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      01-13-2016, 11:05 AM   #1
Tom Tallon
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And another on Central Heating in cold weather

So we are now in a cold spell whatever Brigand says.

How do you plan your morning heat up of the house?

1. Do you keep the thermostat at 21/22 degrees and timer to come on say at 6.15 am but switched off overnight.

2. Do you have heating on constantly but switch it down to say 17 degrees on going to bed. In the morning raise it to 21/22 degrees.

There is a body of opinion among CH engineers that the second is more effective and cheaper because its better having a hike from 17 to 22 in the morning than a traumatic lift from say 9 degrees to 22. Also the house will heat up much quicker.

Any views?
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      01-13-2016, 11:56 AM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Tallon View Post
Any views?
For me it is all about comfort and whether you are using the house during the day.

I'm of the opinion it doesn't cost much more to keep a house warm, as long as you are not wanting high background temperatures. Subject of course to insulation quality and heating efficiencies.

I look after a public building which is only used for small parts of the week, and heating is one of the biggest management issues, if you want comfort when it is used. Always best if it is heated early, rather than try and get maximum heat into the building in a short time frame ahead of use, even if the temperature is not up to the working temperature in use. The difference in having heat in the fabric of the building, compared to hot air and a cold building, is poles apart for comfort.
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      01-13-2016, 11:57 AM   #3
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Leaving your heating on is a myth. Common sense really, as every house looses heat so why loose it while your asleep.
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      01-13-2016, 12:02 PM   #4
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I use a Nest learning thermostat which learns when I want heat and how long it takes to achieve that target, and brings the house up to temperature automatically adjusting the start time based on the ambient outside temperature and time of year. This means in spring it might come on 20 minutes before we wake up whereas it could be more like 2 hours this time of year.

On days when I set it to away whilst my wife and I are both at work then the overall duration the boiler is heating tends to be an hour or two less than if one of us works from home and has it on all day. We tend to be out for 8-9 hours at least so any less than that and you might see a benefit from keeping it on.

I have noticed it takes exponentially longer to heat the house if it drops below 12-13C than bringing it up from a more usual ambient of say 15C.
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      01-13-2016, 12:16 PM   #5
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22c ?? Bloody hell thats shorts n Tshirt temperature

We have ours programmed for 16.5 over night and then a gradual ramp up to 19 for morning until 9am.

For 9am to 1600 it's about 18c.

Then evening it's set to about 20c.

Occasionally set it to 21.5c when it's cold outside.

Goes off in March!
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      01-13-2016, 12:33 PM   #6
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Thermostat set to 18 in the coldest part of the house and I never ever touch it after that. I maybe tweak the radiators in an individual room if required. I just leave it on all the time as the wife and I both work from home regularly. No change at night!
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      01-13-2016, 12:48 PM   #7
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we have a wireless smart thermostat linked to the boiler.
touch set a comfort temp, say 20c, and a min temp say 18c.
you programme the timer as normal, and the boiler will smart heat up to the comfort temp during the on times and be off during the off tines, unless the temp falls below the set minimum temperature, whereby the boiler kicks in to raise the temp to the minimum temp.

The idea is that it us more economical to keep the house at a reasonable temp all the time, with little boosts to raise the temp from the minimum temperature to the comfort temp than have the house temp drop to say 16c and then have to blast the heating to raise the temp, overshooting and having big temp swings
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      01-13-2016, 12:53 PM   #8
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Have it on when at home.

Off at night or when out

Have a constant battle with the Mrs who keeps adjusting the thermostat to 25

However our house tends to stay warmer when it's off thanks to 2 largish aquariums in the living room that put out a bit of warmth.
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      01-13-2016, 01:07 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kal001 View Post
Have it on when at home.

Off at night or when out

Have a constant battle with the Mrs who keeps adjusting the thermostat to 25

However our house tends to stay warmer when it's off thanks to 2 largish aquariums in the living room that put out a bit of warmth.
25 fuck me.

My neighbour is like that, it's like a year round sauna.

It's funny when they host dining nights, you have to plan and not wear jumper etc lol.

It's my excuse for drinking no so much wine when I am there
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      01-13-2016, 01:49 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kal001 View Post
Have a constant battle with the Mrs who keeps adjusting the thermostat to 25.
Sounds very very familiar! I'm there in shorts and t-shirt, she's in thermals and hidden under a blanket, and still complains it's too cold! Think there must be fundamental differences between male and female body temperature regulation?

Back to OPs question:
Timed to come on at 05:30 (I get up at 6:30) then goes off at 07:30 when house is empty!

Comes back on again at 15:30 so it's warm when we get in at 16:30.

Thermostat is changed to 20/21 every time I pass, and 25/26 every time SWMBO passes it. I often just wait till I hear it click as she turns it and then sneak out and turn it back down!
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      01-13-2016, 01:53 PM   #11
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We have ours on a timer with the thermostat set to 20-21 degrees. Comes on about an hour before we go downstairs but I must admit it can feel cold just now given the low temperatures.

