Has there ever been any scientific study of whether it's more cost effective to leave the heating on or switch it off when you go out. The theory being that what you save by not having the heating on whilst out is lost by the cost of heating the house back up again.

We have left ours on constantly for the last couple of weeks but have kept the radiators turned down to avoid burst pipes. Think you are best to leave it on – proper cooled down house takes ages to reheat in this cold.

There has and you turn it off :¬)

I think it only makes sense to leave it on if you are only out for a short time

screw the heating i live in a 2 bed flat 1st floor so i don't need to worry about the heating i get it free!

but seriously if your out for a while when you turn it off it will take a while to cool down so by the time your back and the house is cool you will be sitting in a house that need heating up, i would just keep it on with the radiators on low in rooms not being used.

Have gone wild with the heating recently, even turned the thermostat up from 18C to 18.5C! Crazy stuff 🙂
Agree with TJ, out for a short time, maybe leave it, more than a few hours though and ours goes off. New boiler and radiators during the summer means it warms up so quickly it isn't worth keeping it on.

It's baking in here, I only close the windows at night, never mind put the heating on.

The heat lost and energy consumed depends on the temperature of the house above ambient. Even if it takes a while to heat up again you'll save energy for the period the house is colder. Turn the water off at the mains and open all the taps if you're worried about the pipes freezing, which they probably won't if the house is properly insulated.