The Great Central Heating debate....

[sponna]

Can't seem to get a good answer for this one, so interested to know what you guys do.....

Now that Vee and I will be working from home, what is the most economical way to run central heating? On constant with a low stat setting or on/off on the timer? As a degree qualified chemical engineer I should know the answer to this but.....

Or maybe shut it down for most of the day whilst the kids are out and just run a storage heater in the office?

cheers
Dave

[Mr Anderson]

We've found it cheaper to run ours constantly on a low level as it just maintains the heat rather than having to heat up the water throughout the system on demand.

[sarahA]

Possibly stating the obvious but I would try 3 methods and check your usage on your meter for each over the course of a week.
1. On/off with timed settings to suit say heating the house up first thing for a couple of hours, perhaps half an hour over lunch and then again for the evening.
2. On first thing in the morning and goes off in the evening at some point, then vary the temperature and radiators on to control the heat in the house.
3. On 24 hours, controlling the temperature and turn the radiators on/off as needed.

We did this last year and as Mr A said, found the 3rd method cheapest. We don't even have the boiler on heating at the moment, just to keep the water in the tank hot and by opening the radiators the hot water runs through the house. Then we just turn radiators on/off depending on the temperature.

[sponna]

cheers Guys - figured we may end up experimenting! I was hoping a couple of big monitors would keep the office warm but its about -5 out there at the moment so struggling.........

[net-curtains]

-18 here last night...

I've bagged the warmest room in the house for my office and it really retains the heat well. During the day I tend to switch the boiler on and off manually when I need it and then put it on auto for the night.

[rutty]

We keep ours on all the time, as low as we can cope, rather than let the house cool down/heat up etc.

I suspect the cheapest option will depend on how well your house in insulated. Ours is an old Victorian terrace so loses heat pretty quicky but a better-insulated house might prove to be cheaper using staged heating.

I've often wondered about this too

[sarahA]

Our house is pretty well insulated I think. I think it also depends on the heating system. We have a hot water tank and airing cupboard, we're not on combi, so once the water is heated up in the tank, maintaining the heat for that is easier (ie. cheaper) than reheating.

[Ben]

This is a topic that's being bickered/argued in our house at the moment. When I'm in myself (3 or 4 days a week) I use a halogen heater to give me a quick blast of heat maybe once an hour - but the main central heating is off all day, so the rest of the house is painfully cold. I tend to wear jumpers or fleece tops - it's more habit now as our old heating was beyond useless anyway.

Our house (apart from the windows) are pretty good energy wise - and our new heating is awesome.

[Tony]

I just turned off the aircon and have 12 macs to keep me warm - yay, I found a good use for a mac!

[Shirker]

I researched this a while back to see what was cheapest and the result I found was that it is way cheaper to turn it off and on rather than on all the time.

It was based on the rate of heat loss being greatest the larger the temperature difference between two areas. If it is 21C in the house and 0C outside, your house will lose heat faster than if it is 12C in the house and 0C outside - the smaller the difference the slower the rate of heat loss. The energy needed to constantly replace that lost heat on a continual basis (when the heat is being lost at its fastest) is much greater than is needed to heat the house us again when it is timed. That is irrespective of how well insulated the house is as all houses lose heat, just some faster than others.

[sponna]

Interesting last point and very logical tho not obvious!

I'm starting to think that we'll use the heating first thing and then again in the evenings when everyones around - off during the day. During the day, use a small storage heater (plus fleecy tops!) localised in the office for a bit of burst heating when it gets chilly. Figure that will likely be the cheapest. We'll just need to run back and forth to the kitchen and hop up and down to keep warm whilst we're in there! 

Weird innit - when I was earning sh1t loads of cash none of this ever entered my head. I didn't even know the price of a pint of milk! Funny how things change. I can say that I am an awful lot happier not having to worry about corporate bullsh1t any longer so def. worth a bit of hardship in the short term.

cheers
Dave

[net-curtains]

When you're running your own business you watch where every penny goes. Hence the reason I'm typing on a £6.50 Tesco keyboard where all the letters are rubbing off.

[Ben]

When you're running your own business you watch where every penny goes. Hence the reason I'm typing on a £6.50 Tesco keyboard where skk tgr jeya sew eibbung pof.

