Which is the most cost effective?

wittynamegoeshere

What would be the point in scientifically testing something that can only possibly have one answer?  If your house is warm more of the time it will definitely cost you more.

This is like asking for proof that if you tip a bucket of water you'll get wet.  You don't need to test anything, just accept that the outcome will be just as obvious.

Reed_Richards

Everything else being equal keeping your house warm all the time costs you more but is everything else equal?  Compare keeping your house at a constant temperature all the time with cooling it down for a while by opening a few windows and you'll find that the latter will cost you more because everything else is not equal.    The argument against in the article, which I don't believe, is that cooling the house gives rise to condensation which somehow reduces the thermal insulation properties of your walls so therefore everything else is not equal.  Or everything else would not be equal if your heat source is less efficient at higher outputs.      

anotheruser

Problem is, unless you have two homes with the same amount of stuff in them, insulated the same, you'll never really get results.
Can't test the house one week after another as the outside temperature may be different.


We only put ours on in the mornings and evenings.

tux900

I haven't seen any mention of heat pumps yet - does the ideal heating strategy for those differ noting that their coefficient of performance increases significantly the less hard it has to run?

Likewise with underfloor heating which are much slower to react than radiators - I'd expect a different strategy being required there too. 

Reed_Richards

Heat pumps are most efficient when the temperature difference between the outside (outside air for an Air Source Heat Pump) and the inside (being the central heating water temperature for an ASHP) is minimum.  Therefore the logical strategy to achieve peak efficiency is to set a constant temperature difference between the two so the heat pump provides most heat in the middle of the afternoon when outside temperatures are highest and least heat at night when outside temperatures are their coldest.  Many heat pumps incorporate a "weather compensation" option which will do this to some degree but maintaining a constant room temperature will tend to counteract this.  The most efficient use of a heat pump would probably mean making your dwelling uncomfortably hot during the day and uncomfortably cold during the night   .

Underfloor heating is so slow to respond that you are pretty much obliged to keep it on all the time.