When are you putting the heating on this year and what temperature and general heating advice

xzibit

Put the heating on? Ha! I’m not rich. 

CrispyChris

It'll go on when I feel cold, not that bothered as my bills are fixed until Oct 23, and with the government help actually cheaper than last year.

Coffeekup

BobT36 said:

It gets manually turned on when I feel too cold (despite putting on warm shirt / trousers, fleece jacket, socks + heatholder socks), and on full blast. it then gets turned off again as soon as I'm warm.

Besides for children / pets, I've never understood using a thermostat.  

Over the last few years my gas usage has come down from 24,000 a year to 3,500 kWh's last/this last year.

A 30% chunk of my saving was roof insulation it bought it down to around 16,000 units a year.

Since then the biggest impact on bringing down the usage was me manually turning it on and off and not relying on a thermostat to do the job for me. So I'm with you, using a thermostat or any other device to tell me it I'm cold is a poor decision, does it know when I'm at work for 8 hour's, or visiting friend's/family all day? They are worse than my ex for spending money.

markin

Coffeekup said:

BobT36 said:

It gets manually turned on when I feel too cold (despite putting on warm shirt / trousers, fleece jacket, socks + heatholder socks), and on full blast. it then gets turned off again as soon as I'm warm.

Besides for children / pets, I've never understood using a thermostat.  

Over the last few years my gas usage has come down from 24,000 a year to 3,500 kWh's last/this last year.

A 30% chunk of my saving was roof insulation it bought it down to around 16,000 units a year.

Since then the biggest impact on bringing down the usage was me manually turning it on and off and not relying on a thermostat to do the job for me. So I'm with you, using a thermostat or any other device to tell me it I'm cold is a poor decision, does it know when I'm at work for 8 hour's, or visiting friend's/family all day? They are worse than my ex for spending money.

I would hope Everyone turns it down when going to bed or out, Its the timer that would waste energy if coming on when your out if you leaving the stat at 18-20c

Mstty

You would hope everyone knows how to run their own system as efficiently as possible but from the questions we see on this forum many systems are running the same as when they were first setup.

The stock answers so far are

1) When it's cold 
2) Set all year round to base temps for day and night

3) not turning it on this year

Yet I wonder how many know their system and are running it as efficiently as possible with TRV's, optimum temperature at the boiler, hot water optimum efficiency for type of boiler and dare we say it making sure Legionella does not make a comeback.

GillyLucy

Re TRV's. I got 3 estimates earlier this year for 8 TRV's ( all 3 recommended this number) on the 12 rads in the house. These ranged between £650 & £750 . The system had been in the house since it was built in 1989 - but I did install a new boiler in 2013 which is serviced annually. Not sure I can justify this spend.

victor2

Mstty said:

You would hope everyone knows how to run their own system as efficiently as possible but from the questions we see on this forum many systems are running the same as when they were first setup.

The stock answers so far are

1) When it's cold 
2) Set all year round to base temps for day and night

3) not turning it on this year

Yet I wonder how many know their system and are running it as efficiently as possible with TRV's, optimum temperature at the boiler, hot water optimum efficiency for type of boiler and dare we say it making sure Legionella does not make a comeback.

I would think most people have no idea how to run their heating system as efficiently as possible. If they have TRVs, it is more likely to be because that's how the system was installed.

With costs escalating as they are, more will perhaps turn down their thermostat and/or look for alternative sources of heating, such as paraffin or calor gas heaters. The media will doubtless then jump on incidents such as house fires caused by people trying to keep warm because they can't afford their gas bill.

Mstty

GillyLucy said:

Re TRV's. I got 3 estimates earlier this year for 8 TRV's ( all 3 recommended this number) on the 12 rads in the house. These ranged between £650 & £750 . The system had been in the house since it was built in 1989 - but I did install a new boiler in 2013 which is serviced annually. Not sure I can justify this spend.

12 radiators seems like a decent sized house unless you have 3 in bay windows up and down etc.

The draining down of your system is part of those quotes.

Work out how many rooms you don't use and they are being heated wastefully. I would see it the other way, with that many radiators can you afford not to do it? 

YoungBlueEyes

We've just moved and I don't have a handle on the boiler/heating yet, but our habits will be the same as the previous house.This is a very different house though, so it may work out differently.  

I used to have a timer on my heating controls, set to come on to 18c at 6pm for maybe 3 hours ish. Nothing in the daytime unless it was cold, then I'd flick it on manually to maybe 15/16c for an hour. Never on overnight. It was a combi boiler so the hot water would come on as needed.

Previous house was a lovely wee 2 bed, 15 years old, well insulated (plus all the usual - thick curtains over the doors, draught excluders, extra loft insulation etc) and quite small rooms. This place is a 3 bed 60's semi, double glazed, combi boiler, door curtains etc. The rooms are bigger though, and it's a lounge diner rather than my old kitchen diner, laminate in every room too.

So what 18c cost in the old house may be cheaper than getting this place to 18c.  We'll see what transpires.

Mstty

YoungBlueEyes said:

We've just moved and I don't have a handle on the boiler/heating yet, but our habits will be the same as the previous house.This is a very different house though, so it may work out differently.  

I used to have a timer on my heating controls, set to come on to 18c at 6pm for maybe 3 hours ish. Nothing in the daytime unless it was cold, then I'd flick it on manually to maybe 15/16c for an hour. Never on overnight. It was a combi boiler so the hot water would come on as needed.

Previous house was a lovely wee 2 bed, 15 years old, well insulated (plus all the usual - thick curtains over the doors, draught excluders, extra loft insulation etc) and quite small rooms. This place is a 3 bed 60's semi, double glazed, combi boiler, door curtains etc. The rooms are bigger though, and it's a lounge diner rather than my old kitchen diner, laminate in every room too.

So what 18c cost in the old house may be cheaper than getting this place to 18c.  We'll see what transpires.

Do you know the square footage of previous house and your current. That will give you a rough factor. Then add a bit as it's likely your current house will not be as well insulated.