How do you have your central heating set?
 

I was wondering how you all have your central heating setup and what is the best economical way to heat the house in Winter.

We've just moved into a new house and had the heating on for the first time this weekend.
Some people say it is best to have a contant temperature set so you are not having to reheat in large amounts when temperatures drop so permenently on.

Anyone do it differently?

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

Seem to remember that having the hearing on all the time at a constant temperature cost more than heating when required.

I think there is something on the government website or British gas?

J

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

We have it set to around the 21 mark on the thermostat when needed, then usually turn it down to about 10 to 15 at other times, apart from summer when it's set to 0 nearly all the time.

I was told it's more economical to set the thermostat to 19 or 21...?

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

Turn it off in the rooms you don't use during the day.Also do you need it on when you are out of the house for long periods?

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

Mine is currently set to kick in if temperature falls below 17 degrees so at times is on all the time. Then it doesnt have to reheat if it gets to zero and also stops pipes from freezing, etc.
I guess will see when the bill comes through! Fuel is so expensive now!

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

:tu:

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

We've just had a 'Hive' smart thermostat installed.

The best thing about it is that it now allows us to have different settings for weekdays & weekends.

On weekdays it is currently set to come on at 5am to heat the house to 20° before I get up for work, then switches to 16° from 07:30 until 4:30pm when it goes back to 20° until it switches off at 10:00pm. It automatically comes on at any time if the temperature goes below 5°.

The 'smart' aspect means that, not only can the settings be altered remotely using a mobile phone app or logging into the internet, but also the temperature readings for each day can be displayed, so we can see if the settings are appropriate. For example it shows currently the 16°C setting while I'm at work is fine because the insulation is good enough to maintain the temperature above this after the warm-up in the morning.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

From 9.30pm to 4.20am it's set to 16c
4.20 to 7.30 it's 19c
7.30 to 4pm it's 17c
From 4pm to 9.30 it's set to19c
If it gets a bit chilly it goes up to 20/21

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

I was told by the gas engineer it uses more cubic feet of gas to heat up a cold house than one that is at a constant temp, ours is set at 20 perm, with short bursts of 23 or so if needed to top up. Obviously in the summer the temp never dips below 20 so the heating doesn't actually turn on then.

In the winter we spend £20-25/week, in the summer £5-10 (Gas Combi boiler, so hot water too) this is for a 3 bedroom well insulated large terraced house

So under £1k/Yr

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

I put on a jumper. heating only goes on when it really needs to. it's not on a timer.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

Yep I turn it off at the radiator in rooms I don't use.
If we are out the house for long periods we have it on a low setting where it just kicks in if it was to get very cold.
I don't think a house should ever get too cold so a reasonable temp will prevent damp.





That is what I have always been told too.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

I had the British Gas internet control system installed late last year. Its really quite nifty.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

22 in the bedroom, 10pm to 8am.
22 / 23, in the lounge & Kitchen, 8am to 10pm.

Apart from the bathroom, all unused rooms are 16.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

We also have a programmable thermostat so:

Mon-Fri
07:00 20 degrees
09:00 18 degrees
11:30 20 degrees
13:30 18 degrees
16:30 21 degrees
23:30 15 degrees

Sat-Sun
07:30 20 degrees
10:00 19 degrees
11:30 21 degrees
13:30 18 degrees
17:00 21 degrees
23:50 15 degrees

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

the stat that got fitted with my new boiler starts @ 10% and has frost protection so turns on when temp drops to low

It also whistles so is really annoying when it kicks in at night and I do not think the timer works :( possibly looking into a hive

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

Oh yes, Rads in the toilet, bathroom, & kitchen are all turned off. Bedroom ones are only on low as we don't like hot sleeping & the master rad is in the downstairs hall.

So we're only running 3 rads on full, and another 3 on partial, with another 3 not on at all. I'm guessing that must help with the consumption of gas to some degree.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

Been really tight and not used ours yet! But when we do it's set at 21 if the temp falls below 21 it kicks in.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

In many respects how things are going to work best will be a balance between what you can afford and how your home is built. Think not only about energy and air temperature, think too about structure temperatures, condensation and other risks. Frequently I see problems where people raise the air temperature for short periods, without ventilation, the warm air supports greater humidity, yet the walls and other surfaces are cold and people then complain of black mould condensation when the warm humid air hits that cold surface.

It takes a lot of effort to heat a building from cold. If you are only heating for 2 or 3 hours, especially in poorly insulated homes, it's possible your home didn't even get to the desired temperature.

Equally it is unnecessary to have your house heated 24/7 to it's comfortable occupancy temperature. That is just wasteful.

