Overnight heating??

Spoonie_Turtle

Deleted_User said:

It's obvious to anyone that many people are struggling, which is surely why there should be things like the BBC article encouraging people that heating of at least the main rooms of your house isn't this thing you should be cutting out.

Sorry, my brain's failing at interpreting the typo, however I do completely agree that there needs to be better, more sensible and practical mainstream advice for people who are struggling.  Even basics like differentiating between DD amount vs actual bills, checking bills are based on real readings, etc. need to be made more widely known.

[As an aside, there are people for whom there really is nothing left to do or cut out, and for those people general advice posed as The Solution can be very insulting - just like cost of living tips are usually a way of life already for people who have already been living in poverty.  So mainstream advice would be better worded as for people who are newly struggling.]

MissLFC

I always turn the heating off completely overnight & have it come on about 10 minutes before I get up. Once I fell asleep with it on though - I felt sick when I realised then sat with it off for the rest of the day lol - & this was back before it was so wildly expensive!!!

TadleyBaggie

MissLFC said:

I always turn the heating off completely overnight & have it come on about 10 minutes before I get up. Once I fell asleep with it on though - I felt sick when I realised then sat with it off for the rest of the day lol - & this was back before it was so wildly expensive!!!

Modern thermostats allow different temperatures at different times. Mine is set to 18 degrees from 7:30 to 23:00 and 15 degrees overnight. So no daily fiddling needed. 

WelshPaul

I did a test... Turning my heating off overnight resulted in my thermostat temperature dropping to 12.5 degrees (house was cold). Our heating kicks in at 7am as per a pre set schedule, the boiler ran continuesly for 2.48 hours until the thermostat reached 17 degrees and shut off.

Leaving the thermostat set to 15 degrees overnight resulted in the boiler kicking in a total of five times during the night (12m, 6m, 12m, 14m) and it took 1h 13m once the schedule kicked in to bring the house back up to 17 degrees. So, a total of 1hr 57m minutes of heating use  to maintain 15 degrees during the night and bring the house up to 17 degrees in the morning. We saved 51 minutes of heating by leaving the heating maintain a nightly temperature of 15 degrees when compared to turning off the heating overnight.

easy

Our heating goes off overnight.  Our dog  (now getting to be an old man at 10 years old)  woke us at 5:30 a.m on Tuesday morning,  and at 3:11 a.m. yesterday,  crying and showing anxiety.   I only realised mid-yesterday that he must have been cold.  
He sleeps in a crate next to our bed .  I've dug out an old duvet and covered his crate with it last night,  bless him he slept through the night.  
Just a thought when you are planning your heating strategy . 

And for those who ask -  no he can't sleep in the bed with us,  he would keep licking our feet in the night !!

victor2

Deleted_User said:

WelshPaul said:

I did a test... Turning my heating off overnight resulted in my thermostat temperature dropping to 12.5 degrees (house was cold). Our heating kicks in at 7am as per a pre set schedule, the boiler ran continuesly for 2.48 hours until the thermostat reached 17 degrees and shut off.

Leaving the thermostat set to 15 degrees overnight resulted in the boiler kicking in a total of five times during the night (12m, 6m, 12m, 14m) and it took 1h 13m once the schedule kicked in to bring the house back up to 17 degrees. So, a total of 1hr 57m minutes of heating use  to maintain 15 degrees during the night and bring the house up to 17 degrees in the morning. We saved 51 minutes of heating by leaving the heating maintain a nightly temperature of 15 degrees when compared to turning off the heating overnight.

I'm sure mine did similar in previous years when we relied on gas CH.

This year we're using a woodburner - last log goes on the fire at 9.30pm and then it's just a case of the heat being allowed to circulate around the whole house and slowly escaping from the house.

The degree to which temps drop is directly correlated to outside temperature. A week ago I'd say it never drops below 16 degrees, but we've had days of freezing weather - last night -5 and it's STILL not above freezing. So the average temp is closer to 12 degrees this morning (with a couple of colder and a couple of warmer rooms).

