Best way to use boiler in two bed flat?

tryingmybest99

Hi everyone!

I am living alone for the first time ever and I was wondering if you could help me make sure I don't consume more gas than necessary by ensuring I have the best settings for my boiler? I would just wrap myself up warm and have minimal usage, but I am worried about damaging my flat through burst pipes/ condensation!

For background, it is a small (50m2) two bed, ground floor flat, EPC C. Gas is used for the heating (radiators), hot water and hob. I have thermostatic radiator valves on each radiator and one radiator per room, including the hall. I can set the boiler to provide hot water, heating, both or neither. I don't have much information on the consumption as I bought the flat in February and moved in the first week of March, but so far I have used the following amounts: February 59kWh (I was only in to decorate), March 388kWh (I moved in on the 8th), April 477kWh, May 248kWh, June 181kWh, July 107kWh, August (to the 25th) 81kWh. I put the heating on last in May (I used it for a couple of hours on a few days in May), since then the variability comes from how often I use the hob (I go through phases of cooking more or less and I am mostly eating salads at the moment).I only shower, no baths. I am worried about how much I am going to be using in the winter period October- March. 

Anyway, where does everyone sit on the low temperature all day vs hotter temperature, but only when you need it as discussed here? If so, what temperature do you suggest I set my thermostat to in both those scenarios? Does your advice change on days when I am working in the office vs working from home or staying with friends on a overnight visit? Also how does using only one or two rooms change this advice? Should I turn off the radiators in unused rooms or just down to a minimum? Do you also restrict when your hot water is on? I have to admit I always have it on, in case I need to wash my hands!

Any advice or tips gratefully received! Thanks!

Spies

Is there anything underneath you or are you a ground floor flat? 

tryingmybest99

Spies said:

Is there anything underneath you or are you a ground floor flat? 

It's ground floor, nothing below! It is pretty good at maintaining temperature, despite being a C and having most rooms with one or two external walls, I think. Possibly because it is ground floor with an occupied flat above it and possibly because it is a nice sturdy brick building (about 20 years old). It is sheltered by trees, which is great this time of year, but it might mean less sun for me in the winter!

j2009

I can't tell from your post if you have a hot water tank but if you do then I would have the hot water on for one hour in the morning 6am (maybe) and one hour late afternoon/early evening 5pm (maybe). 

If you're in the house during the day you want your heating on constant and the lowest temperature you are comfortable with and if your controller allows you might want to give it a small (0.5-1 degree) increase around 5pm for the evening as you have no daylight to warm the house.

At night you can turn it down to 16 degrees about an hour before you go to bed but I wouldn't turn it off completely just to keep the edge off.

Same during the day if you are going to be out at work, have it step back to a lower temperature and schedule the timer to come on 30mins before you usually get home.

It takes a bit of trial and error but once you find what works for you then you can save quite a lot of money.

tryingmybest99

j2009 said:

I can't tell from your post if you have a hot water tank but if you do then I would have the hot water on for one hour in the morning 6am (maybe) and one hour late afternoon/early evening 5pm (maybe). 

If you're in the house during the day you want your heating on constant and the lowest temperature you are comfortable with and if your controller allows you might want to give it a small (0.5-1 degree) increase around 5pm for the evening as you have no daylight to warm the house.

At night you can turn it down to 16 degrees about an hour before you go to bed but I wouldn't turn it off completely just to keep the edge off.

Same during the day if you are going to be out at work, have it step back to a lower temperature and schedule the timer to come on 30mins before you usually get home.

It takes a bit of trial and error but once you find what works for you then you can save quite a lot of money.

Great, thanks. My boiler is both for heating and hot water and as far as I know there is no separate water tank. I will try trial and error for the heating. 

Coffeekup

j2009 said:

I can't tell from your post if you have a hot water tank but if you do then I would have the hot water on for one hour in the morning 6am (maybe) and one hour late afternoon/early evening 5pm (maybe). 

If you're in the house during the day you want your heating on constant and the lowest temperature you are comfortable with and if your controller allows you might want to give it a small (0.5-1 degree) increase around 5pm for the evening as you have no daylight to warm the house.

At night you can turn it down to 16 degrees about an hour before you go to bed but I wouldn't turn it off completely just to keep the edge off.

Same during the day if you are going to be out at work, have it step back to a lower temperature and schedule the timer to come on 30mins before you usually get home.

It takes a bit of trial and error but once you find what works for you then you can save quite a lot of money.

It's a combi boiler..

theoretica

A few thoughts:

Make sure the room thermostat that controls the boiler is in the room you want warmest and that the radiator thermostat in that room is turned up to full.  It is a waste to have the room thermostat turning the boiler on, but no radiator calling for heat...

If you have a combi boiler be alert to all those times you turn the hot tap on, but don't actually use hot water, eg washing your hands briefly but not long enough for hot water to come through - that is just putting hot water into the pipes.

Set the combi boiler temperature for hot water low enough that you use jut hot water for the hottest use you want, don't always add cold.  You may need to change the setting between winter and summer.  Similarly, I turn the temperature of the heating water down in spring and autumn, though need it hotter in winter.

macman

Given your incredibly low gas usage over 6 months, I think you are worrying without cause, even given the obvious increase that will happen in the winter.

Coffeekup

Your usage is similar to mine in July August but I have a 2 bed house.

I cut right back last year to see how low I could get my usage down, I went from 9,000 kwh's (previous 2 years) of gas to 3,500 for this year.
I did this by
* Washing hands with cold water so the boiler doesn't kick in. Which has also reduced my eczema on hand as I never realized hot water flares it up 
* Turning the water temp setting to 40*C.
*Having the boiler set to economical (55*C)
* Not using the thermostat to control when my heating comes on, I manually turn it on and off.
*My heating never went on till the last week or the first week of December (can't remember which).
* Manually turning the heating on especially later on in to the start of winter (December) saved me a good 2,000 units over previous year's usage's and I also acclimatized to the cold better.
*I/we used to get up and go work/school so for me it was pointless heating the property for an hour only to leave the house an hour later. I used the time I didn't use in the morning in the evenings when we were both in... So turned heating on around 5pm and turned off again around 7pm, maybe a bit later if it was really cold.
*Most of the time we sat on the sofa with blanket over us watching TV, which for me was fine.
*If we wasn't working/school I'd turn heating on for an hour and off for 2.

*Hob usage: I cook alot on my gas hob especially winter, but there are things you can do to bring down usage...don't fit a small pan on the big ring, don't have the gas up so high it spills up the side of the saucepan. Keep the lid on when trying to heat something up to temperature like water. Boiling pasta or rice? Heat water with lid on, add pasta bring back to boil turn off gas and leave for 10-15 mins.


Note: last year's winter was quite mild if we have a cold one this year my usage will go up, fortunately you have a better insulated house than I.

It's not just gas you need to watch, if your paying anything near October's price cap for electric, using half a kWh a day extra will slap £15 on your bill. So I recommend turning things off at the wall when out/in bed/at work.


Edit: My gas usages 21-22 April to October 80-100 kwh's November 200, December 800, Jan 800, feb 650, March 200.... Numbers are from memory but are there abouts.

BUFF

tryingmybest99 said:

 Should I turn off the radiators in unused rooms or just down to a minimum?

Personally, I would set the TRVs in unused rooms to 1 or 1.5 (depending upon manufacturer this will mean ~ 10C or 12.5C) or at worst * (frost) which is typically 7 or 8C.