Overnight heating??

ariarnia

Longwalker said:

Thankfully I dont like to be hot in bed so no heating and only a 4.5 tog  duvet, and window open. My concession to the winter weather is change the sheets to brushed cotton 

Only let the heating on at night when we have a prolonged spell of minus temps. One year we had 3 weeks of nighttime temps of -16 and below so the heating came on for short bursts in the night

as part of getting ready for winter we put a spare old duvet under the sheet on each of the beds. makes a surprising difference. 

we leave our heating on all night but its only on low (15) and the heat from the fire in the lounge normally means it doesn't click on until the early hours unless its properly cold. 

we could turn it off but my son gets up in the night for a drink or someone might want a wee or whatever.

Spoonie_Turtle

With a heat pump I've read that it's most efficient for it to be on 24/7 with the weather compensation curve (low and slow) but to refine the curve takes lots of trial and error and the three of us who get cold really aren't up for doing that now.  Maybe if prices shoot up more and this year's method doesn't save much energy, we'll try it next year. 

But for now our thermostat is set to 18℃, and heating is allowed to kick in from 5am to 11pm (it used to regularly kick in at 3am, the coldest part of the night so least efficient, and when nobody needed it).  The hot water is allowed on between 5.30am to 9 or 10am (I can't remember which) and that takes priority, so the half hour of heating before that is so that the earliest rising member of the family isn't freezing in the morning.  Obviously the heating can come back on when the hot water's finished.

The three oldest of us also remember frost on the inside of windows, although that abated with better double glazing, and until we had central heating put in 3½ years ago we regularly still had frost on the inside of the (new) front door.  We remember freezing in the morning, or in the middle of the night if you needed the loo, and freezing in the bathroom any time of day unless you warmed it up with a plug-in heater first which only took the chill off (I learned to tell the difference between nose running from cold vs a nosebleed, because a nosebleed felt warm on my skin!), but it was horrible and none of us have ANY desire to return to that if we can help it.  Modern buildings are designed to be heated, and affordable clothing is designed for living with sufficient heat - people who can't afford to run the heating can scarcely afford clothing properly designed for the cold.

FreeBear

BUFF said:

drt1710 said:

On a separate note, some of you say you have a lower heating temperature at night that in the day, how do you manage this?

You can do it manually or some thermostats will allow you to set different temps. for different time periods.

Have a home automation system (Home Assistant) controlling my boiler. This allows me to set any number of different temperatures throughout the day/week. Last winter, I had it programmed for a minimum of 16°C throughout the day with a boost to 18°C in the morning, and 19°C in the evening. Only on the coldest of nights did the heating kick in when the temperature dipped below 16°C.

This year, I've set the base temperature to 17°C and have yet to see the boiler fire up during the night. Maybe if it drops below freezing outside later in the week, the heating will come on..

The_Green_Hornet

My heating system is on 24/7 365 days of the year. 

The thermostat is set to 19c between 07:30 and 22:30, and to 15c between 22:30 and 07:30. The boiler only fires up overnight if it gets really cold outside. The thermostat is set to 12c if I am staying away from home for any length of time.

Over the last 12 month period I have used 6394 kWh of gas but then it has been one of the warmest years on record. I expect this annual usage to tick upwards over the next few weeks as the cold winter weather bites.

Mstty

If gas boilers do get fully phased out with Air Source Heat Pumps. You won't want to turn them off overnight with freezing weather as they will spend the next day trying to get the temperature up again.

drt1710

macman said:

drt1710 said:

I was always told by a family plumber/heating engineer that leaving the heating on 24/7 worked out cheaper, something to do with the boiler not having to heat up the house massively first thing in the morning.  But in recent years, we've managed more with heating going off at 10pm and coming on at 6am to get up at 7am
Martin Lewis and MSE actually state that you should only have the heating on when you need it, and if I'm in my nice warm bed I don't need the heating on??? (https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/energy-saving-myths/)
On a separate note, some of you say you have a lower heating temperature at night that in the day, how do you manage this?
Cheers

I'm afraid that your family heating engineer is completely deluded in this assertion: burning gas all night during the coldest hours will cost far more than lifting it from the ambient temp in the morning. Do you keep your kettle boiling 24/7 rather than heat water from cold?
All modern programmers allow you to set several different time periods per day.

That's fine mate, I don't do it now anyway, it's just interesting the differing opinions!
Yes, I know that my modern programmer has the option to set time periods, but not for different temperatures, thank you though

drt1710

BooJewels said:

drt1710 said:

BooJewels said:

BG keep returning any credit I build up, so I've always put it away and ring fenced it for my gas bill, so my winter bills have already been budgeted for in previous years and I've barely dipped into it, so I have a decent buffer.

