What is an ideal heating temp
 

Any help on this matter greatly apprecaited

We have just moved into a 3 storey house , that has gas central heating boiler.

What is the ideal temp in 0c to operate this to heat the house.

weve been told different things by people we know , but im still unsure.

I think that around 75 or 80c is right , yet someone else says 50c

also what would be ideal times for setting heating to ?? is is ideal to have it on for say 2 hrs in am , and 2 hours at night , does that use up more gas, or have it on for longer

Any advice??

Simon

What is an ideal heating temp
 

manxtatt2 wrote in
:

I think that around 75 or 80c is right , yet someone else says 50c


You might find this kinda warm.

Experiment around 20 deg, perhaps 17 in bedrooms.

Your body should tell you; also I note the "*we've* just moved in"

So if your body doesn't SWMBO will! ;-)

mike

What is an ideal heating temp
 

On 2006-10-15 08:28:14 +0100, manxtatt2 said:


Any help on this matter greatly apprecaited

We have just moved into a 3 storey house , that has gas central heating
boiler.

What is the ideal temp in 0c to operate this to heat the house.

weve been told different things by people we know , but im still
unsure.

I think that around 75 or 80c is right , yet someone else says 50c

also what would be ideal times for setting heating to ?? is is ideal
to have it on for say 2 hrs in am , and 2 hours at night , does that
use up more gas, or have it on for longer
Any advice??

Simon

This depends on the boiler and radiators.

If you have a conventional heating boiler, it should be run at its
design temperature, which is around 80 degrees on the flow side.
If it is run a lot cooler than that, there is a risk of condensation of
flue products inside the boiler and consequent corrosion. Generally
the boiler thermostat should not allow setting to temperatures low
enough to cause a problem, but certainly 50 degrees or even 60 flow
would take you to the point of internal condensation.

There is a newer type of boiler (condensing), which is now more or less
mandatory to fit unless you have particularly unusual set of
installation conditions. These can be 30% or so more efficient than
some of the oldest conventional boilers and there is legislation on
fitting them in new or replacement installations except in exceptional
cases.
In this type, the intention is that condensing does take place in the
boiler, and the water is collected and fed to a drain. While these
will work at the higher temperatures of the conventional boiler, they
run more efficiently at lower temperatures.

However, if your system was originally designed for a conventional
boiler, it is likely that the radiators will have been sized for 80
degree operation and 0 or -3 degrees outside. Unless they were
oversized, running at 50 degrees may not give enough heat output in
cold weather. This still means that a condensing boiler is worthwhile
because for most of the year that level of heat output is not required
and the boiler can run at a lower temperature and hence more efficiently

The other factor in low temperature operation would be that it would
take longer to warm the house if it's really cold outside if radiators
are run at 50 vs 80 degrees.

Switch on and running times are a personal choice. Of course running
for longer uses more fuel, the other side of the coin is level of
comfort.

One thing that you can do is to change the room thermostat for one with
optimised start and perhaps night setback.

Optimised start is basically that the thermostat monitors how long it
takes the heating system to raise the house temperature to the point
you set. This is averaged over a few days. So for example, if you
want it to be up to temperature at 0700 when you get up, it might need
to start at 0615 on a cold day and so on.

Night set back means that instead of turning off the heating totally at
night, it backs off the temperature by a few degrees. For example, you
might set a setback of 6 or 7 degrees against a desired room
temperature of 21 degrees and allow the temperature to fall to 14 or 15
during the night. Through much of the year, this doesn't use any or
much extra energy, but in the coldest weather is pleasant if you need
to get up during the night. Also, in some houses, it may actually
prevent the temperature overshooting the set point by as much on the
morning warm up and hence actually save fuel use overall.

If you don't have them, a useful investment is thermostatic radiator
valves on the room radiators (all but the one where the room thermostat
is). These allow finer control of room temperature and save fuel as
well.

What is an ideal heating temp
 

mike wrote:
I think that around 75 or 80c is right , yet someone else says 50c


You might find this kinda warm.

Experiment around 20 deg, perhaps 17 in bedrooms.

You think that water in the radiators at 20C will heat the rooms to the
same temperature?

Alex

What is an ideal heating temp
 

manxtatt2 wrote:

What Andy said, plus:

also what would be ideal times for setting heating to ?? is is ideal
to have it on for say 2 hrs in am , and 2 hours at night , does that
use up more gas, or have it on for longer

Using a programmable thermostat is perhaps the simplest way. That way
you simply leave the heating "on" permanently - the stat then controls
when it needs to run to reach your pre-set temps. Hence you can have it
warmer for some times of the day, and cooler at others.

--
Cheers,

John.

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| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
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| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

What is an ideal heating temp
 

"manxtatt2" wrote in message
...

Any help on this matter greatly apprecaited

We have just moved into a 3 storey house , that has gas central heating
boiler.

What is the ideal temp in 0c to operate this to heat the house.

weve been told different things by people we know , but im still
unsure.

I think that around 75 or 80c is right , yet someone else says 50c

also what would be ideal times for setting heating to ?? is is ideal
to have it on for say 2 hrs in am , and 2 hours at night , does that
use up more gas, or have it on for longer

Any advice??

As for times, set it to whatever suits your lifestyle. When it's cold we
generally have ours come on an hour or so before people get up, then it goes
off after everyone leaves. It comes back on just before the kids get home,
then off again about ten o-clock. Mostly though we don't use the timer - put
it on when it feels cold for an hour.

We had a condensing boiler fitted last year and it is a lot more responsive
than the back boiler we used to have. For showers - heat water for an hour
in the morning, then off all day. If someone wants a shower, they set the
water on for an hour and just go straight in - the water will still be hot
from the morning.

