cheaper to stay with E10 hours/plan with new heating system?

catalina66

matelodave wrote: »

If your system is set up correctly with low temperature radiators then you'll probably find that it takes ages to warm the place, that's why they are better left idling gently.

If we turn ours down too low overnight then the house won't warm up until quite late in the afternoon. The first winter we had our unit we turned it right down whilst we went away in December and it took two days to get the house back up to temperature again.

Our thermoststats have a holiday function which allows us to turn the system down when we are away but I need to make sure that it turns back on an least 24 hours before we return home to make sure that the place is warm enough.

We also only have our hot water on for two hours but the temperature is fixed to 45 degrees which gives us more than sufficient hot water for the two of us but of course isn't as hot as most people are used to - we don't need to mix much cold water with it, even in the shower

Thanks matelodave. You're right, it does take a while. If I make a change to the temperature using the remote, it takes about 15-20 minutes to kick in. There is a holiday function, but the workmen said to touch nothing except the temperature change bit, lol. Good that that function is helpful for you and your family. Yes, I'm not worried about hot water tbh; quick wash and dishes, as the shower heats itself, if times require, is okay. 2 hours heating water, in off-peak time, was the minimum and seemed best option at the time ... they were saying either 2 or 4. Not sure if 'off' was on the menu, but if things are proving too expensive, I imagine I could request that and see what happens.

matelodave

You will find that the electricity consumption is highly dependent on temperature, both inside and outside as the unit has to work a lot harder to produce heat if it's everso cold outside as it works on temperature difference.

ie if it's zero outside and the flow temperature through your rads is 40 degrees then the unit has t raise the temperature by 35 degrees. If it's only about 10 degrees outside then the unit only has to work hard enough to raise it by 25 degrees.

That's why I don't have my hot water heating early in the morning which is the coldest part of the day - unfortunately it's also when you've got off peak leccy as well so you could end up using more leccy although it's a bit cheaper.

I'd try reading the meter at least weekly at the moment to try and get a feel for what is happening - although we are coming out of the heating season so it's difficult to judge what will happen in the winter.

catalina66

matelodave wrote: »

You will find that the electricity consumption is highly dependent on temperature, both inside and outside as the unit has to work a lot harder to produce heat if it's everso cold outside as it works on temperature difference.

ie if it's zero outside and the flow temperature through your rads is 40 degrees then the unit has t raise the temperature by 35 degrees. If it's only about 10 degrees outside then the unit only has to work hard enough to raise it by 25 degrees.

That's why I don't have my hot water heating early in the morning which is the coldest part of the day - unfortunately it's also when you've got off peak leccy as well so you could end up using more leccy although it's a bit cheaper.

I'd try reading the meter at least weekly at the moment to try and get a feel for what is happening - although we are coming out of the heating season so it's difficult to judge what will happen in the winter.

Thanks for explanation, and, yes, difficult to really get the truest picture until next winter. I see your point about heating at the coldest time, despite being off-peak, might only end up balancing out. Thanks for advice about weekly readings; will get onto that, and turn off anything else truly non-essential too; won't go cold, but seems sensible to save the max while unsure of costs.