Cost of having your central heating on all day?

[Mr Peacock 10]

someone said that if you have it on lower but on all the time then this is cheaper than timing it to turn on and off..i have been doing this but i am nervous of the next bill just in case it was the wrong advice

 

I have put this theory to the test on a relatives system prior to me changing their standard boiler for a condensing combi.

They were using 5 units of gas a day with it timed to come on and off as needed and about 5.5 units for leaving it on constant. So the answer is yes, you will use slightly more gas leaving it on but you have to decide if the extra comfort is worth the extra gas.

The better news was when I changed their boiler for a new combi their gas usage dropped to 2.7 units per day, roughly half what they were using before. Happy days

[muddycoffee 10]

Mr Peacock, I think it depends upon the condition of the boiler and the habits of the house occupants. I know one family who had their elderly mother come and live with them and so they needed the heating on all the time. They set it up so it gave constant 24hour heating and the gas bill went down by 20%.

 

Without doing a scientific survey it is difficult to compare, but my impression is that many people just have the water temprature up full which is probably extremely wasteful. Also without wanting to appear sexist, I have witnessed more than a handful of women using their room stat like an on and off switch with it on max or min and nothing else.

[tea4two 10]

thank you everyone..lots of good advice here, i guess it is a combination of different things, i will definatly monitor through meter readings but as the boiler really needs changing and couple of radiators are old one's, I really need to look at grants etc to update the system.

[katedave 10]

im sure u can get some help i phoned british gas free phone call i think u could qualify for a grant depending on income they will send u aform explain your circumstances they are helpfull

[Obelix 11]

Interesting question!

 

I have a relatively old boiler (no, not Mrs Bloke .... ouch!) and it normally takes up to 1 hour before the radiators are toasty. So presumably I am using 1 hours worth of gas before I get any real benefit.

 

If I was to keep switching the heating off (after say every 3 hours), then although the water in the system is no longer cold it will obviously take some time to get back to its toasty temperature when I switch it on again.

 

So I would say it depends on how many times you switch the heating off, how long you leave it off for, and how long you leave it on for each time. I don't suppose there is any way to know except trial and error!

 

I suspect it's probably cheaper to leave it on all day at the minimum setting that you are comfortable with.

 

I would be interested if anyone has any clever ideas for proving this either way!

 

Issac Newton proved it three hundred years ago.

 

You lose heat faster if there is a larger temperature difference -basically you lose heat much faster if you are trying to maintain the house at a hot temperature.

 

If you go out for the day, letting the house cool down and reheating it for when you want to come back is going to be considerably cheaper and use a lot less fuel

[Obelix 11]

Which is all that matters - we are interested in the rate of flow of heat from the walls. It's clearly demonstrable that if it's hotter there is more heat lost, so it's far better to let it cool down ie maintain it at a lower temperature during the day. You can of course extend Newtons laws to a more general case simply by applying calculus to the resulting differentail equation as well.

[alchresearch 214]

Would it be cheaper to get a simple calor gas heater?

[selphie 10]

I would definitely try warmfront again, surely if you are in reciept of carer's allowance you must be getting income support, council tax benefit and/or tax credits? I know that you can use your tax credit award as proof of income. I think the problem may be that you've applied for the grant using the benefits which technically are your sons (just a presumption). Have a look at the warmfront website and see which benefits they will take. I do know that they will take child tax credits though as a friend of mine did it.

 

Good luck x

Edited October 19, 2010 by selphie

[poppins 10]

we have gas central heating with floor vents, we set the thermostat and hardly touch it all winter unless we go away we turn it down a bit but never off, it takes more energy to start heating the house up again, also you would have to worry about burst pipes, we like the bedroom a bit colder so I put tea towels over the vents but I don't close them shut.

[MonkeyLover 10]

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