Heating on or just on a few hours??

Sarah69

I have I think a combi boiler, it was put  in just over a year ago. It has been suggested to me that I switch the boiler off at the main switch and only turn it on when I need to use it as it’s costing me money just by having it switched on. Someone else has said I should have it on with the heating  constantly on on a low setting and it will be cheaper that way. What does anyone else think of this please? 

MikeJXE

I switch mine on at the wall switch when I need heat or hot water and my usage is very low, to date this year the most it has been on is 3 half hour periods a day when it feels chilly 

_Jem_

If it's a combi then switching it off would mean no hot water. Do they mean turning off the preheat? It's really not going to be costing more money. 

Reed_Richards

Modern gas boilers don't have a pilot light so there is no gas usage when the boiler is not working.  It will use a small amount of electricity but not enough to worry about.  It will run most economically when the temperature it heats the central heating water to is set low, but set it too low and your house won't be warm enough. 

So the first advice was wrong and the second advice was correct, if you understand want is meant by "low setting".    

MikeJXE

_Jem_ said:

If it's a combi then switching it off would mean no hot water. Do they mean turning off the preheat? It's really not going to be costing more money. 

Switching it off means no costs, I don't use hot water everyday and my boiler has a pre heat every 90 minutes that cannot be switched off, thats my main reason for switching it off at the wall switch. 

Reed_Richards

If your combi boiler is in the kitchen (or any heated part of the house) then any preheating of the water that may take place will cause heat to be lost to the kitchen, which will help (slightly) to keep the kitchen warm.  So as long as the boiler is somewhere you want to keep warm you should not worry about this in winter.  In summer it's different because then you don't need the heat.

macman

It was fitted a year ago and 'you think' it's a combi?
Make and model please?
Do you have a hot tank? If yes, then it's not a combi.
It burns no gas when it's not firing, and the electricity usage on standby is minimal. a few watts, so switching the power off is futile, and means it will not fire up when you turn on the hot tap.
The correct answer is to use the system as intended. Set the on/off times and required temp with the programmer according to your lifestyle. It shouldn't be 'off' at the main switch at all, and there is no requirement to run it constantly at any level. If you run the heating overnight then of course your gas bill will soar.

MikeJXE

Reed_Richards said:

If your combi boiler is in the kitchen (or any heated part of the house) then any preheating of the water that may take place will cause heat to be lost to the kitchen, which will help (slightly) to keep the kitchen warm.  So as long as the boiler is somewhere you want to keep warm you should not worry about this in winter.  In summer it's different because then you don't need the heat.

I research my pre-heat and it  came on every 90 minutes 24 hours a day, that worked out at 8 kWh and at todays price thats about  £300 per year, at present I don't need hot water everyday and very little heat thanks to Mother Nature 

Sarah69

I just have heating and hot water, there’s no preheat setting that I know of. My water is switched to the hottest as that’s how I like it, I don’t have a tank like I used to the water comes out and it heats it up as it comes out. I have turned the heating down but it takes longer like that to heat the house. My boiler is in an under stairs cupboard.

jrawle

I think there are two separate questions here. One is whether to keep the heating on all the time, or only for parts of the day.

The second question is whether to switch the boiler off at the main switch when it is not in use. I'll answer this first, and I'd say almost certainly no. They are not designed to be used like this, and doing so may shorten the life of the electronics or other components. There is an issue with the wasteful pre-heat function of some combi boilers. On most, this can be switched off. If you tell us the model of your boiler, someone can look it up and find out how to do that.

As for whether to leave the heating on low all day or or just for certain periods, that's been discussed at length on this forum many times, and in the end is largely down to personal preference. If you only heat the house when you need to, it'll lose less heat to the outside. The boiler will have to work more to warm the house up, but this will use slightly less energy than keeping it heated all the time. The difference won't be that large. Do you have programmable thermostat that lets you set different temperatures for different times of the day?

macman

Sarah69 said:

I just have heating and hot water, there’s no preheat setting that I know of. My water is switched to the hottest as that’s how I like it, I don’t have a tank like I used to the water comes out and it heats it up as it comes out. I have turned the heating down but it takes longer like that to heat the house. My boiler is in an under stairs cupboard.

Right, so it is a combi. So please post the make and model and we can tell you if it has pre-heat and whether that pre-heat can be turned off.
If you turn the power off then the boiler will not fire up and produce any hot water on demand.
If you turn the heating down on the programmer or room 'stat then it will not take any longer to heat the house, it will just heat it to a lower temp. If yo have turned down the flow temp on the boiler, then yes, it will take longer to heat up, but will increase the efficiency of the boiler, as long as it's low enough tp run in condensing mode (typically around 55C).