How do you manage your heating this time of year?

Hi - the title says it all - how do you manage your heating this time of year with cold, frosty morning and warm sunny days?


Do you leave the thermostat to care of things for you (and does it work?) or do you have to keep fiddling with it to stop the house getting too hot in the day or too cold at night? Do you turn your main heating off and use something else, and is this to reduce cost or keep the temperature more stable (or both)?


My solution of combining the storage heaters with a portable heater and opening the windows when needed works and is cheap but it's certainly wasteful and there's scope for both saving and controlling the temperature better. I have a few ideas but I'd be interested to know what others are doing....


Thanks, Mike
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  • 1961Nick
    1961Nick Posts: 2,045
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    Tbh our Hive thermostat takes care of everything. For a bit of a daytime boost we use the ASHP because it's situated where we need the heat.
    4kWp (black/black) - Sofar Inverter - SSE(141°) - 30° pitch - North Lincs
    Installed June 2013 - PVGIS = 3400
    Sofar ME3000SP Inverter & 5 x Pylontech US2000B Plus & 3 x US2000C Batteries - 19.2kWh
  • Zarch
    Zarch Posts: 393
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    I just let the Nest do its job (via programmed schedules) with the Combi and gas central heating.

    Sadly no immersion / iBoost / ASHP to mop up any excess Solar. :(
    17 x 300W panels (5.1kW) on a 3.68kW SolarEdge system in Sunny Sheffield.
    12kW Pylontech battery storage system with Lux AC controller
    Creator of the Energy Stats UK website and @energystatsuk Twitter Feed
  • legoman62
    legoman62 Posts: 4,521
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    I keep turning it down/off Mrs l keeps turning it back on:)
    16 Sanyo Hit 250s.4kWp SMA 3.8kWp inverter. SW roof. 28° pitch. Minimal shade. Nov 2011 install. Hybrid car. Ripple Kirk Hill. N.E Lincs Coast.
  • JKenH
    JKenH Posts: 4,743
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    edited 16 April 2019 at 11:05AM
    We have had the central heating on half a dozen times in the last month usually for 60-90 mins in the morning when it has been frosty, mainly to dry towels as our hot water cylinders are so well insulated (with spare blankets, pillows etc) they aren’t much use for airing. We do use a 750 watt convector heater in the bathroom which usually runs fine on solar as we shower after breakfast.

    I have been putting the ASHP on in the kitchen when I get up and on sunny days there is enough solar to run that. (We tend to have 1kw of PV by 7am this time of year when it is sunny). Today, I put it on the timer on a low setting for 6am accepting that it might use a bit of E7 but that didn’t work so well as a quick blast at higher power when getting up.

    The ASHPs then run most of the day even if, on a dull day that means giving the IBoost 30 mins on E7 the following morning. The evenings are the weak spot. We do have a coal fire in our sitting room which is fuelled by home grown timber which we planted 29 years ago but if we are in the living room then the ASHP will go on on the ultra low setting for a couple of hours. If we are watching a movie in the cinema room then we will probably use a 750 watt convector heater for 90mins on the basis it isn’t worth firing up the oil fired heating for just one room particularly as the pump uses 200-250 watts which is totally wasted. I have tried warming the room up with an oil filled radiator running on solar PV but that gets switched off while we cook tea (all electric) and it has lost its heat by the time we get in there.

    What I really want is some form of portable storage radiator that I can fill with solar PV to release heat during the evening.

    My best tip however is to go to bed early (ideally when the sun goes down). :)
    Northern Lincolnshire. 7.8 kWp system, (4.2 kw west facing panels , 3.6 kw east facing), Solis inverters, Solar IBoost water heater, Mitsubishi SRK35ZS-S and SRK20ZS-S Wall Mounted Inverter Heat Pumps, ex Nissan Leaf owner)
  • mmmmikey
    mmmmikey Posts: 1,600
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    All interesting stuff, thanks.


    A couple of posts there about Hive/Nest controls. Haven't really looked at these - are they "just" thermostats that you can control remotely via smart phone app, etc. or are they smart in the sense that they learn how long it takes to heat up the room and adjust start times accordingly? If the latter, how well does this work?
  • 1961Nick
    1961Nick Posts: 2,045
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    JKenH wrote: »

    What I really want is some form of portable storage radiator that I can fill with solar PV to release heat during the evening.

    That'll be batteries.....:)
    4kWp (black/black) - Sofar Inverter - SSE(141°) - 30° pitch - North Lincs
    Installed June 2013 - PVGIS = 3400
    Sofar ME3000SP Inverter & 5 x Pylontech US2000B Plus & 3 x US2000C Batteries - 19.2kWh
  • mmmmikey
    mmmmikey Posts: 1,600
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    1961Nick wrote: »
    That'll be batteries.....:)

    It's the possibility of using batteries that got me thinking about this again. When I replaced the Fischer Future Heaters with night storage heaters last year, I always had the expectation that I'd struggle to control them in the shoulder months, but would be able to manage it easily enough with portable electric heaters. This worked better than expected in the Autumn, but isn't working so well at the moment - sometimes cold and sometimes opening windows to cool things down.

    I'm installing an ASHP in the bedroom at the moment (mainly for air-conditioning in the summer but of course I'll use it for heating too) and my PowerVault is being installed tomorrow. So all being well that sorts out the evenings - free, solar powered heat for the bedroom and I have a woodstove in the living room.

    Martyn posted a comment a few days ago that made me realise that I could do something similar in the morning by charging the PowerVault overnight with E7, using the energy for heating in the morning and still having plenty of time left to recharge it with solar during the day. A benefit I hadn't really factored in.

    So I've been looking for a low-powered heater for the living room. The room has a large south facing window, gains a lot of heat from the sun during the day and only needs a little bit of heat to make it much more comfortable after a frosty start in the morning. I can do this with a portable heater but I'd like something more controllable and permanent.

    Thinking of an IR ceiling panel, which could be timed to come on using E7 then left on for a couple of hours, powered by the battery. But before I add another project to the ever growing list thought I would ask what others are doing....
  • KevinG
    KevinG Posts: 1,852
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    Timer is always set for 90 minutes in the morning and 90 minutes in the evening, thermostat at 19.5 (which it doesn't often hit at the coldest time of year). In the depth of winter we sometimes give it a boost during the day. Had it off for a few days last month and it will probably go off in a day or two when it warms up.
    2kWp Solar PV - 10*200W Kioto, SMA Sunny Boy 2000HF, SSE facing, some shading in winter, 37° pitch, installed Jun-2011, inverter replaced Sep-2017 AND Feb-2022.
  • maisie_cat
    maisie_cat Posts: 2,059
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    legoman62 wrote: »
    I keep turning it down/off Mrs l keeps turning it back on:)
    I keep turning it off & hubby keeps putting it back on
  • kazwookie
    kazwookie Posts: 13,810
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    I turn it down, OH turns it back up again. I then turn it off at the main switch, he then moans!! :)
    Breast Cancer Now 2022 100 miles October 100 / 100miles
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