BG keep returning your credit? Why on earth would they do that?

Largely because they're stupid.  I've had a perpetual problem over many years of them underestimating my usage (despite giving monthly meter readings) and consequently reducing my DD and refunding any credit over about £200. So I put it aside and any time I get a debit after a bill, I clear it with a manual payment from my saved refunds and we start from zero again.  I've only stuck with them this long, because after one of my formal complaints, they put me on a very good fix which has only ended this summer.  And still didn't fix the problem.  I do my own budgeting and largely ignore them. 

Well, I can't fault that logic "They're stupid" I've heard that many times!
I really can't understand how they can underestimate your usage if you send actual readings, that's mad!
At least you are keeping up to date with it and not falling into debt, which can cause a lot of problems with energy firms, just reading this week how many prepayment meters they are installing, sneakily I might add!
If you do ever have enough of them, and decide to change supplier, I can highly recommend Octopus.
 I know most energy suppliers are charging about the same at the moment (hideously high prices) but with Octopus I have found that their customer service is outstanding, and they are investing in renewable energy faster than any other energy company.
Good luck, and take care!

PennyForThem_2

Absolutely agree about the duvet under the bedd sheet.  I have a wool stuffed mattress topper and a feather stuffed one under that which gives bulk.  No need for electric blankets or hot water bottles - the bed warms up from body heat within minutes.

Duvet would have same effect and cheaper than toppers!

BooJewels

drt1710 said:

BooJewels said:

drt1710 said:

BooJewels said:

BG keep returning any credit I build up, so I've always put it away and ring fenced it for my gas bill, so my winter bills have already been budgeted for in previous years and I've barely dipped into it, so I have a decent buffer.

BG keep returning your credit? Why on earth would they do that?

Largely because they're stupid.  I've had a perpetual problem over many years of them underestimating my usage (despite giving monthly meter readings) and consequently reducing my DD and refunding any credit over about £200. So I put it aside and any time I get a debit after a bill, I clear it with a manual payment from my saved refunds and we start from zero again.  I've only stuck with them this long, because after one of my formal complaints, they put me on a very good fix which has only ended this summer.  And still didn't fix the problem.  I do my own budgeting and largely ignore them. 

Well, I can't fault that logic "They're stupid" I've heard that many times!
I really can't understand how they can underestimate your usage if you send actual readings, that's mad!
At least you are keeping up to date with it and not falling into debt, which can cause a lot of problems with energy firms, just reading this week how many prepayment meters they are installing, sneakily I might add!
If you do ever have enough of them, and decide to change supplier, I can highly recommend Octopus.
 I know most energy suppliers are charging about the same at the moment (hideously high prices) but with Octopus I have found that their customer service is outstanding, and they are investing in renewable energy faster than any other energy company.
Good luck, and take care!

I have my electricity with Octopus already, so that is where I'll move when things are a bit more settled.  I was waiting for my next bill, to try and get fairly level with them and then move - I was going to do so when I got the last one, but I was mid-migration to the new system and my account was a total mess, so decided it perhaps wasn't the best time.  That was how I knew I was part-move to the new system, as I was away on holiday and got an odd credit to my bank account - yes, they'd refunded me everything over £200 of my credit - just at the end of summer.

I've no idea why they get it so wrong, there's some glitch on my account that seemingly halves my usage when it comes to projected use.  It's been going on for years - when it was easier to get through on the phone, I'd ring and complain, they'd say they'd sorted it and give me 25 quid compensation.  But these days it's not worth the time.  It was this error causing me to get into a pickle by not paying enough that got me into managing my energy much more closely.  

nrmsmith

elsien said:

Mine stays on overnight at a lower temperature. I too recall the days of no central heating and ice on the windows and I really don’t want to go back to those days unless I absolutely have to.
I don’t want to be wearing gloves in bed so that I can read without my hands getting chilblains or waking up with a cold nose or freezing my bits off when I want to go to the toilet in the night.

Yes people used to do it and they survived. But it’s not comfortable and I don’t want to so as long as I can afford it I’m not going to.

Sometimes this forum feels like a bit of a race to the bottom. It’s not a competition and I just prefer to be comfortable.

Thanks for your input; I was just genuinely interested to know if/how trends have changed since I was a kid.  Absolutely no judgement of anyone is to be implied from my original posting