Gas CH, is it more efficient to leave on low 24/7

[trencheel303]

I always thought that was kind of the point of central heating anyway, always warm.

 

[Russ77]

@russ77 - definitely and advantage living in an apartment rather than a house heating wise. I live on the top floor of a large block and basically my neighbors below are paying to heat me

For a 2 bed apartment I pay £36 per month for combined electric/gas (I self read the meters quarterly so it's "actual" usage not estimated) and I normally keep the apartment around 22 degrees.

I'm on a tariff where I do the meter readings too and was paying £25 per month before the other half moved in

In fairness I'd gone into a little bit of debit before she moved in so the £62pm I pay now is playing catch up.

 

[photon]

I always thought that was kind of the point of central heating anyway, always warm.

More to do with having just the one heating appliance to manage, which saves fuel and work and confines the ash to one area (compared with the open coal fires generally used at the time of the introduction of central heating). How people use them is up to them and the usefulness of the controls -- my sister-in-law liked a hot bathroom and would have the heating blasting away during the summer, with all the windows open

The point of controllers is to tailor your comfort level and save you money when you're out (so long as the pipes don't freeze), and the effect of hall thermostats is to waste your money and overcook the property when someone's stood nattering at the open door on a cold day.

The original question is discussed from about 09:30 here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01bm0ph

 

[Russ77]

[SNIP]the effect of hall thermostats is to waste your money and overcook the property when someone's stood nattering at the open door on a cold day.

[SNIP]

Was considering getting a wireless room stat/controller in another property I lived in. Think they were around £100 at the time but figured for the comfort factor and any money savings it'd be worth it.

Never got around to doing it though as I moved out pretty much as soon as I moved in

 

[TopBanana]

I've worked out that leaving it on at a low setting,i'm using much less than I was when running on timer at full burn.
so 24/7 it is

Sorry if it's a stupid question but what do you mean by leaving it on 24/7?
My heating is on a timer, in that I never manually turn the boiler off but the temperature on the thermostat changes throughout the day. Would you describe this as on 24/7 or should I try something else?
It's currently set approximately:
6:15 - 7:15 = 18degC
7:15 - 15:30 = 12degC
15:30 - 21:00 = 18degC
21:00 - 06:15 = 12degC

Weekends I have the thermostat on at 16degC all day (and then bump it up a bit if needs be).
I've found this whole thread a bit confusing

 

[Russ77]

Sorry if it's a stupid question but what do you mean by leaving it on 24/7?
My heating is on a timer, in that I never manually turn the boiler off but the temperature on the thermostat changes throughout the day. Would you describe this as on 24/7 or should I try something else?
It's currently set approximately:
6:15 - 7:15 = 18degC
7:15 - 15:30 = 12degC
15:30 - 21:00 = 18degC
21:00 - 06:15 = 12degC

Weekends I have the thermostat on at 16degC all day (and then bump it up a bit if needs be).
I've found this whole thread a bit confusing

My understanding is the boiler is on constant and the stat set at (let's say) 18degC all day. The theory being that the boiler will have to work less to maintain the temperature as opposed to the heating shutting down completely, the temperature dropping by say 5degC and then the boiler having to would harder to bring the temperature back up.

From the links on the previous page there are a lot of factors to consider including the type of property, how well it's insulated and when it's occupied.

I would say going by your settings, provided your house is well insulated the temperature is unlikely to drop below 12degC whilst the boiler remains on, it's unlikely to fire much (if at all) "off peak"

 

[srichards]

If you have a badly insulated house then all the heat that was lost would still have to be put back in. Wouldn't that use just as much energy as constant but dribbling heat which was equal to the hourly heat loss anyway?? If you want to raise the house by 4c then either you can keep the 1c an hour to cover losses (for example) or you can put in 4c in a single hour to get it back up to temp. The only difference would be the cost of running the pump for those extra hours. I don't think you'd save on the gas side of things at all.