Is it more efficient to A) programne the heating to come on a couple of times a day to blast the temperature towards the 20s or B) leave it on full time at a modest 17 or 18? Logic tells me A, some people tell me B.

And does it make a difference if you are out most of the day?

What’s the thermal mass of the building?
U-values?

More importantly, does a woman live in it?

Really depends on the building, luckily we can get away with doing it manually, put it on full blast for about half an hour whoever gets in in the evening, then dial it down to almost off overnight. Turn off in morning.

Nothing more claustrophobic or expensive than a stuffy house with no air flow.

More importantly, does a woman live in it?

If this, the answer is set to 30 and get changed into shorts.

I asked this question of the energy saving trust once but they couldn’t give me an answer either.

Depends heavily on house construction and use .

Meanwhile I just got asked to put the heating on so the rest of the house gets warm….. Are you off to sit in the upstairs back bedroom ? No ? Why does it need to be warm ? ( It’s 22 degrees in front of the wood burner where we are

I’m hooking up a Raspberry Pi to my boiler. Hopefully if I throw some deep AI learning at it (a 50 line python program) it will answer your question.

Assuming that is that our dog doesn’t become fascinated by the blinking LEDs and decide to eat it.

fit fun you two must have in an evening 😉

how is life in the back bedroom?

I just turn it on if it feels a bit nippy and then turn it off when it doesn’t feel nippy. Rinse and repeat as needed.

In our last house (new and well insulated) we left it on 24/7 and turned the thermostat to 15c when we went out, or at night and 20c the rest of the time.

Now we don’t have c/h but an AGA on 24/7 and a wood burner we light when we come in.

Long ago there was some article or radio chat about this with an “expert” claiming if you have room stats and good insulation then just leave it on all day at a moderate temperature. Short boosts required to keep it at a temperature were argued as cheaper than a massive morning and evening blast to go from cold to warm.

Tried it and do find heating only kicks in for short bursts and I reckon I get better bills. Not a massive amount in it, but is generally a bit lower per month. In warmer months it’s barely on in the day and just comes on when it’s a bit colder over night but just enough to bring it back up a degree or two. Summer it’s not on at all. Don’t have to faff with any timers, schedules or turn on and off. Just let the room stats do the work.

If insulation is rubbish though then it will be blasting away all day to keep warm.

I set on twice a day to ‘blast’ it all the way to 17.

We do B.

Leaving it on all the time only makes sense if when its off the temperature drops and then continues to drop till you nest turn into . In reality the temperature only ever drops a maximum of around ten degrees in most houses no matter how long you have the heating off for.

In reality of bricks and mortar and cement, whilst the air temp may ‘only’ fall 10 degrees no matter how long the heating is off, the heat sink of the walls and ground floor will require more energy to warm back up.

Also, if a house was 15 deg and dropped by a value of 10 to 5 deg, it’ll be like living in a fridge 😉

n reality the temperature only ever drops a maximum of around ten degrees in most houses no matter how long you have the heating off for.

You in the south then ? I returned home from work one December to a house that was 3 degrees. It had 3 ft thick stone walls and it took about a week of constant heating to get the house up to temperature.

It was -24 outside though. Bloody van wouldn’t start either.

My current strategy is get some central heating.

150 year old cottage in Scotland. Not on mains gas…

Heating on 14c all night and 16c all day – £250 per month on LPG

Heating on when needed and wood burner in an evening – £75 on LPG + £50 on wood = £125 per month

I discovered this when the ex moved out 🙂

Have tried both and for our house – victorian so insulated as best as we can without demolishing and starting again, running it on constant definitely works out cheaper.

We’ve got the upstairs TRV valves on the radiators set to 19 and the downstairs ones at 19.5 – by stopping the house cooling down it means that the moisture in the air never condenses enough for the house to feel cold. It also takes a good 8 hours for the house to feel warm if the heating has been off for a few days so again, leaving on constant sorts out unexpected cold snaps.

Our bills are around 35% lower measured over 4 winters than than we were keeping at low temp in the day and just heating it up for the evenings.

Condensation is the key. Thermodynamics says that the bigger the difference between inside and outside, the faster you lose heat, so only heat up to the temperature you need at that time – but that neglects condensation. The details depend on the house but, in summary, as it cools, the air holds less moisture, so when the walls reach the dewpoint, it condenses on the wall surface or inside the wall. The condensation gives out heat (being the opposite of evaporation) but that heat is no use to you and goes out through the wall. You then need to provide more heat to re-evaporate it when you try to put the temperature back up.

Was on all day at 20 last winter with baby at home and wife on maternity leave. This winter off between 9 and 4 and I use a oil rad in study when wfh, both mild winters but not much difference in bills.

Current strategy – fiddle with 1970’s radiator valves as/when I notice that the temperature is wrong.

Future strategy ( hopefully getting delivered tomorrow ) = Tado.