Calculating Heating for one hour

[Deleted User]

The reason I set it to 0300 was just because I have children in the house so if the temp drops below 21C at 0300 it will just top up the room temp back to 21C keeping the kids all snug and warm

Today’s parents are soft. When I was a child we didn’t have central heating; double glazing or insulation and we awoke to ice on the inside bedroom windows. Even the elderly do not need bedrooms heated to 21C. There was no heat until Dad had gone downstairs to light the living room fire. I don’t recall any child deaths and we lived through the Winter of 1962/63 which lasted from late December to March.

The winter of 1963 - the coldest for more than 200 years

With temperatures so cold the sea froze in places, 1963 is one of the coldest winters on record. Bringing blizzards, snow drifts, blocks of ice, and temperatures lower than -20 °C, it was colder than the winter of 1947, and the coldest since 1740.

It began abruptly just before Christmas in 1962. The weeks before had been changeable and stormy, but then on 22 December a high pressure system moved to the north-east of the British Isles, dragging bitterly cold winds across the country. This situation was to last much of the winter.

A belt of rain over northern Scotland on 24 December turned to snow as it moved south, giving Glasgow its first white Christmas since 1938. The snow-belt reached southern England on Boxing Day and parked over the country, bringing a snowfall of up to 30 cm.

A blizzard followed on 29 and 30 December across Wales and south-west England, causing snowdrifts up to 6 m deep. Roads and railways were blocked, telephone lines brought down, and some villages were left cut off for several days. The snow was so deep farmers couldn't get to their livestock, and many animals starved to death.

This snow set the scene for the next two months, as much of England remained covered every day until early March 1963. While snow fell, and settled there was still plenty of sunshine. The weak winter sun did not warm things up, however, as the lack of cloud cover allowed temperatures to plunge. In Braemar in Scotland, the temperature got down to -22.2 °C on 18 January. Mean maximum temperatures in January were below 0 °C in several places in southern England and Wales, more than 5 °C below average. Mean minimum temperatures were well below freezing. Temperatures weren't much higher for most of February.

The long bitterly cold spell caused lakes and rivers to freeze, even sea water in some of England's harbours turned to ice. Ice patches formed at sea and on beaches. Winter didn't fully relax its grip until 4 March, when a mild south-westerly flow of air reached the British Isles. By 6 March, there was no frost anywhere in the British Isles and the temperature in London reached 17 °C - the highest since October 1962.

Finally, the coldest winter for more than 200 years in England and Wales had ended. With the thaw came flooding, but nothing like the scale of the 1947 floods. Soon after the winter had ended, life returned to normal.

Source: Met Office

macman

cmbrookes said:

M0KBJ said:

cmbrookes said:

macman said:

If the room is at the target temp on the 'stat then the boiler isn't firing. it's only 'on' in the sense that it's using a trivial amount of electricity to power the circuitry while in standby. No gas is being used at all.
But, if you're looking for economy, then I wouldn't be starting with the 'stat at 22C. Most people find 19C to 21C quite adequate. Dropping it just 1 degree to 21C should reduce your heating bills by about 10%.

Great advice thank you. So my thermostat has a timer if I set it to come on at 0300 until 2300 with a target temperature of 21C, would you say this should be ok? Is this efficient? Wouldn’t the boiler need to start up again every time the rooms drops below 21C therefore being inefficient?

Yes, the boiler will burn gas when the thermostat signals that the room has fallen below the set temperature.

Unless you need to be up before 0400, setting the heating to bring the house up to temperature at 0300 seems a bit early.

Assuming you're out of bed at 7am and are at home all day, try setting your programmer/thermostat to 0600: 19.5C; 2300: 18C. If you feel cold during the day, just nudge the thermostat up by half a degree. Most people find a cooler temperature is fine during the mornings and need the temperature raising a little when they settle down in the evening.

In this way, keeping the 'setback temperature' fairly close to the set temperature, you won't be asking the boiler to work excessively hard in the first heating hours. Gentle heating cycles are more efficient than sudden large changes.

The reason I set it to 0300 was just because I have children in the house so if the temp drops below 21C at 0300 it will just top up the room temp back to 21C keeping the kids all snug and warm

Bedrooms don't need to be heated to anywhere near 21C. 18C is the recommended norm, and it's just not necessary to maintain even 18C through the night. I woke up at about 6am today and the bedroom temp had dropped to about 15C, but I wasn't cold with a decent duvet on. The CH then kicked in at 7am.
How do you think children survived in the days before central heating? At the risk of sounding a bit 4 Yorkshiremen, I grew up with NSH's downstairs and just an oil filled rad in the bedroom. I seem to have survived unscathed.
If you run the CH at 21C between 3am and 7am, then you will massively increase your gas burn, as you are trying to reheat at the time of night when the heat loss is at it's greatest.
I don't quite follow your point about the boiler coming back on when the temp drops below 21C. If the programmer or timer is 'off', then the stat will have no effect. The timer over-rules the 'stat, so the 'stat will only function during the times that the timer is set to 'on'.

The_Green_Hornet

Dolor said:

The reason I set it to 0300 was just because I have children in the house so if the temp drops below 21C at 0300 it will just top up the room temp back to 21C keeping the kids all snug and warm

Today’s parents are soft. When I was a child we didn’t have central heating; double glazing or insulation and we awoke to ice on the inside bedroom windows. Even the elderly do not need bedrooms heated to 21C. There was no heat until Dad had gone downstairs to light the living room fire. I don’t recall any child deaths and we lived through the Winter of 1962/63 which lasted from late December to March.