So find a balance. My house has solid walls, difficult to insulate, so I don't want it to cool too much, both for condensation risks, but also that on the coolest days it takes too long to get to temperature. Thermostatic radiator valves control individual rooms so those that are less used can be kept a bit cooler. But the programmable room stat controls the heating system that is allowed to be on 24/7, to keep the house at around 19 deg when I get up and am rushing around to get to work, so don't need comfort temperatures, 14 deg during the day, 20/21 deg in the evening and around 15 deg overnight. Unless it is really cold the system doesn't have to come on much during the day or night

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

I think that's where a lot of people are wasting a whole lot of money. All the heating's on all the time. No wonder their bills are so high.

Even shutting doors helps quite a bit to keep heat in the right places.

When it comes to electricity, turning off appliances which are not in use also helps but it's surprising how many people just leave everything on and then have a fit when the bills arrive. Frankly I don't think a lot people understand how much this costs them.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

I don't have a thermostat on my heating, controls are on the boiler. I put my heating on when the kids first go to bed. My living area is heated by two electric fires.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

TRV's set to 18c in bedrooms, 21c in the living, bathroom and dining rooms. Hallway rad fully open as it's controlled by the master thermostat that kicks in at 18c.

Keeping doors shut allows it all to work efficiently.

Heating on a timer set to come on an hour before we get up, shuts down for an hour so that the house can be aired, then back on until an hour until we retire for the night.

---------- Post added at 14:47 ---------- Previous post was at 14:47 ----------

Costing about 3 times as much as gas heating per khw. :(

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

From 08:00 21 Degrees till midnight. I don't go much lower as I would be freezing. I just cannot stand the cold.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

Mine comes on at 4am and goes off at 7am then it comes on again at 4pm and off at 11pm and around 21c, i over ride it though when i am in the house and freezing my tits off!

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

Well, it's a bit different for us as we are running a wood pellet boiler. They take a little while to get going, and continue to heat the house for at least half an hour after the flame dies, so you need to plan a little more carefully.

Also, our house is very poorly insulated, so it is generally better to keep it running at a low setting than it is to be turning it on and off all the time. When the system is properly hot, the wood also burns more efficiently.

Having said all that, our fuel costs are going up a lot more slowly than mains gas. It is still more expensive for us than someone with a gas boiler, but the difference is narrowing.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

I have mine come on for an hour at 7am-8am, then 5.15pm-6.15pm, then 8pm-9pm and 10.30pm-11.30pm. In the coldest weeks of winter I put it on at 3am-4am too to take the chill off.

I tried keeping it on the whole evening when at home and it seemed to cost more on the bill. I have no thermostat except the mechanical ones on the radiators which are all on full because otherwise they never get hot.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

Are you sure those are thermostats on your rads and not just valves? If you have a thermostat on a radiator, it should allow the rad to run at full temp until target temperature is reached, then it should shut off the water flow.

If you just have a valve on a radiator, then it will restrict the flow at all times, and as you describe, will result in the radiator being permanently warm rather than properly hot.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

Yes it is, as they are numbered and has the defrost only icon lower on the dial. In all likelihood they're just old and the springs are worn.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

You might save on your fuel bills if you get them renewed. Constantly heating your house from cold uses more fuel than keeping the temperature constant.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

Well worth replacing so that they do their job correctly. They don't least forever. New electrically-operated ones are better but more expensive.

Our lad had the misguided impression that turning them up to a higher number caused the room to heat faster, when in fact they only control the minimum/maximum temperature of the room.

Setting the boiler temperature for CH can have surprising results: too high and the rads become a danger for youngsters and the old; too low and they never manage to pump out enough heat to warm the house. Plus at low temps the pump runs far too long wasting electricity.

Also, too hot can cause the boiler to spurt out over-expanded water via the over-pressure valve, or in systems with a header tank in the attic, the attic can fill with steam!

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

21 here too , 18 at night and it stays that way for much of the winter.

I've just had to get a new receiver box installed as it was very flaky in responding to signals from the wireless thermostat, even though it's only a couple of years old. These things often tend to crop up when you use the heating first time after a wee while so the British Gas Homecare is invaluable.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

Set to 22C permanently, as all the house is in use during the day/night.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

Blimey I'd have to get nekkid round your gaff. Not a pretty sight... :D

I wonder how many people forget to bleed their rads and don't realise that's why they're not getting as hot as they should.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

The gas board never gave us a key to bleed the heaters as they said it was not necessary.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

We've had new central heating + radiators fitted for a couple of years now, one or two of them needed bleeding about 3 or 4 times since.

I bought my own brass bleeding keys from Home Bargains for a few quid.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

Thanks for the tip Jimmy

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

i have storage heaters.

Atm they are set on 4 out of 6 input and 2 out of 6 output and the flat is cozy not to hot.

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

I haven't got central heating. :cry:

Re: How do you have your central heating set?
 

Some good interesting advice in this thread.


I personally wish I had a log fire that heated up the house, but in a new build semi, its not happening.