Cut gas heating bills by up to 80% - here is how:

MeteredOut

Qyburn said:

One downside is overheating the living room. But anyway, if the effect is stopping the heating coming on overnight then can it really be saving that much? I find it hard to believe overnight heating made up over 80% of your consumption.

Another way to stop the heating coming on overnight is to not have the heating come on overnight

Spoonie_Turtle

I can vouch for December being milder overall - I was kicking the hot water bottle out every night after the initial chilly spell, then stopped using it altogether.  Which is absolutely ridiculous, I've never needed to do that in December before.

400ixl

The only way I can see this being a scenario is that your heating was set to come on if the thermostat in the hallway saw a temperature below a certain setting and now you are not hitting that.

In a similar built house during the last week we have seen an average overnight drop of 2.5 degrees between the heating switching off at 18 degrees at night and coming on again in the morning. makes no noticeable difference if the doors are open or closed. I have smart RTV's on all the radiators so can see the change over time in each individual room, plus a central thermostat.

I can't see plaster walls holding that much heat, they would have to be hot to touch to have much long lasting effect.

The alternative and more frugal way would be to turn down the temperature in the living room and lower that trigger point in the hallway so the heating does not come one.

That will save even more money.

Ours has a trigger point of 7 degrees inside (which it never hits even in the coldest of weather) and there is an anti freeze trigger for the boiler as it is out in the garage. That doesn't fire up the heating though, just ensures the pipes to the boiler doesn't freeze up.

Great that you have seen a big drop in consumption, but I don't think it is by the means you think it is.

Happy to be proven wrong, so maybe tell how your heating system is configured. What triggers it to come on overnight, is that a temperature and what is it set to, and have you changed it at all as part of this experiment.

MeteredOut

Spoonie_Turtle said:

I can vouch for December being milder overall - I was kicking the hot water bottle out every night after the initial chilly spell, then stopped using it altogether.  Which is absolutely ridiculous, I've never needed to do that in December before.

Funny nickname for your other half?

Qyburn

MeteredOut said:

Qyburn said:

One downside is overheating the living room. But anyway, if the effect is stopping the heating coming on overnight then can it really be saving that much? I find it hard to believe overnight heating made up over 80% of your consumption.

Another way to stop the heating coming on overnight is to not have the heating come on overnight

That's very true. I've never lived anywhere where the house was heated overnight, nor would I want to. But I've seen one here that quite a few people like heat 24/7.

Spoonie_Turtle

MeteredOut said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

I can vouch for December being milder overall - I was kicking the hot water bottle out every night after the initial chilly spell, then stopped using it altogether.  Which is absolutely ridiculous, I've never needed to do that in December before.

Funny nickname for your other half?

Haha, if only!

FreeBear

400ixl said: I can't see plaster walls holding that much heat, they would have to be hot to touch to have much long lasting effect.

Solid brick & plaster walls can make for a very good thermal store - When I have the stove lit in the lounge, I can watch the wall temperature climb to 120°C or more. As the fire dies down, this stored heat slowly percolates throughout the house and keeps the place warm overnight. Added bonus is the chimney passes through the bedroom above and heats up to 25-30°C. A nice big radiator up there.

Jyana

Looking at your graph, you also used a lot more energy leading up to December 2022 compared to the year before, your Nov & Dec 2021 consumpution is below what's showing in late Sept/early October 2022. You only peaked the same amount in both January's, and then in early 2022 your usage fell much quicker all the way through to May compared to last year.

So it's not just that last winter and this winter has a big change up, last winter and the one before it had some fairly big differences too, with last year looking like it was a pretty high usage one overall. What did you change then; is it down to using more heating due to the £400 free electricity, seasonal changes, kids move out, etc?

wild666

I turned down the flow temperature of the water going through the radiators years ago to 40 degrees and set the thermostat at 16 degrees and the flat I live in is warm enough for me with those temperatures when I need the heating on. 
I went from using 5000 kWh of gas per year down to 900 kWh of gas within 12 months. I also don't put the heating on, most years until late November/ Early December and it goes off in Mid February as I find the flat is warm enough.

Robin9

I had a gas boiler failure over the Bank  Holiday weekend and the temp fell to 17 and I felt cold - extra layers were needed and a couple of fan heaters.    The man from Baxi was most welcome on Tuesday morning.