Not putting the heating on - how's it going...?

@thisisnotaspoon Your reply is getting crazy and is pointless.

My point is. Measure your useage and inform yourself of your actual useage.

It's the only way you will know if its worth sitting in a freezing room with an electric blanket, or living in a comfortably temp house.

Ps - I'm not about to test the electric blanket theory 😅

You made a point of them being ‘smart’ which means the only think they do differently to a normal TRV is be able to turn off via an app.

does anyone know of any good guides/websites/app for calculating property heat loss?
I'm going back to basics, I need to target my efforts where they count, I know our house isnt very efficient but they numbers I'm seeing at taking the pish

@molgrips what I think buttonmoon is on about is systems that can auto change the temp of the water flowing thru your rads based on the weather, to make the boiler more efficient.
That assumes that your boiler and / or controller can do that, which I suspect most of the populations can't.
My controller and boiler are opentherm compatible. It would have been an extra £80 for the opentherm box, I would have to be convinced on paper that its worth it to have a £80 box twiddle with your radiator water flow temps. I suspect it doesn't make that much difference unless maybe you have a massive house, even then I'd have to be convinced.
It's the same with tap water temp. My experience is that turning down my hot tap water flow temp didn't make much difference to gas usage, it might if your having 12 baths a day.

I suspect it doesn’t make that much difference

Turning the flow down has made a big difference here. House is much more comfortable overall with slower flow and lower temps. However, it means that the hot water essentially doesn't work at all because the circulating water is now cooler than the tank. So I'd love a programmable flow temperature.

Turning the flow down has made a big difference here.

I agree. But here is the problem for System boilers.

Again, a problem in the UK is the antiquated system design (S or Y plan) . You may be able to get around this problem with a cylinder relay box which would tell the boiler to heat the Hot Water to a higher temp than C/heating (W or X plan). I run this setup.

Heating hot water is relatively low energy, heating the house is where the bulk of the energy is needed, hence the need to control it properly and have a comfortable efficient house.

We are 30 years behind Europe 🙁

That makes sense. Thanks. Doesn’t help, but is interesting!

I'm thinking about creating an automated temperature control knob for my boiler, and setting the hot water on a different schedule. Maybe also automate the pump flow speed too.

I could build-in weather compensation at the same time.

You made a point of them being ‘smart’ which means the only think they do differently to a normal TRV is be able to turn off via an app.

the big power for us is the ability to schedule different temperatures in different rooms at different times of day. I work from home 4 days a week, my wife works part time, so on the days I wfh, the room I work on is warm, the bedrooms are cold. Downstairs is on lightly warm during the day when my wife is at home, and at the weekends, then the living room is toasty in the evenings. The bedrooms are warmest in the mornings and have a little heating in the evening as well. All of this will turn off if both my wife and I are out of the house. Whenever any room/zone is heated, there is heat called from the boiler, otherwise its dormant.

None of that is possible with "dumb" trvs, and significantly dropped our bills

None of that is possible with “dumb” trvs

I just walk up and down the stairs and adjust them as need be, not that we're using any CH yet....

I just walk up and down the stairs and adjust them as need be

That'd be a right faff in our house.

I just walk up and down the stairs and adjust them as need be

Same way you do it with a smart one. Play with the settings till the room is warmed to the temp you want.

how do you adjust a dumb TRV to make a room the exact temperature you want? Mine just had an arbitrary 1-5 scale on them I think

Define exact eg whereabouts - 10cm from the radiator or on the other side of the room?

Just because it has a degrees C scale on it doesn't make it any more accurate than the dumb wax based ones....

does anyone know of any good guides/websites/app for calculating property heat loss?
I’m going back to basics, I need to target my efforts where they count, I know our house isnt very efficient but they numbers I’m seeing at taking the pish

Probably some forn of way of doing it but generally there's so many variables it's hard to 'generalise' heat loss. As mentioned above, it depends on a lot of factors, external and internal temperature difference being one - a more basic thermo calculation. For a house, you'd tend to look at insulation, surface area and how the wall is made up etc, but that may be looking in to it too much. I did my university project on this kind of thing.

