Usually have my heating on form about 11am to 9pm most days. Have heard several thoughts that if you have it on everyday, it is cheaper to leave it on constantly and just turn it down low at night. Tempted to try it but dont really want to see that these thoughts are wrong when I get my next bill!!

Anyone know for sure, or anyone who does this??

 

I think its a myth personally. Didnt work out cheaper for me. I have mine on for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours when I get home and if it cools down I turn it back on til bedtime.

 

By the laws of Physics there is no possible way it could be true. The greater the difference between temperatures (inside and outside) the faster the rate of heat loss.

I suppose an analargy would be a bucket with a hole in the bottom, would you use more water if you kept it filled to the top all day or if you only kept it filled for the couple of hours you need it filled.

 

I heard that leaving it at 10'o saves you money somehow. Its not a consideration in my house as my girlfriend has it at 30 the whole time with the windows open.

 

I just cant understand how it could be, the only reason i know of to set a low thermostat temperature is to stop pipes freezing.

 

I know for sure that it's a load of rubbish.

 

Because of our baby boy, we have the heating on constant at the moment. We have almost got through a 1200 litre tank of oil in 3 months.
It usually last 6-8 when we put the heating on timed.
It's costing us £200 a month to heat the house and our water!

Looking forward to it warming up a bit.

 

we have ours on all the time at around about 18c. 4 bed 3 storey house pay about ~£40 per month with edf. Previous house small mid terrace 2 beds heating only on a few hours a day, gas with british gas was close to £80 per month

Current house is a new build though so probably quite well insulated (it is an end house though)

Reason I do it now is we were advised to by the builders, as it takes less energy to maintain a constant temp than to have 2 x full on blasts to get to a temp

 

Last year I just left it on and turned the temp down - cost me a fortune!!

Now its an hour in the morning before we get up (7-8) and an hour in the evening when we are all home at about (4-5).

Our gas is very expensive and our boiler doesn't help. its quite old and not very effecient but its a back boiler which can not be replaced. Not looking forward to the £3K bill to have it replaced.

 

My parents have their heating on constantly and they believe that is a more efficient way of heating.

My wife sits around the house in T-shirts and vests with the heating on between 25-30 until I turn it off. She just can't understand how thermostats work either.

 

£40 a month seems very good! What your builder is what others have said, as the water never gets cold it takes less energy to heat it up.

 

there must be some benefit of leaving the heating on low in a modern highly insulated house,but if your house is old or badly insulated it loses heat too quickly so i would only have it on when really needed.

 

Please show your workings. There is no benefit, other than having a warmer house

 

to be fair the answer to the op could be either yes or no, depends on many factors.
to name a few:
age of boiler.
type of boiler (cobmi or system)
is it maintained well ( serviced freqeuntly *sp )
is there room stats or radiator stats fitted
is the house well insulated.

the theory behind it being more cost effective to leave it on constantlyis that it never has to fire up on full tw*t to heat up a stone cold system, thus reducing the amount of gas used.

however with an oil boiler i have no idea.

by the way im no expert just listen to the bull**** presentations and advice when we get the reps doin the rounds wanting US to push their boiler sales.

hope of some help!!

 

That's still nonsense, though. The house is losing heat all the time whether the boiler is on or not, and the warmer the house, the faster heat is lost.

 

i have no calcs as such,just based on my own experience/logic which may be a little fuzzy at times but i do know that my sisters new build house is so well insulated that it feels like a sauna even when the heatings off,by that it obviously will hold temperature better than an older house with less insulation,so it will require less energy to build the heat back up if its already maintaing a lower temp ,if the stat is set low its not like the boiler is heating the rads constantly is it.
as i said previously it depends on the house.modern with insulation possible benefits.old house crap insulation no too much heat loss.

 

A house is like a giant radiator; its always radiating heat to the outside; no matter how well insulated. The warmer the house, the higher the rate of heat loss ( ΔT: difference between internal temp and external temp).

At a constant temperature; the rate of heat loss is constant, but in proportion to outside temperatures. The colder it is outside, the greater the heat loss and the more energy you need to sustain the desired internal temp. With the system turned off, the rate of heat loss reduces as the internal temp drops making the difference between the internal and external temps becomes less and less, meaning the house radiates less and less heat. The total heat lost is less that the total amount lost with the system kept on at a constant temp (unless the temp on the thermostat is reduced).

For a rough example: our house 40years old (detached, insulated, but also well ventilated - 3 chimneys! but with nice large over-sized radiators in the main rooms with TRVs). Heating is off during the day for 8hours. On a cold day (approx 5C degrees) the hall temperature drops from its target set-point of 19.5C to no lower than 17C, so that 8 hours to lose 2.5degrees. When the system turns back on, it takes about an hour to reheat back to its target temp.

Now the half-arsed maths:

The room stat has a 1 degree hysteresis (digital), of which a 19.5C set-point is 20C Max and 19C Min. With the system on, it cycles on and off to maintain this temp roughly once every hour - on for 30mins, off for 30mins. During the ON period, the burner probably cycles on and off once (its a self-modulating boiler so it rarely cycles on and off), so lets say a burner operation time of around 20mins.

So to keep the house at 19.5C for the 8 hours where it would normally be off would mean the heating operating on and off 4 times of which involves a total of 1hr40min of burner time.

Therefore, by having the system off, I have saved 40mins worth of gas at whatever rate the boiler burns it at.

 

seems reasonable,i stand corrected

 

You tight git

 

If you use a modern or 1960's concrete stucture to your reply. Concrete is a huge insulator of heat (heat is in a form of warmth or cold) so once a concrete house is upto temp, then only 27 percent of heat is required to keep a constant operating temperature, Part L. As in the summer the same house would be seen to be, overly warm, as concrete is a huge inductor of heat in any form. If you have a poorly insulated brick form house, then keeping the heating on is pointless as it would be running at 80 percent operating mode. But if your house was to be thermally astute then you could bring it down to around 41 percent.
All i can say is set your heating to 23 deg, for about half an hour before you come home (nice n toasty) then drop it to about 21 deg, at least half an hour before you go to bed.

 

oops posted twice