What's the most cost effective way of heating a house?

Mid-terrace 3 bed house built in the late 1990s. Gas central heating. One person living in it for most fo the time.

What’s the most cost effective way of heating the place? Is it to heat the rooms I use at a constant low setting? Heat the whole palce at that? Or go for a higher setting but not for quite as long? A.N. Other?

heat the room you are in

After that its only a question of what temp you want the [rest of the ]house

When I lived on my own, I set the rad stats in the rooms I used at 5 and the rest at 3, had it set that it switched on an hour before I got up and went off half hour after I left for work, and then came on an hour before I was due home and then off again at midnight.

Insulation.

This is STW. An artisan woodburner and foraged wood seasoned for at least three years in a perfect wood stack.

put some extra clothes on, warm top, soxs, hat? Change bedding sheets fitted sheet etc to flannel not cotten you will be surprised how warm you are. Mines set at 16c.

If your sat in shorts and T shirt you got it wrong. I have seen this and as they open the door a huge waft of hot air escapes. Also far better to heat the house at a low heat than one room very hot. Also make sure you ventilate as well. Condensation build up is bad for your health and the house and will cost more to put right.

biomass boiler stuffed full of baby robins

Don’t know the answer to your specific question but I can say from the one time I did a detailed check on a building the biggest problem was doors being opened. Obviously you can’t avoid that but doing things like keeping interior doors closed before opening exterior ones made a big difference. After that I would just measure if possible e.g. use one system, check gas consumption for a week. Change system and check for another week. Rinse and repeat as it is of course also weather dependent but you’ll get the idea after a bit

Any TRV’s?

Put a gansey on.

Gansey? Que?

Muckle thick jumper.

Righto!

(is still confused)

is still confused

It means a lot of or large amount. So, a ****kin’ thick jumper.

But seriously, this and many other threads have me wondering how half of you ever made it this far in life if you have to seek advice on such matters. Especially you Lankywanklung – reading your posts I thought you were practically a god…

Long haired cat + matches.

You’ll find that the frantic fireball feline will dissapate heat evenly around the house, plus you have a tasty snack at the end.

Yours, shibboleth.

hot water bottle

What matt_oaaa said

Gansey? Que?

Its what northerners call a slanket.

As a single bloke I’d usually keep it off most of the winter, and put a few more layers on.

Is it bad practice to leave it off all winter re damp and stuff?

change your mains gas for LPG bottles, you’ll be scared to turn it on for the cost 😆

moving to a village without mains gas its certainly made me more aware of cost, rather than a faceless direct debit, i have an actual tangible product

its made the mrs think as well, she puts on a jumper now rather than clicking it on,

Mid-terrace, I’d be looking to install some neighbours that stay in all day (retired or work at home types) and run the temp a bit below what they do. Use local electric heaters for whatever room you’re in if you find it a bit parky. Electric’s expensive but you will be getting a fair bit of heat free from your neighbours.

Family member has 2nd floor flat with neighbours above and below and it hardly needs heating (in Edinburgh, not exactly a balmy climate). My draughty victorian semi is a different matter entirely – it’s not that I’m soft, it’s just a completely different proposition for heating requirements. Extra clothing is always good though. Also check for draughts and stop them up – my house has a dozen fist-sized holes in the walls, nothing but a single layer of wallpaper between inside and out in some places!

I’ve yet to put the heat on – unless I’ve got my girl popping round – most of the time a down micro hoody will suffice – I’ve also got a nice selection of wool blankets .. Why rack up a big old quarterly utility bill when one could spend the savings on nice down? Might even pop on some Western Mountaineering booties if things get ready nippy!

Been guilty of wearing bugger all and having the heating on.

Today, came in from the cold weather and left jumper, shirt and jeans with the heating off and I was boiling lol.

Insulation and heating, job done. Also the house will be cold and slow heating entering too.

Just found a million planks of wood for a project that could keep the house warm for winter!

ok hard truths.. im a gas engineer specialise in heating installs and repairs.. in 12 years running my own business i have only come across one chap who accurately records and monitors his usage.. one other records it regularly.. plenty of folk moan about how much their energy bills are

installing this that and the other makes no difference EVERONE uses them like neanderthals

no one knows how their system works or what it costs or what comparisons they should consider..

if you really want to save money and stay warm

spend 200 quid elinating draughts not on some digital thermostat tat..

properly record your energy usage daily then you can make value judgements based on facts not what somebody said on STW

DO NOT turn individual radiators OFF even if you dont use the room

keep doors closed

NEVER turn your boiler off.. NEVER.

On a slightly less aggressive note, try leaving everything as is and switching to GB Energy Supply[/url]. Heard about them on here and, no word of a lie, our gas & electric bills are half what they used to be.