Paul

Simon




--
manxtatt2

What is an ideal heating temp
 

The message
from manxtatt2 contains these words:

I think that around 75 or 80c is right , yet someone else says 50c

Christ, you'd roast! Or do you mean the outlet temperature of the boiler?

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

What is an ideal heating temp
 

manxtatt2 wrote:
Any help on this matter greatly apprecaited

We have just moved into a 3 storey house , that has gas central heating
boiler.

What is the ideal temp in 0c to operate this to heat the house.

If heating requirements are low, you lose a bit less from loft pipes
going low. Also bolers are more effcient at lower temps I THINK. Not sure ..

But when it gets really cold you need the thing up around 60-70C to heat
teh house at all..

weve been told different things by people we know , but im still
unsure.

I think that around 75 or 80c is right , yet someone else says 50c

also what would be ideal times for setting heating to ?? is is ideal
to have it on for say 2 hrs in am , and 2 hours at night , does that
use up more gas, or have it on for longer

If the house is well insulated and has good thermal mass inside the
insulation, it makes very little difference to cost when you heat it -
heat is retained well.

If its got low thermal mass and/or insulation then you want to only heat
when you need it, and it will warm up fast.

The coldest, as well as the darkest, hour is just before the dawn.. I
find that in winter, I want to start my underfloor heating about midday,
so we have good output by 3pm. In a low mass house with poor insulation
you can go to about 3pm. Frankly if its bloody cold I go to 24x7 because
we are both in all day anyway.

OTOH is its a case of a low thermal mass house and everyone is out all
day at work/school,. light up the boiler about half an hour before you
get in. And run it to half an hour before bedtime, and get a good duvet
or a willing wife..;-)

Personally I hate getting up into the cold, so heating on half and hour
or more before getting is good, and time the water to heat up even
earlier...and switch off half an hour before you leave for work.







Any advice??

Simon

What is an ideal heating temp
 

The message
from The Natural Philosopher contains these words:

Also bolers are more effcient at lower temps I THINK. Not sure ..

They should be. You can't transfer energy so easily into a warm body
from a hot one as you can into a cool body from a hot one.

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

What is an ideal heating temp
 

Guy King wrote:

The message
from The Natural Philosopher contains these words:


Also bolers are more effcient at lower temps I THINK. Not sure ..


They should be. You can't transfer energy so easily into a warm body
from a hot one as you can into a cool body from a hot one.

Also with lower return temps a condensing boiler should be able to
recover more of the latent heat of vaporisation, getting ever closer to
the gross energy content of the gas burnt.

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

What is an ideal heating temp
 

Guy King wrote:
The message
from The Natural Philosopher contains these words:

Also bolers are more effcient at lower temps I THINK. Not sure ..

They should be. You can't transfer energy so easily into a warm body
from a hot one as you can into a cool body from a hot one.



ta da - so isn't it the temperature difference between hot feed and
cold(er) return that is of importance?

What is an ideal heating temp
 

On 2006-10-16 15:37:12 +0100, said:


Guy King wrote:
The message
from The Natural Philosopher contains these words:

Also bolers are more effcient at lower temps I THINK. Not sure ..

They should be. You can't transfer energy so easily into a warm body
from a hot one as you can into a cool body from a hot one.



ta da - so isn't it the temperature difference between hot feed and
cold(er) return that is of importance?

There are two things

- The temperature drop across the radiator (flow and return).

- The temperture difference between the radiator and the room air temperature.

If you look at radiator manufacturer data sheets, you will see that
they publish tables of numbers to allow you to work out what the actual
heat output will be as opposed to the specified figures used in lab
tests. The latter are done according to a standard which uses 90
degree flow.
the tables work on the basis of Mean Water to Air temperature (MWTA)
which is calculated by taking the mean water temperature (Flow +
Return)/2 and subtracting room temperature from that.

You will end up with a factor that is multiplied by the nominal output
to give the actual output under those operating conditions.

What is an ideal heating temp
 

The message . com
from contains these words:

ta da - so isn't it the temperature difference between hot feed and
cold(er) return that is of importance?

Well, obviously if they're the same then there's no heat being dumped by
the radiators - so either they're all wrapped in duvets or your house is
already at the same temperature as the outflow from the boiler.

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

What is an ideal heating temp
 

On Sun, 15 Oct 2006 08:28:14 +0100, manxtatt2 wrote:


Any help on this matter greatly appreciated

We have just moved into a 3 storey house , that has gas central heating
boiler.

What is the ideal temp in 0c to operate this to heat the house.

weve been told different things by people we know , but im still
unsure.

I think that around 75 or 80c is right , yet someone else says 50c

also what would be ideal times for setting heating to ?? is is ideal
to have it on for say 2 hrs in am , and 2 hours at night , does that
use up more gas, or have it on for longer

The house:
The lowest temperature you can put up with _after_ you have put on a
sweater!

The boiler:
If you have a HW cylinder then set the flow temp to be around 10C higher
than the HWC temp. The HWC temp should be set to at least 50C but
otherwise as low as you can get away with on two counts:
1) The washing up
2) Making sure that there is enough HW for your needs, the cooler you
store the HW the less HW you will have stored up. This is because you will
be mixing it with less cold water as you use it.

If you have no HW cylinder then set the boiler as low as you can get away
with but which still heats the radiators up enough to make the house
comfortable.

Have the heating on as little as you can get away with.
Try to heat the HW up only just before you need it.

Try things on middling setting and then adjust them a little at a time
until they are what you want.

--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html
Gas Fitting Standards Docs he http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFittingStandards