Heating on low and constant better?

BexTech

TITEASCRAMP wrote: »

Im glad you said that. I thought i must be going mad with these lot. I know what my meter is telling me and not making this up. It all must depend on what system you have.

Don't worry about them.

I had done several tests in my old home, a week with it left to decide when it should switch itself on or off and a week when I set a timer, then another week and another week.

For our home we used less energy leaving it to its own device.

We got all the same rubbish from same posters how it isn't possible to be cheaper. The same kettle this, kettle that.

What they forget is the system isn't dishing out a constant heat, but itself switching on and off.

I know there are different pages of myths it's cheaper to leave on all the time.

But in our house it was slightly cheaper to leave the heating and hot water system to decide when it wants to come on and off and not when we tell it.


But hey, some people don't like real world fact getting in the way.

TITEASCRAMP

My DH gives me all the info about condensing boiler only work at their optimum efficiency when the return flow temp is 54 deg blar bla blar, he does lose me a bit. But he is a gas engineer so he fit the system. I'm tight you see and didnt want to put the heating on. He convinced me to try leaving it on, and its about the same.
What albatross and cardew and crew are missing the point on as you say, Its not on all the time its only firing when need be.

BexTech

TITEASCRAMP wrote: »

My DH gives me all the info about condensing boiler only work at their optimum efficiency when the return flow temp is 54 deg blar bla blar, he does lose me a bit. But he is a gas engineer so he fit the system. I'm tight you see and didnt want to put the heating on. He convinced me to try leaving it on, and its about the same.
What albatross and cardew and crew are missing the point on as you say, Its not on all the time its only firing when need be.

I'm the same I don't like spending any money unless I have no choice.

BexTech

Didn't notice anyone posting any insults, but there you go.

Yes, there are several sites with details, doesn't alter real world findings when you test whether you are using less energy or not.

The reason why I ran trials was due to not believing it would be cheaper to leave it on all the time. Then when I found it was slightly cheaper for us leaving it on, I trialled again.

You don't have to believe the results I and another poster has got, that doesn't concern me one little bit, all I know is I am saving money and feel the benefit.

You can post links to whatever you like, that doesn't alter the fact for our home it worked out cheaper leaving the system to decide when to come on and off, not us setting a timer.

tomstickland

There's various factors mixed up in this.

There's no doubt that for the same temperature setting then turning the heating off when noone is home will reduce the energy consumption.

However, leaving it on all of the time and lowering the temperature setting could bring the usage back down since the heat flow is proportional to the temperature difference between the house and the outside.

If someone turns the heating off during the day but then turns it up very high to warm the home on return then they might use more than someone who leaves it on low all of the time.

The optimum use would be low temperature setting and timed to come on when needed, along with very high insulation.

By the way, the kettle theory!! Where I work a former colleague (who was a Green Party Councillor at the time) had our kettle removed and replaced with a modern version of a geezer, that was insulated, and "topped up" the heat inside. She claimed that it was far greener and fuel effiecient. OUr employer agreed.

That's the benefit of improved insulation. However, in the winter, the lost heat from a conventional kettle would be heating the office anyway, and therefore reducing the load on the heating system.

TITEASCRAMP

albertross wrote: »

http://www.plumbingpages.com/featurepages/Tipsrunningcost.cfm

This link states a word at the beginning of the sentance. That word in generally. That means not in all cases.

Please could you explain the laws of thermodynamics and to why leaving on my boiler I am going against these rules.
Thankyou

Tite

tomstickland

Another analogy then - You travel 500 miles in your car without stopping and 500 stop starting. Which journey do you think cost the most in fuel?

The stop start will use more because a proportion of the energy will have been scrubbed away as heat due to braking. However, that's not directly analagous to the heating situation.

A closer analgy would be:
Would someone be better off driving to work and then parking the car, or giving the keys to someone else to drive around pointlessly during the day so that the engine is already warm when they have to drive home?

Please could you explain the laws of thermodynamics

The most important law is that heat flows from a hot source to a sink and the rate of flow is proportional to the temperature difference between the two.

At any point in a day the heat flow from the house will be proportional to the temperature difference between the house and the outside world. Now split the day into a multitude of small time steps. The total heat that flows out of the house per step will be the flow rate at that moment multiplied by the time step. Add these up for the whole day and a certain amount of energy will have flowed out.

If the house at a constant temperature throughout the whole day then the heat flow will be constant all day and add up to some amount. If the house temperature is allowed to cool off during the day, then the heat flow rate will drop off during the day too, and the total amount of heat lost over the day will be lower.

TITEASCRAMP

Lets all post over the next week or so what unit usage we are using.
It will be a rough experiment but we may get some idea of timers verses constant.

Tom
I am not out all day though I dont work. I agree in principle to what you stated. But mayb the question is how much gas is used on low verses how much when someone comes home from work put it on high coz its freezing.

onejontwo

How about....... Eating a huge plate of beans all in one go , or..........eating a single bean every few minutes!
I know which one I'd prefer!!!!
(Sorry about that.)

espresso

onejontwo wrote: »

How about....... Eating a huge plate of beans all in one go , or..........eating a single bean every few minutes!
I know which one I'd prefer!!!!
(Sorry about that.)

Sounds like Blazing Saddles c1974.

I can see that this one is going to run and run!