Heating

Krakkkers

It is more relevant that it has taken 2.5 units or 28 kwh of gas to achieve that but that includes 140l of hot water raised from 30c to 60c at the same time.
3rd day in a row i have had to heat water with gas rather than get the solar panels to do it, last time was back in February.

TadleyBaggie

Technically my heating is never off, it's set to be 18 during the day (used to be 19) and 16 overnight. If it drops below that it will come on. So far it has come on on a handful of mornings to take the chill off the house.

Astria

Deleted_User said:

Astria said:

It's on, but not very often. Typically 30 minutes or so first thing in the morning and for another 30 minutes or so at night.

Have you tracked how much energy that uses?

It depends on the internal and external temperature it starts off from. Yesterday it was 4c outside and 13c inside when I woke up and so used 7 kWh, so about 70p, but other days it can be 3 kWh. We did try an experiment of turning off unused radiators but it turned out that the usage was almost identical, probably because the additional rads meant the return flow was lower so the boiler was more efficient.

The inside temperature might only rise by 0.2c during the 30 minutes the boiler is on for but the residual heat in the radiators can normally take it to about 15c, then if the sun comes out it can easily hit 17c - 18c, so heating isn't required then until about 7pm.

Ally_E. said:

Krakkkers said:

I don't understand this 30 mins of heating thing, my CH has been on for 5 hours and has raised the temp from 16.5 to 18.5.
What difference does 30 minutes make?
Also people say i put the heating on for 30 minutes at 21c but what difference does that make if it starts from 16C? The CH does not try harder and your house does not reach 21C.
My house is modern and A rated (although mostly because i have solar panels and diverter)

I agree, especially with reduced flow temperature having heating on for 30min doesn't make much of a difference.

Flow temperature should be based on outside temperature (weather compensation), so in the winter it should be higher. Our boiler was at 62c this morning but last month it was in the 50s.

[Deleted User]

Have you tracked how much energy that uses?

Very easy to do when you have a smart meter? (Sorry - given your other posts on smart meters, I couldn’t resist).

System boiler set to a flow temperature of 60C; heating up to 20C then set to 18C for the rest of the day. Total usage so far today 17.7kWh at 5.01p/kWh and 15.09p/day standing charge.

Alnat1

Smart meters and TOU tariffs give you so much more information to help control usage than dumb meters. They can really help you cut costs 

chris1973

Nope, at 10.3p per KWH for Gas on a variable tariff, its now almost as much to put the GCH on as Electric Heating cost to run 2 years ago - the same heating everybody here warned against using, because it was the most expensive way of heating a house!. I'm fortunate that I can generate my own power from a waste oil powered generator, and so would rather just heat the room i'm using to a comfortable 21c with Electric heaters generated from power produced in my own back garden than try and heat the entire house to 18c using mains gas that now costs exactly the same as fixed tariff Electricity did 18 months ago.

drsquirrel

Wood burner is on on shower nights and the odd cold night, mostly kindling.

Oil boiler not on yet, mornings are coldish but we're all out until the afternoon.

Thinking of putting the bed blankets on prewarm though!

Last night it was 12 outside but 14 in the bedroom, lack of solar heat.

Deleted_User said:

The risk with a woodburner is that they'll ultimately ban them completely. Although no justification for that with modern burners. We've got a wood store with about 5 years of wood - some 100% free and some purchased before the prices doubled. Maybe it was luck - but I saw this situation coming about 3 years back and got prepared for it. 

I don't really see this happening as it helps towards the net zero targets, even if they can introduce other particulates than co2. Also regulating it would be a nightmare, its just like oil heating, they'd only "ban" it on new installs not existing.

I've never bought wood before, until last week when I bought some unprocessed (but air dried) wood from NT, at a cheap price and pre rise price... going to stock up on more in a few weeks. Would be silly not to, even if it takes years to use.

Ally_E.

Astria said:

Deleted_User said:

Astria said:

It's on, but not very often. Typically 30 minutes or so first thing in the morning and for another 30 minutes or so at night.

Have you tracked how much energy that uses?

It depends on the internal and external temperature it starts off from. Yesterday it was 4c outside and 13c inside when I woke up and so used 7 kWh, so about 70p, but other days it can be 3 kWh. We did try an experiment of turning off unused radiators but it turned out that the usage was almost identical, probably because the additional rads meant the return flow was lower so the boiler was more efficient.

The inside temperature might only rise by 0.2c during the 30 minutes the boiler is on for but the residual heat in the radiators can normally take it to about 15c, then if the sun comes out it can easily hit 17c - 18c, so heating isn't required then until about 7pm.

Ally_E. said:

Krakkkers said:

I don't understand this 30 mins of heating thing, my CH has been on for 5 hours and has raised the temp from 16.5 to 18.5.
What difference does 30 minutes make?
Also people say i put the heating on for 30 minutes at 21c but what difference does that make if it starts from 16C? The CH does not try harder and your house does not reach 21C.
My house is modern and A rated (although mostly because i have solar panels and diverter)

I agree, especially with reduced flow temperature having heating on for 30min doesn't make much of a difference.

Flow temperature should be based on outside temperature (weather compensation), so in the winter it should be higher. Our boiler was at 62c this morning but last month it was in the 50s.

If it gets the house warn then why 'should' it be higher? Ours is till at 50C or below and warms this uninsulated house well enough. I don't see a reason to increase it until the system struggles to heat the house, which only happened a couple days last year.