Most efficient way to run central heating.
Discussion
Apart from leaving it off is there an especially effiecent way off running gas fired CH?
We live in a new house so it is suitably insulated and we are out at work for most of the day, currently we have it on for an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening, I can't help think it will be using too much energy getting up to temp before it switches off again.
We live in a new house so it is suitably insulated and we are out at work for most of the day, currently we have it on for an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening, I can't help think it will be using too much energy getting up to temp before it switches off again.
staceyb said:
Ours is on at a constant 15 at the moment, with it turned down to 12/13 during the night, keeps the house a nice temperature without it getting too hot or too cold or freezing when you forget to set the timer before you leave for work.
15 degrees!! We have ours set to 21 degrees at the moment. The digital thermostat turns it on at 20 degrees and off at 21.5 degrees! Back to the original question I have been doing a lot of experimenting with this recently and find it is best to constantly leave the heating on and not touch the thermostat at all. We have Thermostatic Radiator Valves and these control the temperature in individual rooms.
It is 0 degrees outside today and the heating is on for about 15 minutes every 3-4 hours. If we switch it off overnight it can take about 2.5 hours in the morning just to get to a decent temperature again.
raf_gti said:
Apart from leaving it off is there an especially effiecent way off running gas fired CH?
We live in a new house so it is suitably insulated and we are out at work for most of the day, currently we have it on for an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening, I can't help think it will be using too much energy getting up to temp before it switches off again.
Have you got a condensing boiler?We live in a new house so it is suitably insulated and we are out at work for most of the day, currently we have it on for an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening, I can't help think it will be using too much energy getting up to temp before it switches off again.
Edited by NoelWatson on Thursday 17th December 20:35
Ultimately all you're doing is replacing heat lost from the house so heat in will always equal heat out. Bear this in mind and it doesn't matter if you run it constantly or only switch it on when you need.
That is, except for one thing, most boilers are far more efficient at full load. Leaving the system on all the time might give the impression that it's efficient because it only comes on for a little bit evey now and then but the thing you can't see is that it's generally hideously inefficient at part load.
That is, except for one thing, most boilers are far more efficient at full load. Leaving the system on all the time might give the impression that it's efficient because it only comes on for a little bit evey now and then but the thing you can't see is that it's generally hideously inefficient at part load.
NoelWatson said:
raf_gti said:
Apart from leaving it off is there an especially effiecent way off running gas fired CH?
We live in a new house so it is suitably insulated and we are out at work for most of the day, currently we have it on for an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening, I can't help think it will be using too much energy getting up to temp before it switches off again.
Have you got a condensing boiler?We live in a new house so it is suitably insulated and we are out at work for most of the day, currently we have it on for an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening, I can't help think it will be using too much energy getting up to temp before it switches off again.
Edited by NoelWatson on Thursday 17th December 20:35
What's one of them then?
staceyb said:
Ours is on at a constant 15 at the moment, with it turned down to 12/13 during the night, keeps the house a nice temperature without it getting too hot or too cold or freezing when you forget to set the timer before you leave for work.
There is something wrong with either A) Your thermostat or B) You, if your heating is set at 15 degrees!!!That is way too cold!
stefd said:
Ultimately all you're doing is replacing heat lost from the house so heat in will always equal heat out. Bear this in mind and it doesn't matter if you run it constantly or only switch it on when you need.
I like your thinking. So keeping a house at (say) 20 degrees for three hours uses less energy than keeping it at that temperature for ten hours. Makes sense to me!There must be a point at which it is more efficient to switch it off at night and then on in the morning. Yes it does run constantly for a long time to catch up in the morning, but if for the sake of argument it were off for a week it would have to run for a very long time to make up for the savings of the week's rest. It must depend directly on the insulation qualities of the property as to which makes more sense.
As for boiler efficiency, my old 1971 floor standing Potterton may be only about 70% efficient, but all the heat it loses into the air heats the room it's in to the point that the room needs no radiator. In the lab it is inefficient, but in the real world it isn't half as bad as you'd think. It's like incandescent lamps vs CFLs; yes they waste 90% of the energy in heat but at least it's heating the room not the world outside so it isn't really wasted.