That’d be a right faff in our house.

Generally I'm always looking for an excuse to get more steps in etc. My watch beeps at me every hour to say 'get up and move', so it's not really a faff...

Turning the flow down has made a big difference here.

If you previously had your rads scalding hot, then yes you'll notice a difference. I was talking in terms of already running rads at a sensible temp (45° in my case, maybe a touch higher in coldest weeks). I don't feel there would be much to gain in my house from having an £80 opentherm box making micro adjustments, when I can do any odd tweaks if necessary by means of a big dial on the front of my boiler.

Heating's on! I've lit the wood burner. It's about 16°C in the afternoon and 6 in the morning which is a good few degrees higher than seasonal (unless this is the new normal). The house was down to 17.5 having left the doors open to air this afternoon. The thing stinks as it always does on the first burn of the year, something to do with the black finish Jotul use.

Still hanging in there, heating not on yet... But I'm getting close to caving in today I must admit!

I'm perfectly comfy at 17 degrees in shorts and a T shirt with bare feet, my wife likes it a couple of degrees hotter.

So we compromise at 19 degrees.

Still hanging in there, heating not on yet… But I’m getting close to caving in today I must admit!

+1

I should really put trousers on first though, still in shorts.

I agree. But here is the problem for System boilers.

It's not specifically system boilers, its the old Y and S plan concepts.

I have a year old system boiler on hot water priority. It takes about 25 minutes to heat the well insulated water tank on full burn, then runs at whatever flow temp I specify, on a per degree basis. Currently 47°, but suspect I can go lower at this time of year

This Southern wuss has caved in but the musty smell is still lingering around the upstairs. Guess it's a matter of time although not helped by a dead radiator in one bedroom.

This Southern wuss has caved in but the musty smell is still lingering around the upstairs. Guess it’s a matter of time although not helped by a dead radiator in one bedroom.

I put ours on for 2 days... dried out the house and it's back off.

My wife caved last night (as we had people from social services doing a home visit and she didn't want them thinking we live in a cold and damp house). Three hours later it was uncomfortably hot so it was switched back off and the windows opened LOL! 14deg outside at 7am in Harrogate this morning!

Heating is still off, turned the towel rail up a notch as the towels weren't drying out. Like others I'm finding the musty/damp feeling more objectionable than the cold after the last few weeks of torrential rain. I guess we're just used to the very dry centrally heated air feeling.

It was 16C according to the thermometer in the conservatory this morning. Which is just getting weird this time of year.

Just took a meter reading, about 43m3 of gas this month which corresponds to about a £60 ish bill I think. About twice as much as we used in the previous month and that's with only about half the period using heating. That matches my rough estimate of heating using 3x as much as hot water and cooking combined.

Heating is still off, turned the towel rail up a notch as the towels weren’t drying out.

Electric or hybrid towel rails? I'm considering hybrid towel rails to help with drying stuff off during "summer" when the heating's off.

thisisnotaspoon

Heating is still off, turned the towel rail up a notch as the towels weren’t drying out. Like others I’m finding the musty/damp feeling more objectionable than the cold after the last few weeks of torrential rain. I guess we’re just used to the very dry centrally heated air feeling.

The damp air takes more energy to heat and takes heat away from our body faster .. so it's not entirely in your head.
The other thing is ... if it were in your head does it matter?

I stuck the heating on for 2 days and doors/plaster etc dried out a lot... it's off again now but FEELS much warmer.
It MIGHT actually be warmer, I didn't really check.

I’m considering hybrid towel rails to help with drying stuff off during “summer” when the heating’s off.

Same here. Radiator in the bathroom is old and leaking, looking at a hybrid replacement to keep the damp at bay... and also as a back up source of heat if we ever have gas shortages or the boiler stops working.

Electric or hybrid towel rails? I’m considering hybrid towel rails to help with drying stuff off during “summer” when the heating’s off.

