Most economic way to run system boiler

potts8

What would be the most economical way to operate a system boiler in specific regards to timing for heating water at the same time as the radiators?

Currently as an example I have the following schedule:

Heat: 06:00>08:00

Water: 12:00>13:30

Heat 15:00>1700

Is this method better to have dedicated times for heat and water or would it be more economical to operate at the same time, does this make better use of a condensing boiler? e.g.

Heat: 06:00>08:00

Water: 06:30>07:30

Heat: 15:00>1700

Water: 15:30>16:00

matelodave

A lot depend on how your system is configured - some wont heat the hot water at the same time as the house and even if it can then the heat generated will be shared between the heating and hot water, so it could possibly take longer to heat both the hot water and house.It probably doesn't really make a great deal of difference cost wise, you set it to suit your lifestyle. Make sure that your hot water tank is well insulated so you don't lose heat from it.
It will consume the same amount of energy to heat the house and the tank to the same temperatures. As its a condensing boiler then make sure that it's operating in condensing mode so don't have the boiler temperature set too high - check your operating instructions to make sure its working at its optimum

Lastly, when do you need hot water - if its to ablute when you get up then you need to heat the tank to ensure that you've got sufficient water for your needs. Can you heat enough in the mornings to keep you going all day and through to the next morning - we can, so ours is only on for two hours (it takes less than two hours to actually heat the tank) before we get up and before the house starts to heat.We then have sufficient hot water right through to the next morning. It comes back on again the next morning. If there's an overlap with the hot water and heating ours prioritises the hot water and then switches over to heating when the hot water tank is satisfied.

If you run out of hot water then you'll need to top it up in the evening

If you want to minimise your cost thane dont waste hot water, take shallower baths, shorter showers and fewer of them. Dont rinse stuff, including your hands, in hot water and avoid short run-offs. Every time you run off half a gallon or more of cold to get the hot through you leave half a gallon of expensive hot water in the pipework to get cold until the next time.

potts8

Thanks for that, it was more of a curiosity than anything to see if there was any particular difference in how to optimise the system. Similar to yourself our water needs 90 minutes or so and then it lasts us a day as we had a new boiler/cylinder installed last year so no need for additional insulation etc.

Sounds like the answer ultimately is the difference is negligable and just to ensure it always meets your lifesytle needs.

tim_p

I agree it’s probably negligible but I’d probably try to align the water and heating times.  You could try taking regular meter readings but you’d probably be stumped by weather variations affecting actual usage. (Sorry, a lot of ‘probablys in there) 

Marmaduke123

We have our water heating on for a couple of hours in the night, before the heating comes on. We have a top up of an hour in mid afternoon. If it's  really cold we find the radiators cool down too much when the water heating comes on, so might turn it off. We are at home all day.

Nebulous2

Ours is timed to come on at the same time as our heating, although at this time of year our heating is never switched off, though it might not be heating. Our heating jumps from 16 degrees to 20 from 5.30 to 9.00 and the hot water comes on at the same time for two hours. During the day our heating drops to 18 degrees then from 16.30 to 21.30 it goes back to 20 degrees and again our hot water comes on for an hour.