BUT - big shocker to me is that I was tidying the utility room and just happened to spot the big sticker on the front of the boiler ---- 34kw!!! So in the old days (when we didn't much care how much gas we were using) we'd have thought nothing of the boiler switching on for 15 minutes 4 times a night.....but that's 34kwh!!!!!

Our woodburner is 3kw. So keeping the house warm overnight with the CH would use the same amount of energy as our woodburner would use in a day!!!

Someone on another thread mentioned the difference between stone built and timber framed house. The former (I think) does better if you keep a steady heat? But I think with my timber framed house keeping the house warm overnight would be expensive and unnecessary. 

What the boiler uses when running isn't necessarily what it is rated at.

For example out 35kW rated boiler came on at 06:00 yesterday, having been off overnight, so the house needed warming up. In one hour it used 16.25kWh (10.46kWh in the first 30 minutes) according to the Bright app.

MissLFC

TadleyBaggie said:

MissLFC said:

I always turn the heating off completely overnight & have it come on about 10 minutes before I get up. Once I fell asleep with it on though - I felt sick when I realised then sat with it off for the rest of the day lol - & this was back before it was so wildly expensive!!!

Modern thermostats allow different temperatures at different times. Mine is set to 18 degrees from 7:30 to 23:00 and 15 degrees overnight. So no daily fiddling needed. 

I am aware however I have never felt the need to leave the heating on overnight, the house warms up quickly when it's switched back on.

victor2

MissLFC said:

TadleyBaggie said:

MissLFC said:

I always turn the heating off completely overnight & have it come on about 10 minutes before I get up. Once I fell asleep with it on though - I felt sick when I realised then sat with it off for the rest of the day lol - & this was back before it was so wildly expensive!!!

Modern thermostats allow different temperatures at different times. Mine is set to 18 degrees from 7:30 to 23:00 and 15 degrees overnight. So no daily fiddling needed. 

I am aware however I have never felt the need to leave the heating on overnight, the house warms up quickly when it's switched back on.

I've just set our thermostat to 12 degrees from 23:00 to 06:00 instead of heating off. Then if we go away for a day/night and turn the thermostat day temperature down, in the event of it being a bitterly cold night (well below zero), the inside temperature could conceivably drop below 12 and the heating will kick in. Don't expect it ever to, as the house is well insulated, but it's set and I can just not worry about it.

FreeBear

easy said:

Our heating goes off overnight.  Our dog  (now getting to be an old man at 10 years old)  woke us at 5:30 a.m on Tuesday morning,  and at 3:11 a.m. yesterday,  crying and showing anxiety.   I only realised mid-yesterday that he must have been cold.  
He sleeps in a crate next to our bed .  I've dug out an old duvet and covered his crate with it last night,  bless him he slept through the night.  
Just a thought when you are planning your heating strategy . 

And for those who ask -  no he can't sleep in the bed with us,  he would keep licking our feet in the night !!

Get him an electric blanket for Christmas - You can get heated pads to put in the bottom of the basket/crate, and they don't cost much to run overnight.

RobM99

FreeBear said:

easy said:

Our heating goes off overnight.  Our dog  (now getting to be an old man at 10 years old)  woke us at 5:30 a.m on Tuesday morning,  and at 3:11 a.m. yesterday,  crying and showing anxiety.   I only realised mid-yesterday that he must have been cold.  
He sleeps in a crate next to our bed .  I've dug out an old duvet and covered his crate with it last night,  bless him he slept through the night.  
Just a thought when you are planning your heating strategy . 

And for those who ask -  no he can't sleep in the bed with us,  he would keep licking our feet in the night !!

Get him an electric blanket for Christmas - You can get heated pads to put in the bottom of the basket/crate, and they don't cost much to run overnight.

...or a hot water bottle wrapped in an old jumper or similar, it'll release heat slowly and won't burn him.