off about an hour before you go to bed. Most places have enough thermal mass that they wont cool right down unless it's really cold. You don't usually need to heat the place overnight or during the day if you aren't there - if you are then just adjust the temperature for comfort.
Turning it up to 30 won't speed up the heating time, it will just eventually make the room too hot so you'll be wasting energy by over heating the house. Also there's no point it getting cold either.

What's a programmable thermostat? Also, as I'm a council tenant, would I need their permission to install it?

That's what I was doing before, having the heating come on an hour before I get up for work/uni then switching off when I leave, and having the heating come back on an hour before I'm due home then switch off when I've been in the house for a few hours, but my bills were really high!

Luckily, this place is naturally warm, especially when the heating has been on for even 15 mins/half an hour.

So you're opting for option C?

ABetterLife

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Set your boiler by lowering until you get a not overhot at the radiators .
Set radiators individually to a lower heat setting in rooms that dont get much use . Either by radiator thermo stats or by turning down the radiator valves .
Set room thermostat to a just on position and mark then another mark for hot radiators .
Heating on all day and starts one hour before anyone gets up . Later in the day i drop the room stat slightly off the mark .
The aim is to have the rads as barely warm to warm most of the day a sort of trickle charge .Its on 7am to 10pm as i have a 96 year old to keep warm .
Dual fuel dd winter period £79 pm .

How do I do that?

I can defo switch the heating on the radiators down though. At the moment, I only need it really hot in the bedroom (no pun intended ) so I could turn them down in the living room and hallway.

I'm a little bit confused by the rest of your post though. I'm quite new to all of this if I'm honest with you :embarasse

Jealous of your bills! How big is your place?