Overnight heating??

nrmsmith

tacpot12 said:

It makes sense to run the heating overnight when the outside temperature is below freezing as you run the risk of pipes freezing otherwise. Some boilers will come on anyway when their internal sensor detects the low temperature, but I think these are the exception rather than the rule. Such boilers are set to come at around 7C, as there is a thermal gradient between the inside of the house and the outside, and there will be pipes fixes to the inside of the external walls at points where it is hard for the heat in the house to reach them. So it might be 7C at your boiler, but only 2C behind your kitchen cabinets where the water pipes are. You don't want it to get down to freezing anywhere in the house.  

Setting your heating to come on overnight so that it stays at 7-10C overnight would seem sensible IF your home heats up quite quickly (i.e. you have large heat emitters). If your heat emitters are too small, then having it set at 15C will reduce the time that it takes for the house to feel warm, but note that this is about comfort, not efficiency. If you can stand the time it takes for the the house to get from 7C to 15C, you will save money by having the heating set to 7C.   

Thanks for your input.  I think boilers must have advanced considerably since we got ours - which predates even condenser boilers.  Changing this will mean a major alteration to the house as currently the boiler is centrally placed in the kitchen and nowhere near an outer wall!  I dread the day when it’s finally gives up and needs replacement!

BUFF

nrmsmith said:

tacpot12 said:

It makes sense to run the heating overnight when the outside temperature is below freezing as you run the risk of pipes freezing otherwise. Some boilers will come on anyway when their internal sensor detects the low temperature, but I think these are the exception rather than the rule. Such boilers are set to come at around 7C, as there is a thermal gradient between the inside of the house and the outside, and there will be pipes fixes to the inside of the external walls at points where it is hard for the heat in the house to reach them. So it might be 7C at your boiler, but only 2C behind your kitchen cabinets where the water pipes are. You don't want it to get down to freezing anywhere in the house.  

Setting your heating to come on overnight so that it stays at 7-10C overnight would seem sensible IF your home heats up quite quickly (i.e. you have large heat emitters). If your heat emitters are too small, then having it set at 15C will reduce the time that it takes for the house to feel warm, but note that this is about comfort, not efficiency. If you can stand the time it takes for the the house to get from 7C to 15C, you will save money by having the heating set to 7C.   

Thanks for your input.  I think boilers must have advanced considerably since we got ours - which predates even condenser boilers.  Changing this will mean a major alteration to the house as currently the boiler is centrally placed in the kitchen and nowhere near an outer wall!  I dread the day when it’s finally gives up and needs replacement!

How is it flued currently? 

Kerreh

No overnight heating for me - the thermostat gets turned down to zero when I go to bed and that's that until the next evening .
I grew up with no CH (army quarters in the 80s/early 90s) so it's what I know - and I don't like being too hot in bed 

RelievedSheff

We keep our thermostats set to a minimum of 16 degrees overnight and during the day while we are at work.

The house is a warm house so it really doesn't take much heating and rarely drops to 16 degrees even when it is cold outside. We like to keep the house relatively warm so that the boiler isn't working flat out to heat the fabric of the building.

In the 3.5 years we have been in this house I don't think I have once heard the heating come on overnight despite it being set at 16 degrees.

born_again

nrmsmith said:

I’ve been surprised, reading these forum topics, finding out how many people seem to run their central heating overnight albeit at a lower temperature.  I was brought up in a household where parents never had the heating on overnight, even in the middle of winter when it got very cold overnight; and I have adopted this same paradigm.   

Mind you when I was a kid we had no central heating at all and no gas came to our village until the late 1960’s; so I remember the ice fronds on the inside of the (non) double glazed bedroom windows first thing winter mornings!!

What are other members attitudes to overnight central heating?

While we are nice & toasty in bad, I hate getting out of bed, as you do during the early hours for call of nature either mine or the dogs when it's cold. Think it's a age thing🤣
 
So stat is set @17C from 22:00 to 06:00 & 19C from 06:00 to 22:00 Might get a boost to 20C if feels cold mid afternoon. This suits us. Given always someone in 24/7 &Mrs is not good in the cold (even under her snug electric blanket during day)
Needs must & would rather go without something else just to stay warm.

Of course all homes are different & need different temps to keep them comfortable.

Sea_Shell

We very rarely have the heating on overnight, unless we get a run of really cold weather.

15 tog, and a hwb is usually enough.

jadey2024

To those that don't run heating through the night, what sort of bedroom temps does your rooms drop too in the night?
Do you not get condensation etc when you wake up?

I'm in an all electrical flat. It can get very cold despite new windows and funded insulation. Even with windows on latch which they are in some rooms 24/7 , I wake up to condensation on those windows. I have a hard time finding a balance of heat/ventilation here. The bedrooms have panel heaters. My daughter's room can go down to 10 deg at these coming due temps during the day. I feel with how cold her room gets, I have no choice but to run her panel for a few hours through the night as it uses cheap rate electricity too then and if ran for more than a few hours, even after once it is completely off by 7.30am, her room stays in regions of up to 13-15 degrees by 1-2pm until it then drops more to about 12-10 deg by 4 or 5pm. All depending on outside temps. 


The landing/kitchen reaches same temps as her room but has no heating there now. I've bought an oil filled radiator for landing which is next to kitchen so should heat there too to go on through the night for a few hours (since it is cheap electricity)  as I'm worried about the pipes freezing with the temps due to drop now. Otherwise I probably wouldn't bother as we don't hang out much in those areas so don't care too much for the cold there.

Alnat1

I took the thermostat up to bed with me last night. The bedroom was at 17C at 11pm. Hubby got up for work at 3.20am, it was 16C. I stirred at 6.20am, just before heating kicks in, and it was 15C. Back up to 17C stat setting when I woke up properly around 7.30am. 

We do get a bit of condensation on the bedroom windows when it's really cold, windows are shut but trickle vents open. I just slurp it up with a Karcher. Patio doors and windows in living room are the same. As the other rooms aren't used much, no condensation.

nrmsmith

How is it flued currently? 

Straight up a vertical flue that runs up a brick chimney straight out to the roof. House was built in the early 1950’s

Sea_Shell

We only get a little bit of condensation beading at the very bottom of the glass.

I don't know the temperature the room gets down too, but we turn the thermostat down to 14c for when it comes on at 7am.

Our hot water cylinder is next to our bedroom, so that gives off a little bit.