Although if actual efficient use of your heat is what’s required, and assuming you have something similar, we have some kind of wi-fi portable thermostat. Didn’t ask for it, it came with the house. Switch all the radiators in rooms you rarely use to 1 or antifrost or whatever they say, and then just take your thermostat with you in the rest of the rooms.

[quoteNEVER turn your boiler off.. NEVER.[/quote]

I’ve got gas CH, combie boiler, TRVs on all rads except the bathroom, which is the venting rad on the system. No controlling thermostat.

So I’m supposed to leave my boiler on 24 hours 365 days and heat the bathroom always?

Do you own British Gas shares?

as an aside why stick the heatsink rad in the bathroom – why not stick it in a useful room – like the family room?

(i know the reason is so you have warm dry towels to dry delicate hands on after washing them after the loo…..)

but its never made sense to me.

I live in a 16th Century house with original windows in my bedroom and the boiler has just broken.

I hate you all.

went off half hour after I left for work, and then came on an hour before I was due home and then off again at midnight.

That must have been the world’s worst heating system. If I put my heating on until midnight I’d be bright red and sat in my knickers bathed in sweat.

Why not switch off 15 mins before you leave the house? Why not warm the house when you get back and cool down for bed?

I would say the most cost effective way is to constantly switch providers.

My lec and gas combined is 73 a month. Seems cheap enough to me to enjoy the comforts of a warm house and keeping all that muddy cycling going.

I hate the market economics involved but you’ve got to play the game.

All this jumper nonsense doesn’t work for me and won’t work for your house when it becomes fusty due to lack of heat and air circulation.

As a flip side we’re out as much as possible on the bikes generating our own heat 🙂 especially at weekends but make sure things are cosy when we get back.

I pay £26 pcm for gas. My personal plan is simple. I dont bother to heat the house in the morning. I get up and go to work in short order. The central heating comes on around 4pm with the temp on lowest heat possible.
When I come in if its chilly and the TRVS have opened up the rads I turn up the HW temp to half way on the dial. The heating goes off at 9pm, and I turn in around 9.30ish.
I ensure the house is dry by proper venting and using a tumble drier ( in the garage ).

NEVER turn your boiler off.. NEVER.

WTF?

Most CH controllers turn the Boiler off when it’s not in use.

no one knows how their system works

Speak for yourself, I’ve got temp sensors on all the pipes in the floorboards which I use to monitor go & return temps so I check how balanced the system is and monitor efficiency…..

I just look at my poor shivvering children and wife, then look at my garage full of expensive pointless bikes, and realise life’s too short to have breath condensation inside the house despite wearing thick jumpers, and turn the dials to max and just fire the boiler up… 😉

DrP

DrP – Member

I just look at my poor shivvering children and wife, then look at my garage full of expensive pointless bikes, and realise life’s too short to have breath condensation inside the house despite wearing thick jumpers, and turn the dials to max and just fire the boiler up…

DrP

When the stove’s on the living room and ajoing kitchen are pretty much always 22° – 26°. Coats and jumpers are outdoor wear imo, I like to sit around in shorts and a t-shirt 🙂

Since moving into a large farmhouse, I fantasise about sitting around inside in a t-shirt. Even in the bloody summer. Now it’s winter it’s de rigeur for me to wear a fleecy hoody top, and sometimes a coat on top. The kids watch telly under a duvet (thanks for the slanket tip! I’ll be buying a few of those!). I have a gas aga which eats money (getting rid of it is a lot of hassle) but keeps the kitchen warm, and two stoves, one in the living room another in the dining room which are fired up when necessary. In the summer I turned the central heating ‘off’ by reprogramming the temp curves on the thermostat to a constant 15C. Yesterday the heating turned on all by itself. On the plus side it’s so cold that my mum refuses to visit as she’s used to a constant tropical temperature in her house of about 30c which is impossible here 🙂

what i wrote in fact was ”NEVER turn your boiler off NEVER..” not ”NEVER turn the the central heating off..” which kind of proves my point..

a switched off boiler cannot protect itself against cold weather/ frost as almost all boilers today do.. switch it off at your peril.

understand your system.. fully.. eliminate draughts keep the heat in and then spend your money on digital radio frquency tat if you have money to throw away.

Dazh, taking it a bit fair to be honest…ours has been set to 16 degrees and came on for the first time this morning without me intervening. However, 15 degrees during the evening is too cold, no wonder everyone is shivering on the sofa! I use the stove to remove the need for the heating, I’m confident having the stove going in one hot room is cheaper than warming 3 rooms to the point where they are not uncomfortably cold.

MiL has her house pretty hot, and I went into the neighbours to feed their cat last month and they must have had the stat to about 23 even though they were away for the weekend. It was a bit of a shock to walk into a hot house as we’d only used the heating for a couple of evenings at that point!

We had neighbours on both sides of us who had heating set to 7th level of hell hot, our heating bill was very low 🙂

Fill your house with dairy cows.