Octopus Agile

crumpet_man

Is it not uncomfortable to have the heating on in the night? 

I realise this is very subjective but I cannot sleep if the heating is on.  I like to fall asleep and wake up in a cool (not freezing) room. 

Waking up to heating having been on for hours will give me a headache.

EssexHebridean

If we went down the line of using heating overnight on very cheap nights then it would definitely only be downstairs I think - or perhaps adding in the very low level of heating provided by the bathroom underfloor. Those options wouldn't leave the bedroom feeling too warm (currently our heating only kicks in overnight if the temperature falls below 14 degrees C) but would mean that  the main heating wouldn't kick in in the morning as the room with the thermostat would be cosy enough not to trigger it. So would achieve a small saving of gas, and on a night with a lot of negative pricing, could even leave us a bit in-pocket. 

NedS

crumpet_man said:

Is it not uncomfortable to have the heating on in the night? 

I realise this is very subjective but I cannot sleep if the heating is on.  I like to fall asleep and wake up in a cool (not freezing) room. 

Waking up to heating having been on for hours will give me a headache.

ASHPs are not like traditional gas/oil boilers.

We don't usually leave the heating on overnight this time of year, but I put it on for a few hours last night whilst it was cheap/negative and it was fine. You don't get the rapid temperature swings, just slow uniform comfortable heat. Didn't even notice it was on other than the house was nice and warm when we got up this morning rather than colder from the overnight temperature drop.

Keep in mind our flow temperatures are only 30-32C this time of year so our radiators aren't exactly red hot or pumping out huge amounts of heat, just maintaining a stable room temperature. I used to hate the big swings in temperature we got with our old oil boiler and much prefer the constant comfortable heat of an ASHP.

EssexHebridean

Does your heat pump also allow you to "zone" your heating as well, by any chance? I can see how that would work well in this instance as presumably the bedrooms would then be cooler by a few degrees than the living areas, anyway? 

NedS

EssexHebridean said:

Does your heat pump also allow you to "zone" your heating as well, by any chance? I can see how that would work well in this instance as presumably the bedrooms would then be cooler by a few degrees than the living areas, anyway? 

Zoning is not generally a good idea with heat pumps. The system should be designed such that the radiators are sized to exactly match the heat loss of the room, to maintain the desired design temperature. Living spaces are normally designed for 21C and bedrooms at 18C, so the bedroom should already be cooler and suitable for sleeping - no need to zone or adjust TRVs etc.

EssexHebridean

Ahh interesting - so unless the system has been designed with a lower temp spec for the bedrooms, it can't readily be adjusted?  (This is pure idle curiosity on my part as we neither have, not in any sort of immediate timeframe expect to get an ASHP!) 18 would be way too warm for a bedroom, for me, for example! 

RavingMad

crumpet_man said:

Is it not uncomfortable to have the heating on in the night? 

I realise this is very subjective but I cannot sleep if the heating is on.  I like to fall asleep and wake up in a cool (not freezing) room. 

Waking up to heating having been on for hours will give me a headache.

I set off 2 oil radiators downstairs when it was negative last month. Wife woke up to the smell more than the heat. I was dead to the world 

Slinky

I had the oil filled radiator on in our dining room which is flat roofed single storey and the coldest room in the house, plus the immersion. Used 8.4kwh costing us minus 2p.

Bendo

crumpet_man said:

Is it not uncomfortable to have the heating on in the night? 

I realise this is very subjective but I cannot sleep if the heating is on.  I like to fall asleep and wake up in a cool (not freezing) room. 

Waking up to heating having been on for hours will give me a headache.

To be honest it doesn't really bother me. My wife feels the cold a lot and likes it hot. Looking at temp last night got up to 23.4, didn't really bother or affect us. If it did though I could just set an automation to cancel the heating on the bedrooms at a certain temp.

wrf12345

I've got the timers and I've got the halogen heaters (proper ones not the plastic junk) stored in the loft so I'm going to set them up in the two rooms I am going to heat this winter and use when the electric rates are around zero and see what difference it makes. I like my cold bedroom and two duvets when the temperatures are approaching zero, BTW.