When is your hot water ON

spinningsheep

Hehe, yeh I know that Cardew, I just wondered, if we DIDNT use it at all, and just used the cold tap, would the water that would be in the hot water cylinder come say Nov, be ok to just heat and use? Or would you advise draining the tank of the cold "hot" water and let it fill up with fresh before use?

Proverbs_31_woman

AAArgh! Up until last week my heating was on 24/7!!

I am concerned about our fuel bills so decided to try leaving the water off for a few hours and looked up online to see if I would actually save any money - hence i am here. previous lurker but first time poster.

thinking of doing the meter reading test to find out if i am actually saving anything! Had heard it costs more to reheat the water that has cooled rather than keeping it at a constant temperature.

nearlyrich

!!!!!! wrote: »

On demand, we have a combi.

Same here;)

Buttercup.x

when ever we need to wash the pots, we have an electic shower so we dont need the hot water on then

tanith

Used to have our hot water on 5 -6 am and 5 -7 pm , recently have cut out the evening one and honestly have noticed no difference.. that two showers per day at least and a couple of bowl fulls of hot water... it seems fine just on for one hour per day...

Cardew

Proverbs_31_woman wrote: »

AAArgh! Up until last week my heating was on 24/7!!

I am concerned about our fuel bills so decided to try leaving the water off for a few hours and looked up online to see if I would actually save any money - hence i am here. previous lurker but first time poster.

thinking of doing the meter reading test to find out if i am actually saving anything! Had heard it costs more to reheat the water that has cooled rather than keeping it at a constant temperature.

It is amazing how that 'Urban Myth' gets repeated and repeated.

As the time for using central heating is approaching, we are bound to get the same 'urban myth' about heating the house come up. i.e. 'I have heard it is cheaper to leave the house at a constant temperature as it costs more to heat it up from cold etc'
WRONG WRONG WRONG - the longer your heating is off the lower the bills!

malc_b

You have to careful with such claims. Houses have a lot of thermal inertia and there is little difference between heating 16hrs/day and 24hrs/day. The figures from CIBSE Guide, Table B18.15 are:

Occupied period       Light building       Heavy building
     4 hours                0.68                     0.96
     8 hours                1.00                     1.00
    12 hours               1.25                     1.02
     16 hours              1.40                     1.03

Those are fuel usage vs. work day. See how with the heavy building it costs little more to heat it for 16hrs than 8hr because it takes so long to heat up and cool down. Yes you will always save some but it won't be 50% if you run the heating only 12hrs/day. I know my house, when I have been away in the winter, takes a few days before it feels warm again so it tends towards heavy.

TheBees

So is it cheaper to have the heating on for an hour in the morning before we go off to work and then off until late afternoon when we come home? It would then be on from around 3.30pm until 9 or 10pm. We have a 3 year old modern house that seems to be pretty well insulated with a thermostat in the hall and thermostatic radiator valves too.
Any advice appreciated before the heating goes on in November AND NOT BEFORE!!!