[net-curtains]

 

[Jem]

It was based on the rate of heat loss being greatest the larger the temperature difference between two areas. If it is 21C in the house and 0C outside, your house will lose heat faster than if it is 12C in the house and 0C outside - the smaller the difference the slower the rate of heat loss. The energy needed to constantly replace that lost heat on a continual basis (when the heat is being lost at its fastest) is much greater than is needed to heat the house us again when it is timed. That is irrespective of how well insulated the house is as all houses lose heat, just some faster than others.

What if your house is so old/poorly insulated and central heating system so poo that your house never gets above 15 irrelevant of what the thermostat is set to... I worry that if I turned my heating off auto it'd drop ridiculously low and our new highest temp would be in single figures.

[Mike@TheWhippinpost]

Insulate, insulate, insulate.

Fill gaps around doors, windows and pipes (not forgetting where they go through walls). Insulate the roof and eaves. Look under your bath too. Use spray foam. Do the cavity thing if you can.

It's the boring preachy stuff but it's cheap and comes first before all other heating inputs.

P.S. UK gas price rise as cold spell drains stocks - again.

[net-curtains]

Insulate, insulate, insulate.

Not always the best advice - new cavity wall insulation has caused incredible amounts of condensation and damp here, despite having added extra ventilation, and the condensation from replacing old crittall window frames with double glazing in a previous house turned all my walls black with mould.

A well insulated house is a good thing, unfortunately a lot of old houses aren't built to take advantage of it. So now we have to have the windows wide open in the morning to get rid of the condensation - which kind of writes off the small savings from the new insulation.

[Jem]

There's a lot of stuff we can't do because we're renting.

We've got curtains up everywhere, useless double glazing film etc. Best investment so far though has been an electric blanket for the bed

[Mike@TheWhippinpost]

Insulate, insulate, insulate.

Not always the best advice

It's the best advice; just not the whole story, I agree. Ventilation is important - it's how it's done.

Lessons can be drawn from Passive Houses, which are airtight. The flow of air is directed from the ground floor and out through the roof. Different ballgame I know.

[Mike@TheWhippinpost]

There's a lot of stuff we can't do because we're renting.

We've got curtains up everywhere, useless double glazing film etc. Best investment so far though has been an electric blanket for the bed

Your landlord can claim 100% of, IIRC, £1750 for energy efficiency measures - not much but might pay for proper secondary glazing and roof insulation, for example.

[net-curtains]

It's the best advice; just not the whole story, I agree. Ventilation is important - it's how it's done.

Whether it's the best advice or not depends on the house you live in.

If you live in an old house and start making it airtight you could end up with damp problems. You may also lose more heat than you gain by having to have the windows open and shoving in new air vents than you did through the gaps in your old sashes.

Even modern houses have problems. As well as the condensation problems in our house, when I ventured into our previously dry attic it was like a rain forest up there - I could hardly see across to the other side for the steam, and the insulation and roof timbers were soaked. Turns out the ventilation couldn't cope so as well as having to have the windows open downstairs, we've had more vents put in up there so the cold winds can blow the steam away.

Complete waste of money, and it's wrecked our house. Checked with some neighbors and they've had the same problems.

If you're building a new house and it's designed for it then by all means, good insulation is the way to go, but otherwise my advice is don't jump at the first cavity insulation scheme that's offered to you, check with an expert first to make sure it's not going to cause more problems than it solves.

[sarahA]

NC - not sure if you've tried any dehumidifiers but in our last non insulated, mouldy walled house, we used http://www.lakeland.co.uk/moisture-trap/F/keyword/humidifier/product/21538 for trapping moisture (and despite the reviews they do actually work!). Also http://www.lakeland.co.uk/F/product/20284 is fantastic for cleaning the mould (although strong smelling so wise to ventilate whilst cleaning) - great for bathroom tiles/grouting too!

[Ben]

I couldn't recommend a dehumidifier enough, makes a really big different to the warmth of a room even if it's slightly damp (from drying clothles inside.)

[net-curtains]

Thanks, yeah we've got a few gizmos about the place - moisture traps and other stuff.