Concrete building - Energy myth-busting: Is it cheaper to have heating on all day?

t8769

I live in a concrete flat that is all electric heating via oil heaters.
I have heard that turning heat off, only brings damp and cold into the walls, thus taking more energy to push out when the heat goes on.
When I come in, I often blast the room with a fan heater to bring the temperature up.
Is it better to just leave an oil heater on 24/7 at a low level?
Or should I turn off heating at night and when out.
Would like to know the most economic
Thank you

 

matelodave

TBH the only way to find out is to do some experimentation by reading your meter frequently, say night and morning for a couple of weeks and turning them on & off and then doing the same but turning them down during the day and overnight rather than off. You can compare the results and come to your own conclusions.

However all that said, concrete takes a long time to warm up and cool down and there are other factors which come into play - the temperature outside, whether its wet or dry, whether its windy, the internal temperatures that you require and you need  to take into account any other electrical items that you might use as well (cooker, washing machine, water heater, shower TV etc) as they will all make doing what seems like a simple measurement a lot more difficult to interpret.

In the end the most economical is what suits your lifestyle and your type of building. There really isn't a one size fits all solution. Bear in mind though that heat moves to towards cold and is proportional to the temperature difference so a cooler room loses less heat than a warm one. Therefore if you keep the room warm all day it will lose heat all day whereas if it's cold inside it wont lose as much but then you might end up with condensation unless the place is well ventilated. There are calculations that you can do to work it out

This probably doesnt definitively answer your question but intuitively leaving the heating on all day and night probably uses more energy that just turning it on a for a couple of hours at full blast for a couple of hours a day - but the place may not be so comfortable as it never really gets worm.

t8769

Thanks for the advice