gas cental heating

[denise]

does anyone ken whether its cheaper to run your heating all day or just put it on twice a day for a little while?

[octane]

ive always believed that in winter its better to turn your thermostat down a little and run it 24hrs a day as it costs less. If your stop starting each day it has too work harder to get everything back up to temperature as the system will be cold so will cost more to run.

[henry20]

I keep meaning to do as Octane has suggested.

My stat is turned so high that your hand melts if you touch the heater, but its only on for 2 or 3 hours a day.

Its a pain in our house because there isn't a logical time to have it on for a few hours at a time, so we usually just blast it on for an hour when we start shivering ;)

[johno]

ive always believed that in winter its better to turn your thermostat down a little and run it 24hrs a day as it costs less. If your stop starting each day it has too work harder to get everything back up to temperature as the system will be cold so will cost more to run.

Agreed..better to keep the temp constant than to heat up the whole house from scratch twice a day.:D

[George Brims]

Quick physics lessons here folks. The heat you have to pay for equals the heat that goes out through your walls, roof and windows (I'm assuming you don't leave the door open). The hotter it is inside the more heat you lose. If you have 24 hours a day at full temperature you will lose more heat than you will lose if you have full temperature for half the time and a lower temperature the other half. Basically it isn't heating the place up that costs, it's keeping it hot.

Buy a thermostat that has a programmable timer. Ours has separate temperatures for morning, daytime, evening and night, and also has weekday and weekend options. So it's warm when we get up and it's warm again when we come home at night, but the house cools off about when we go to bed. Any time we're home during the day or stay up late, there's a manual override anyway.

[denise]

cheers everyone think i will try leaving it on with the thermostats down: i take it that is the thermostats on the radaitor and i don't have to go up in
to the bowls of the attic?

[badger]

Don't you have a room 'stat that governs the whole system? If not, then that's what you need, having made sure it's in the most suitable position - i.e. if it's in the warmest part of the house it will turn the system off more so the rest may get cold, and vice versa. Also the radiator nearest to it should not have a separate thermostat, or if it does it should be kept at maximum. You can then adjust the temperature of the whole house.