Not putting the heating on – how’s it going…?

Below 50-55 and you ar risking nasty things building up in the pipework.

The CH circulation water will be full of Fernox etc (or rust) and as it’s a closed system, it’s pretty mute if something wants to grow in there – you’re never in contact with it.

Which reminds me, can’t recall when I last topped up the Fernox….

same here – did you also get the pdf file that showed you were now going to be paying even less per kwh than before – i really can’t figure that out!

Yes I think this is the key – they’ve worked out new KWH rates based on current prices minus the gov discount. So we’ll now be charged the new discounted rates, which extrapolated out to historic usage has lowered the DD. If my thinking I right, this leaves more of our credit available for later in the winter period e.g. Jan – Mar when we’ll really need it.

The hot water just came on. No-one’s had a shower so it’s still a fairly warm tank in the lifecycle of hot water. The boiler outflow temp was at about 50 and the burner shut off, and I thought that was a bit cold for the hot water heating so I put it up one notch. It came on full then as the outflow temp approached 56 it throttled way back and it settled at 62/56. That’s a fairly small temperature differential.

The burner turned off but the water was still circulating as the temps had dropped tou 49/48. So I nudged the thermostat to make that the shut-off temp. Water in the tap is now 49. That seems a reasonable level.

I’ve calculated I lose about £2.50 worth of heat through the garage door, which is already insulated. I can probably reduce it by half for about £30, or nearly eliminate it for about £150…

It is warmer outside my house than inside at the moment during the day.
I’m getting close to lighting the fire. I’ve not had the central heating on yet.

It is warmer outside my house than inside at the moment during the day.

Other than the ‘height’ of summer, for NE England coast, this is extremely common in our house. I’ve often wondered why.

Other than the ‘height’ of summer, for NE England coast, this is extremely common in our house. I’ve often wondered why.

Because insulation works both ways. Your house loses heat slowly during the night, and outside the sun warms the air quickly but that heat takes time to get into the house because you’ve insulated it.

So I am still sticking with my original plan with a slight tweak or two.

Originally I had it set to 16 degrees overnight and 18 degrees from 8am to 11pm. It would come on in the morning and maybe for a minute or two late evening. I’ve now changed that to be 17 degrees from 7.30 to 10am then up to 18 for the remaining day. Mainly so I can enjoy the feeling of warmth a second time in the day.

I’m getting close to lighting the fire. I’ve not had the central heating on yet.

We’ve not had the CH on yet but we did have the first fire of the year on Wednesday but that was just because my wife and daughter had been in a damp stables/field for several hours and were a bit chilly. By the end of the night, despite the fire being on as low as possible, it was uncomfortably hot.

Well, my cats are less than happy, even though I’ve had the fire on a few times.

Thermostat currently set to 17, don’t think it’s kicked in yet.

Still 18° in the SE, same forecast for all of next week too. Never known anything like it this late in the year! I’m still in shorts 😃 House is still 18-19° naturally in all rooms at the moment, no question of putting the heating on yet! (Admittedly last year the thermostat would’ve been set for 20° in the evenings but given we’re economising now just got a blanket for the sofa & it’s fine 😃)

Other than the ‘height’ of summer, for NE England coast, this is extremely common in our house. I’ve often wondered why.

It is warmer outside my house than inside at the moment during the day.
I’m getting close to lighting the fire. I’ve not had the central heating on yet.

Unless it’s proper pissing it down just open the doors and windows during the hottest part of the day.

I’m pondering quite how leaky my oven might be, I know the door seal is a bit rubbish as the manufacturer doesn’t seem to make one anymore, and the pattern ones are about twice as thick so I’m not 100% sure it seals at the top lip. It’s also a gas oven so has a constant draught through it for the burner.

Also wondering how much is ‘lost’ from the boiler and it’s pipework as it’s now open to the hallway after demolishing the under stairs cupboard.

The heating isn’t on, but the house definitely isn’t cold yet.

Daytime temps still hovering around 15C too this week, which seems ridiculously mild?

Also wondering how much is ‘lost’ from the boiler and it’s pipework

I too am wondering this. We have a hot water tank, the pipes leaving it act as heatsinks. As much DIY as I’ve now done I think I could open up the pipe boxes in the corners of the rooms and stick some insulation on.

Currently annoyed with. Annoyed with my boiler ATM – on a low setting whilst heating up hot water it will run until the outflow reaches say 62C or whatever then switch off, continuing to circulate the hot water to heat the tank. Fine, because the returning water is at say 56C. But when the temp drops down to 48 or so it won’t turn back on and continues to pump the now lukewarm water around the circuit which is actually cooling my tank.

I think I’ll have to set it to run only once per day, thus ensuring the tank is cooler and it can extract more heat from the circulating water and ensuring the return flow temp is low enough to allow condensing.

Doesn’t your tank have zone valves on.

Yes, to activate either the heating or the hot water. But the problem is that I am trying to turn the boiler down as low as possible for better efficiency particularly with heating, when it ends up coming on. But heating the hot water only drops the flow temps about 6C. So if the boiler output temp goes above 63C then the return flow temp goes above 57C and it’s not condensing any more.

I can set the outflow temperature to 63C, but burner cannot go below 9kW so when it reaches that temp it shuts off and the water keeps flowing – which is fine, it’ll keep heating the tank with the water in circulation. The temperatures continue to drop of course as the water in the circuit cools. But it won’t turn back on again until the flow temp is really low, 45C or so. At which point the flowing water is now slightly cooling the hot water tank.