The winter of 1963 - the coldest for more than 200 years

With temperatures so cold the sea froze in places, 1963 is one of the coldest winters on record. Bringing blizzards, snow drifts, blocks of ice, and temperatures lower than -20 °C, it was colder than the winter of 1947, and the coldest since 1740.

It began abruptly just before Christmas in 1962. The weeks before had been changeable and stormy, but then on 22 December a high pressure system moved to the north-east of the British Isles, dragging bitterly cold winds across the country. This situation was to last much of the winter.

A belt of rain over northern Scotland on 24 December turned to snow as it moved south, giving Glasgow its first white Christmas since 1938. The snow-belt reached southern England on Boxing Day and parked over the country, bringing a snowfall of up to 30 cm.

A blizzard followed on 29 and 30 December across Wales and south-west England, causing snowdrifts up to 6 m deep. Roads and railways were blocked, telephone lines brought down, and some villages were left cut off for several days. The snow was so deep farmers couldn't get to their livestock, and many animals starved to death.

This snow set the scene for the next two months, as much of England remained covered every day until early March 1963. While snow fell, and settled there was still plenty of sunshine. The weak winter sun did not warm things up, however, as the lack of cloud cover allowed temperatures to plunge. In Braemar in Scotland, the temperature got down to -22.2 °C on 18 January. Mean maximum temperatures in January were below 0 °C in several places in southern England and Wales, more than 5 °C below average. Mean minimum temperatures were well below freezing. Temperatures weren't much higher for most of February.

The long bitterly cold spell caused lakes and rivers to freeze, even sea water in some of England's harbours turned to ice. Ice patches formed at sea and on beaches. Winter didn't fully relax its grip until 4 March, when a mild south-westerly flow of air reached the British Isles. By 6 March, there was no frost anywhere in the British Isles and the temperature in London reached 17 °C - the highest since October 1962.

Finally, the coldest winter for more than 200 years in England and Wales had ended. With the thaw came flooding, but nothing like the scale of the 1947 floods. Soon after the winter had ended, life returned to normal.

Source: Met Office

https://youtu.be/VKHFZBUTA4k                          

InvertedVee

macman said: At the risk of sounding a bit 4 Yorkshiremen, I grew up with NSH's downstairs and just an oil filled rad in the bedroom. I seem to have survived unscathed.

I'd love to think what an MSE Energy Forum would have looked like in 1970.

Let's allow @cmbrookes to use their money as they like, especially as they're not complaining that their bills are excessive.

macman

M0KBJ said:

macman said: At the risk of sounding a bit 4 Yorkshiremen, I grew up with NSH's downstairs and just an oil filled rad in the bedroom. I seem to have survived unscathed.

I'd love to think what an MSE Energy Forum would have looked like in 1970.

Let's allow @cmbrookes to use their money as they like, especially as they're not complaining that their bills are excessive.

I think they soon will be if they run the CH all winter from 3am at 21/22C...
Al we do here is give advice and opinion, it's up to the OP whether to act on it or not.

cmbrookes

Max68 said:

Olly_J said:

cmbrookes said:

Can anyone tell me what I need to do to calculate how much it’s costing me to set my central heating to be on constantly for one hour. I’ve set it on the thermostat at a certain time to come on for one hour.

thanks

The first hour or two is always going to be the most costly, after which it will level off to equal the heat loss from the property, like below, so running it for a single hour is not an efficient way to run, as you are paying all the money, but for little benefit, whereas once heated up you can run for longer for a little more

This is the thing that really intrigues me, as we see these questions re "is it cheaper to leave the heating on all day or only when you need it?"  The consensus seems to be only when you need it - BUT.  If you are happy with a temperature of say 18c would it be cheaper to turn the heating on in the morning when the house is at 14c until it gets to 18, which can take a good couple of hours, maybe more in this weather, and do the same come evening time?  OR is it cheaper to just leave the thermostat at 18c thus meaning the boiler won't have to work to get from 14c to 18c a couple of times a day and will only fire up when it gets below 18?  ****Wrote this before M0KBJ comments above.

What is your advice then?

_Sam_

 Max68 said:

This the thing that really intrigues me, as we see these questions re "is it cheaper to leave the heating on all day or only when you need it?"  The consensus seems to be only when you need it - BUT.  

From what I gathered reading discussions on this question, all else being equal the difference in efficiency between the two approaches would be fairly small. Unless the house is poorly insulated - in this case apparently much more energy would be wasted keeping it warm all day long (as the heat would just keep escaping) so the better approach would be to turn the heating only for the hours you need it.  

cmbrookes

I take no offence to any of the comments on here and I take all your advice on board, it’s greatly appreciated.

cmbrookes

macman said:

M0KBJ said:

macman said: At the risk of sounding a bit 4 Yorkshiremen, I grew up with NSH's downstairs and just an oil filled rad in the bedroom. I seem to have survived unscathed.

I'd love to think what an MSE Energy Forum would have looked like in 1970.

Let's allow @cmbrookes to use their money as they like, especially as they're not complaining that their bills are excessive.

I think they soon will be if they run the CH all winter from 3am at 21/22C...
Al we do here is give advice and opinion, it's up to the OP whether to act on it or not.

I’ve taken your advice on board and set my timer from 0600 to 0900 and 1800 to 2200 with temperate at 21C. See how I get on with that then lower it? 

Alnat1

Sounds good. I find we cope with it a bit cooler in the mornings as we're generally moving about more, not sitting so much. You need to find what suits your house and the people in it.

Keep thinking, every degree lower is 10% less £