It's plumbed into the hot water cylinder circuit, so it works all year round as long as people are in the house having baths/showers and the cylinder calls for hot water.
Unexpected benefits:
- The HW comes on an hour before the heating, so when I'm the 1st one up before the heating's on in winter at least the bathroom is warm and the towels are toasty. Once I'm dry and dressed I'm not fussed how cold it is.
- Effectively modulates it's own use, the more showers are had and towels used, the longer the HW is on to warm the cylinder again.
-The pipes run under the bathroom floor, so it's cheap underfloor heating too! (see point 1).

It’s plumbed into the hot water cylinder circuit, so it works all year round as long as people are in the house having baths/showers and the cylinder calls for hot water.

Interesting, not heard of that.

Still holding out here, last year I'd have he the heating on by now but coping ok.

I live in a tower block that's been clad so don't get the sudden drops in temperature you get in traditional houses, or the dampness (even though it's in Manchester!) The building generally holds on to residual heat until January, when the internal communal spaces and stairwells get cold, then the block becomes a bit of a fridge for the second part of winter.

It probably won't be many days until I have to start using a little bit of heating in the evening. I should probably close my bedroom window.

I caved in the other night as the cold air started to trigger my asthma.

Temps have been near freezing outside here this week, and house temp has been dropping into single figures. Needless to say the heating has been on an hour or 2 each day. Brings it back up to 14-16 degrees, which feels absolutely tropical now. Living like a King.

Decided i am not going to sit and be cold. If it costs more then it costs more and sitting in the cold does your health no good at all.

Last evening was the first night I switched on the central heating for this first time to boost the temperature up to 17c. My room temperature was down to 14c and bedroom down to 10c so I decided it was a bit cold to sit around working until late evening.

Now, the temperature has dropped to 14c (22:40hr) again so I shall see how I how long will I last before I switch on the central heating. Normally, I don't switch the heating until December but due to the sudden dropped in temperature I have to break my rules.

LOL! It's freezing! Feel like being tortured in icebox.

p/s: If I switch on the central heating for 1.15 mins it will increase by 3c from 14c to 17c after that it will struggle a bit.

chewkw - suggest you find and read article by James Gallagher on BBC website about how low temperatures indoors affect physical performance and cognitive ability.
It was written after he went through a lab test so everything was accurately measured.
At 10 - 14C, you aren't doing yourself any favours; recommended minimum is 18C.

Had the wood burner lit for several hours today. Room temp was down to 9°c, raised it to a toasty 15°c at waist height. Had the ceiling fan running to mix the air evenly.
Electric blanket for night time. Fan heater for short burst room heating, infrared panel heater for medium length sitting around watching TV.
Sub 5°c outside and I might consider the gas central heating. Maybe later in the week?

chewkw – suggest you find and read article by James Gallagher on BBC website about how low temperatures indoors affect physical performance and cognitive ability.
It was written after he went through a lab test so everything was accurately measured.
At 10 – 14C, you aren’t doing yourself any favours; recommended minimum is 18C.

That's a good information. Thanks. Will check the information out.
Yes, sitting in the room at 14c feels rather weird tbh.
Switched on the heater just now to 17c again. Took a hot shower and wear jumpers etc to maintain warm.
It's going to be a freezing winter.

I'm running it at a toasty 22c.

Had to switch the heating on yesterday, the heat from cooking just didn't cut it anymore. The trouble is that I've got storage heaters on Economy 7 so it heats the house overnight meaning I'm hot in the morning and it's cool in the afternoon, makes choosing a setting really hard to as there's a 24hr delay. Cheap to run but very annoying.

Ours has been coming on in the mornings for a week or so as the house has been below 14. The thermostat is set at 17, which seems to be okay for setting the house for a sunny day, but on a dull day, it’s still cold in the afternoon for WFH.

No thermostat here so have timer set for 2 hours in the morning, then put on manually in the late afternoon/evening depending. Also seems my really old TRVs are not working properly. If you set to low settings,for example, there is no heat to rads at all. So, I can either have the rads off or at full whack. As it's coming into coldest part of the year, is it worth getting quotes to replace them all now, or wait?? Anyone else had the same dilemma?(This is not a DIY job for me.)

Is that not how TRVs work? they turn the rads off according to the temperature setting you set them to?