Still going here in Exeter, although it has been pretty mild. It’s certainly warmer outside than in the north facing room i use for work so primaloft slippers and gilet are on.

Some form of exercise, either a run or ride at lunchtime tops up the body warm till the kids are back from school and i forget about being cold.

Had to put the heating on last night. Kids came home from school soaking wet and shoes and coats wouldn’t have dried otherwise.

So if the boiler output temp goes above 63C then the return flow temp goes above 57C and it’s not condensing any more.

So your trying to make it work in its optimised zone on a system it’s not optimised to work on. What happens when you want to use the heating as designed ?

read this. thought of here…

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/17/prices-cost-of-living-crisis-unequal-british-society

read this. thought of here…

It was rightly slated in the letters section the next day.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/19/why-do-we-keep-the-central-heating-off-it-isnt-a-thriftifarian-pose

Whoever Julian Baggini is, I want to punch him in the face. For most people in this country a £2K increase in living costs in one year can’t just be soaked up. He is underestimating just how many people are being hit hard this year, after years of incomes decreasing in real terms before the problems of 2022 hit.

Had to put the heating on last night. Kids came home from school soaking wet and shoes and coats wouldn’t have dried otherwise.

That’s my biggest challenge… but at least I have a bathroom with a extractor and a fan heater. Not had to resort to it yet but all my riding gear is still wet so it may well get used tonight.

So your trying to make it work in its optimised zone on a system it’s not optimised to work on. What happens when you want to use the heating as designed ?

Yes I’m trying to make it work as efficiently as I can. I haven’t tried measuring the temps with the heating on yet.

I have discovered that turning the knob on the front down doesn’t reduce the burner, it reduces the target temp it heats to – so it still runs full blast until it gets close to that temp then it slows and eventually stops. If the load is enough, it can continue to run at that lower temp in a steady state – but there’s never a steady state. There really isn’t a lot I can do with this system, I don’t think.

Yes I’m trying to make it work as efficiently as I can. I haven’t tried measuring the temps with the heating on yet.

Well your not really Your trying to set it to a very specific set of circumstances.

How ever it’s probably where the myth that it’s cheaper to leave your heating on all the time is borne. Because it takes 7days to get it back up 3 degrees.

Well your not really Your trying to set it to a very specific set of circumstances.

The circumstances are that I want hot water… not that unusual?

Step back. Look at the bigger picture.

Your boiler has to meet a wide set of circumstances. As part of the system it’s not designed to be super efficient for the hour or so it has to heat hot water…. But the 6-8 hours average Joe uses their heating.

I opened my windows to let the warm air in. Then closed them.
Re fixed the blades to the ceiling fan.
Lit the fire. Room temp up from 13°c to 17.5°c.
Gas central heating remains off until outdoor low single figures occur. I hope.

Lit the fire.

LOL

T-shirt all day, put the aircon on driving home. Looking at the forecast it’ll be at least another couple of weeks before I need to turn the heating on.

Lit the fire here too because it’s cold outside.

That’s it on now. Last two days after opening the windows for a couple of hours in the morning I’ve just set the thermostat to 17 or 17.5C and left it on all day until turning it off at night.

That said it’s hardly firing.

Other economies are being made though. In the thriftifarian tradition I bought Aldi own brand whisky this week.

My wife announced yesterday that we weren’t putting the central heating on until November. Very laudable.

That’s my wife with the electric blanket on her side of the bed, electric knee blanket and heater in the office, and constantly wanting the log burner lit of an evening 🙂

trail_rat
Free Member
Lit the fire here too because it’s cold outside.

Conversely ,we lit the fire because it was cold inside , LOL.
My wife stubbornly refuses to put on the CH , all thermostats are set at their lowest point , and like the ARP warden in DAD’s ARMY she keeps shouting turn that light out FFS !!!!
AND , so long as it’s not actually raining clothes are still being pegged out on the line to ‘dry’.
Although I noticed some were back in, on the landing on the old clothes horse the other day.

It’s not cold, so don’t need the heating on. Sat here in joggy bottoms and hoodie, just sitting around. Going to brave the not-coldness and remove the hoodie.

It’s still not the wife’s birthday so it’s still off. We have been keeping the humidity down thou and that helps.

Not long now folks.
We went pumpkin picking at the local farm on Tuesday 3pm and scorching hot in the field.

My usual thinking is you mostly go into October with it still warm and finish with it being bloody Baltic but it’s barely gone lower than 10c in South Wales apart from a touch of frost randomly a few weeks back, it’s set to be 15/16c all next week daytime

I’ve hardly noticed the boilers not connected to the rads yet, but that’s said in a ‘the worst is yet to come’ rather than ‘i’m nails me’ kinda way.

Plumbers due Thurs mind to pop the rads on though so there’s a get out for Nov/Dec

Anything north of 10c always makes me feel a bit warmer as its my threshold for not wearing gloves on the commute.

I’ll be connecting and bleeding the system tomorrow.

Still won’t be on though….

TLDR I see a few attempts to improve condensing by reducing flow temp. Wondered if anyone fiddled with pump speed as well.

New boilers have this option I think and separate pumps are usually 3 speed.

I’d like to reduce the pump speed but I’m not sure I can on mine. I haven’t seen anything on it that suggests I could.

Well it’s warmed up today.

Ironic really that I’m sweating my tits off in the attic trying to improve both insulation and airtightness of the upstairs