Has anyone put their central heating on yet?

Bill Walker said:
Fucking scandalous reading this thread how people in the UK are scared to put the heating on. I mean how do they go on in Scandinavian countries and parts of Canada where it's on average much colder than UK in winter ?
Click to expand...

The killer in the UK is the damp, a lot of these cold places are much dryer. I think I'd be right in saying we're on the same latitude as Black Tickle, which has it's fair share of polar bears.


It's the good old gulf stream that dumps it's warm moisture on us, keeping us cosy, arthritic and full of respiratory ailments.
There's something to be said for using a dehumidifier.
 
I've totally fell out with the bloke who lives below me. For the last 3 or 4 weeks I've been stamping down on the floor, I then started banging on his door but the fucker wouldn't open. Then last night, I caught him when I was coming in from work. He asked why I keep harassing him and banging on his door? I said, you keep turning your fucking heating off you selfish bastard! I'm fuckin freezin up there.
 
I was curious about the benefit of just leaving the gas central heating on versus on/off on the timer.
Reading online, you will save some money setting the timer.
But each house is different, and in our house, there aren't many times when the house is empty.

My wife has thyroid problems and always feels cold, so the heating tends to be much higher than other houses.
So the front/living room is set to 23C day and night. That's where the thermostat lives.
The rest of the house radiators gets heat only when the front room needs heat.
I was going to get individual smart stats for each room, but have found that the current method seems to work for us.

We have a great Bosch floor standing combi boiler which is very efficient. Loft and cavity wall insulation. Modern double glazed windows. Maybe the most important bit is shutting the very heavy/thick living room curtains when we go out or when it gets dark.
It's a largish 4 bed property, yet is surprisingly cheap on the gas bills. Electric is another story, as the house is very automated meaning gadgetry stuff is always on. If everybody leaves the house, the automation will shut everything down including the heating. But as said that is rare.

I got a message the other day from HIVE which we use to control the heating. It was giving me stats as to my boiler usage.
I was very shocked to see that the gas boiler has only been running for a total of 1 hour a day!

The graph shows the heat cycles from 22C to 23C which is the trigger points for switching on and off etc.
It shows the boiler only needs a short while to heat the room back to 23C, then shuts down.
So that explains the cheap gas bill.
Insulation and curtains seems to be the trick!
 
fulabeer said:
I was curious about the benefit of just leaving the gas central heating on versus on/off on the timer.
Reading online, you will save some money setting the timer.
But each house is different, and in our house, there aren't many times when the house is empty.

My wife has thyroid problems and always feels cold, so the heating tends to be much higher than other houses.
So the front/living room is set to 23C day and night. That's where the thermostat lives.
The rest of the house radiators gets heat only when the front room needs heat.
I was going to get individual smart stats for each room, but have found that the current method seems to work for us.

We have a great Bosch floor standing combi boiler which is very efficient. Loft and cavity wall insulation. Modern double glazed windows. Maybe the most important bit is shutting the very heavy/thick living room curtains when we go out or when it gets dark.
It's a largish 4 bed property, yet is surprisingly cheap on the gas bills. Electric is another story, as the house is very automated meaning gadgetry stuff is always on. If everybody leaves the house, the automation will shut everything down including the heating. But as said that is rare.

I got a message the other day from HIVE which we use to control the heating. It was giving me stats as to my boiler usage.
I was very shocked to see that the gas boiler has only been running for a total of 1 hour a day!

The graph shows the heat cycles from 22C to 23C which is the trigger points for switching on and off etc.
It shows the boiler only needs a short while to heat the room back to 23C, then shuts down.
So that explains the cheap gas bill.
Insulation and curtains seems to be the trick!
Click to expand...
Proof that if you have a well insulated home it pays to keep the temperature constant by leaving the boiler running, topping the temperature up as it gradually dropped.. Imagine though if your house was not insulated, you gas bills would be much higher.
 
fulabeer said:
The graph shows the heat cycles from 22C to 23C which is the trigger points for switching on and off etc.
It shows the boiler only needs a short while to heat the room back to 23C, then shuts down.
So that explains the cheap gas bill.
Insulation and curtains seems to be the trick!
Click to expand...
Maybe those pesky people that glue themselves to roads are onto something….
 
fulabeer said:
I was curious about the benefit of just leaving the gas central heating on versus on/off on the timer.
Reading online, you will save some money setting the timer.
But each house is different, and in our house, there aren't many times when the house is empty.

My wife has thyroid problems and always feels cold, so the heating tends to be much higher than other houses.
So the front/living room is set to 23C day and night. That's where the thermostat lives.
The rest of the house radiators gets heat only when the front room needs heat.
I was going to get individual smart stats for each room, but have found that the current method seems to work for us.

We have a great Bosch floor standing combi boiler which is very efficient. Loft and cavity wall insulation. Modern double glazed windows. Maybe the most important bit is shutting the very heavy/thick living room curtains when we go out or when it gets dark.
It's a largish 4 bed property, yet is surprisingly cheap on the gas bills. Electric is another story, as the house is very automated meaning gadgetry stuff is always on. If everybody leaves the house, the automation will shut everything down including the heating. But as said that is rare.

I got a message the other day from HIVE which we use to control the heating. It was giving me stats as to my boiler usage.
I was very shocked to see that the gas boiler has only been running for a total of 1 hour a day!

The graph shows the heat cycles from 22C to 23C which is the trigger points for switching on and off etc.
It shows the boiler only needs a short while to heat the room back to 23C, then shuts down.
So that explains the cheap gas bill.
Insulation and curtains seems to be the trick!
Click to expand...
Fascinating. I have a Victorian 5 bed without DG. My smart meter tells me it costs 50% more to have the ch on all the time than it is to set the timer for 3 spells of 3 hours per day. I augment that with a wood burner. Last winter my gas bill was over £2k for the 4 winter months. That was ch on all day and off at night. This winter I think we will get away with 50% of that. Smart meter installed in October has helped a lot although it still doesn’t work for my electricity correctly. Every house is different.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
Fascinating. I have a Victorian 5 bed without DG. My smart meter tells me it costs 50% more to have the ch on all the time than it is to set the timer for 3 spells of 3 hours per day. I augment that with a wood burner. Last winter my gas bill was over £2k for the 4 winter months. That was ch on all day and off at night. This winter I think we will get away with 50% of that. Smart meter installed in October has helped a lot although it still doesn’t work for my electricity correctly. Every house is different.
Click to expand...

I think the insulation on our house is the key to our low use. It takes ages for the room to cool down even 1 degree.
This wasn't always the case though. Our gas bill used to be higher than the electric.
Then we had the old windows done. The loft and walls insulated etc. I think the biggest heat loss was the old wooden patio doors. They warped so badly you could actually see daylight through the door gaps!

One thing that has helped the electric bill was fitting a Chinese diesel heater in the garage.
It feeds into the laundry room at the back. The room has loads of drying racks, so the electric tumble dryer doesn't need to be used.
We buy red diesel (heating oil) from a boat place nearby which keeps costs down.
The added benefit is that the room is always toasty and keeps damp at bay.
 
Martin lewis says keeping the heating on low all of the time doesnt save you any money , you save by only putting the heating on when you need it and just heat the rooms you use and the hallway
 
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