It's currently -2 so going to be a cold night and therefore I will probably keep the heating on all night tonight but lower the thermostat to 17.

Those who have smart thermostats - do you recommend them?
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      01-13-2016, 01:56 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Tallon View Post
So we are now in a cold spell whatever Brigand says.

How do you plan your morning heat up of the house?

1. Do you keep the thermostat at 21/22 degrees and timer to come on say at 6.15 am but switched off overnight.

2. Do you have heating on constantly but switch it down to say 17 degrees on going to bed. In the morning raise it to 21/22 degrees.

There is a body of opinion among CH engineers that the second is more effective and cheaper because its better having a hike from 17 to 22 in the morning than a traumatic lift from say 9 degrees to 22. Also the house will heat up much quicker.

Any views?
I'm a CH engineer and it all depends on your house - whether it is well insulated or not. If you have a high heat loss then your boiler is going to be running more if on constant, so obviously it will be using more gas.

Heating your heating system up from cold doesn't use any more gas than just boosting a warm system. In reality it'll take 10-15minutes for your heating system to get hot. Using 15minutes of gas in full mode would be less than using 2 hours of gas in a lower mode.

It's hard to say as every home with vary due to insulation, boiler type etc. Without doing tests yourself over a period of a month you cannot judge it. We have a programable roomstat set to 16oc in the night, and our boiler will very rarely come on at that. So if your home is dropping to 9oc then you must be losing a lot of heat!

Hope that is of help.
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      01-13-2016, 02:40 PM   #13
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Timer and thermostat.

For any given house the temperature gradient (difference between temperature inside, and the ambient outside) will be greater at night as the ambient falls. The greater the difference, the greater the rate of heat loss, and the greater the energy consumption to maintain the desired temperature inside.

Keeping warm at night, that's what duvets are for, unless it's absolutely arctic conditions.
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      01-13-2016, 03:00 PM   #14
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19c all day long and 16.5c from 22:00 till 05:30.

But when at work I'm not sure what the Mrs does. I have locked mine in the installer menu so that it cannot be programmed to above 21c as Mrs has the theory that the higher the set point the quicker the house heats up.
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      01-13-2016, 03:03 PM   #15
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I have 2 digital stats, 1 upstairs & 1 down that I have pre programmed to suit my needs. 16deg overnite, ramps up to 18/19 for a hour burst 1st thing, back down while we are out @ work / busy around the house, up for the evening & back to 16 while we sleep.

Upstairs different to down, less heat needed during the day as we spend more time downstairs.

Hot water is on a different timing to our needs
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      01-13-2016, 03:10 PM   #16
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Leave my hot water on constant as I did a test in the summer and it uses more gas switching on for 2 periods of 2 hrs per day. It's a modern megaflo so very well insulated hardy any losses if left.
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      01-13-2016, 03:24 PM   #17
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I have a Nest learning thermostat and have it at 22 when I'm at home and set it at 19 overnight. The auto away function drops it to 9degrees during the day but the temperature rarely drops below 18.
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      01-13-2016, 03:26 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by planemad
Leave my hot water on constant as I did a test in the summer and it uses more gas switching on for 2 periods of 2 hrs per day. It's a modern megaflo so very well insulated hardy any losses if left.
Hot water can be a whole different matter depending on the type of system, hot water use and type of cylinder.

But yes the Megaflo cylinders are very efficient, one of the best on the market for heat up times and heat loss.
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      01-13-2016, 04:23 PM   #19
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The later, thermostat has a few time zones, we leave it on constant over winter and let the programmable thermostat drop and raise the temp through the day.

As OP it just has to keep the temp topped up than a massive burn to get from a low to high temp, must use less gas
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      01-13-2016, 05:42 PM   #20
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We've found constant heating during winter months seems very similar gas usage to timed. We set our temp to 19 when we get back from work and leave it at that right through the night, then when we leave for work in the morning it's dropped to 17. The boost back up to 19 is only a matter of ten minutes at a guess
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      01-13-2016, 09:52 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brigand View Post
22c ?? Bloody hell thats shorts n Tshirt temperature

We have ours programmed for 16.5 over night and then a gradual ramp up to 19 for morning until 9am.

For 9am to 1600 it's about 18c.

Then evening it's set to about 20c.

Occasionally set it to 21.5c when it's cold outside.

Goes off in March!

This is pretty much the same as ours is set. Although not off in March just leave it but it never comes on anyway.
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      01-14-2016, 01:54 AM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ajfoggy View Post
This is pretty much the same as ours is set. Although not off in March just leave it but it never comes on anyway.
Well when I say off, I turn it down to 16.5c

The house never really drops below that from March to November.
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