combi boiler setting

macman

Strider is correct. Heating through the night (not necessary anyway) will massively increase your energy usage, as it's during the night that the inside/outside temp differential is greatest, and so the heat loss will be faster.
If you think that leaving it on 24/7 is cheaper, would you apply the same logic to hot water, and keep your kettle simmering constantly?

Grenage

Heating through the night will make little difference to the bills if the insulation is ok and the heat isn't too high.

JEN22

Thanks everyone but not sure I am any clearer

coffeehound

Grenage wrote: »

Heating through the night will make little difference to the bills if the insulation is ok and the heat isn't too high.

You no doubt imply it, but even more important than insulation is draught-proofing. Nothing cools a room quicker than a draught.

The guy in the Telegraph suggests that brick-built houses benefit from continuous heat because bringing up the temperature of the walls drives out moisture and thereby improves the insulation properties.

IIRC he recommends turning the boiler output temperature control to minimum, radiator TRVs to maximum and room thermostat setting to around 19° C.

I heat to a modest level overnight but accept that it will cost more.

kinger101

It's quite simple really. Heat is always leaking out the house, no matter how well insulated it is. So don't have it set to 20 C when you're out, and have it at a lower setting when you're asleep.

Phil&Michelle

We tend to leave boiler setting as on and use the room thermostat. Normally set on 19 overnight and it just comes on as and when. Just had the hive smart thermostat installed to give us more control and pretty pleased with it so far.

no1catman

But why do you need the temperature up to 19c overnight, aren't you wrapped up snuggly in bed? Surprised you think you need the house warm, when you not up and about to notice it!
Even in deepest mid-winter before the heating has had a chance to make a difference - the temperature monitor on the controller may go down to 16.5c but it doesn't take long to start climbing.

I remember my previous house, where one bedroom window would get iced up - on the inside! Fortunately, changing it to double-glazed made a huge difference.

Apodemus

Just to add another complicating factor...

With a condensing boiler, am I correct in thinking that maximum efficiency is only achieved with a suitable temperature difference between feed and return flow temperatures? So, once the house has warmed up, the constant cycling to maintain temperature sees the boiler operating at lower efficiency. This would suggest that turning the heating off (or considerably down) overnight would have the boiler operating at its maximum efficiency for a greater proportion of its time each day.

Or is the hysteresis in the boiler thermostat sufficient to always have it operating in condensing mode?

Alex1983

Your right it condenses most with a low return temperature, ideally around 50c.

Ruski

Alex1983 wrote: »

Your right it condenses most with a low return temperature, ideally around 50c.

Best way to achieve this?

Throttle some rads down until return temp reduces?? Reduce pump speed?

Russ