As for boiler efficiency, my old 1971 floor standing Potterton may be only about 70% efficient, but all the heat it loses into the air heats the room it's in to the point that the room needs no radiator. In the lab it is inefficient, but in the real world it isn't half as bad as you'd think. It's like incandescent lamps vs CFLs; yes they waste 90% of the energy in heat but at least it's heating the room not the world outside so it isn't really wasted.
raf_gti said:
We live in a new house so it is suitably insulated and we are out at work for most of the day, currently we have it on for an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening, I can't help think it will be using too much energy getting up to temp before it switches off again.
For what is quite low usage, and assuming you are happy with the performance (ie it's a bit parky when you get up for a nightime whizz, but you are OK with that), I would be surprised if it would be cheaper running it in a different mode. If you used it more (say 4 hours of an evening), you might be moving into different territory.I would put your effort for now into ekeing out the last bits of insulation and draughtproofing. You might get use out of a slightly more advanced thermostat (one that can be programmed to different settings for different times), but I'm not convinced you'd get much use or benefit from it on your usage profile (others of course will and do, as has been discussed often).
Ricky_M said:
There is something wrong with either A) Your thermostat or B) You, if your heating is set at 15 degrees!!!
That is way too cold!
Just depends on the setup of your house I guess - we set ours to the same, the reason being it's in the bedroom (daft construction I know), which seems to always be a few degrees cooler than the main area of the flat - if we had it set in the 20s, the bigger radiators in the rest of the house would make the place feel like the tropics!That is way too cold!
motco said:
There must be a point at which it is more efficient to switch it off at night and then on in the morning. Yes it does run constantly for a long time to catch up in the morning
There's another factor we haven't mentioned. The radiators will bring the AIR temperature up to the set value fairly quickly, but the OBJECTS in the room will still be cold. They will then start to absorb heat from the air but will take much longer to comne up to the same temperature. So I guess you have to consider whether you're happy with just the air at the right temperature, or the contents as well.Bedroom - 22 degrees from 6am until 9.30am, then fallback to 17 degrees for the day, back up to 21 degrees at 9.30pm, fallback to 19 degrees overnight.
Lounge 21 degrees for 8am to 11pm (I work from home!), fallback to 17 degrees overnight.
Bathroom 22 degrees from 7.30am to 9am so it's nice and warm when you get out of the shower.
Hallway 21 degrees from 8am to 11.30pm.
Second bedroom on fallback to 17 degrees constant.
200 year old house, with zoned underfloor heating.
We are yuppies.
Lounge 21 degrees for 8am to 11pm (I work from home!), fallback to 17 degrees overnight.
Bathroom 22 degrees from 7.30am to 9am so it's nice and warm when you get out of the shower.
Hallway 21 degrees from 8am to 11.30pm.
Second bedroom on fallback to 17 degrees constant.
200 year old house, with zoned underfloor heating.
We are yuppies.
raf_gti said:
NoelWatson said:
raf_gti said:
Apart from leaving it off is there an especially effiecent way off running gas fired CH?
We live in a new house so it is suitably insulated and we are out at work for most of the day, currently we have it on for an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening, I can't help think it will be using too much energy getting up to temp before it switches off again.
Have you got a condensing boiler?We live in a new house so it is suitably insulated and we are out at work for most of the day, currently we have it on for an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening, I can't help think it will be using too much energy getting up to temp before it switches off again.
Edited by NoelWatson on Thursday 17th December 20:35
What's one of them then?
It seems that the lower the return temp, the more efficient the condensing bolier is, which would imply you should leave the boiler (if condensing) on at a lower temp for longer.
Simpo Two said:
maser_spyder said:
Bedroom - 22 degrees from 6am until 9.30am
You run a sauna?No wonder the bloody icecaps are melting!
Not sure about you, but I don't wear a woolly jumper to bed at nights!
This is to protect my scantily clad figure from bed to shower.
(There, that's got you thinking, hasn't it
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