Communal heating strategy

cybervic

I am wondering if anyone knows anything about communal heating. My mom lives in a block of 56 flats with communal heating provided by 4 gas boilers. All flats have double glazed window the cavity wall is insulated with polystyrene balls. The heating switches on from 6am to 11pm and it's generally very warm that residents usually wear a single layer in winter. There are now talks about heating strategy due to energy price hike and the latest idea is to set a timer for a break every 2-3 hours so the heating will be on 6am-9am, 10am-12pm, 1-4pm, 5-7pm, 8-11pm. Could this be a useful strategy or just a waste of energy having to reheat the building several times a day? 

Happy_Sloth

i can't see that being very effective, as the time it's on it will have to work twice as hard to heat the room up from a "colder" heat. 

the boilers automatically won't use more than they need to maintain a certain heat.  When the rooms hit the temp set by the thermostat the boilers will naturally reduce their gas usage.  

For example i have a large victorian poorly insulated house. I know it costs about £3 to heat from cold to 21 degree's.. (as a broad average) but then about £1 per hour after that.  if i switch off the radiator the room cools quickly, i mean REALLY quickly in 2 hours of off time in dead of winter it would easily drop a few degree's in 2 hours of off time.  

So Option 1 

• Heat all day (6am to 11pm) = £3 hit in the morning, then £1 for 16 hours.. = £19 per day
• Heat periodically =  £3 x 5 times a day would cost me £24 ish.

The downside of option 2 being that for several hours a day my room is colder than i would like! as during the "Cooling" period.. so i'm colder and it costs me more! 

My examples are severe... due to plucking hypothetical numbers out of the air! and the fact that my house is poorly insulated and drops heat quickly if you mothers home is insulated properly chances are it won't drop as much, but still the "Whoosh" of the boiler firing up and having to get things back to the temp the thermostat is set to is going to use more fuel...

The question is will it use more getting the temp up? Then it would have used simply maintaining the temp?  Which is almost impossible to answer without doing tests.  

Sounds like the cunning plan off someone who doesn't quite understand how heating works.  The simple theory that using the boiler less often doesn't always apply... it's possible it will reduce their usage but that really depends on "How Cold" the rooms go when it's switched off.  

To reduce cost they are far better off just turning down the thermostat a degree that at least is guaranteed to reduce usage. 

Alnat1

Doesn't each flat have a thermostat to control the heat? Or is there at least some way to lower the temperature on the boiler?

Apodemus

If you walk past any building with a communal heating system, you will always see rooms with open windows.  "Tragedy of the commons" and all that!

ariarnia

if the flats are very warm normally then wouldn't the easier option be to just turn down the boiler temperature or thermostat? 

Duple

I live in a rental flat with communal heating 7am-10pm. It's usually roasting when the heating is switched on. Many flats have windows open as soon as heating is on instead of reaching their thermostats. This year the management team have decided to turn down boiler temperature as well as trial 1 hour heating break at noon and 5pm. It's been 2 weeks and I can't feel much temperature change in my flat. I think it depends on how well insulated your mom's building is and how hot/cool do people want to feel.