Alan Shilling wrote:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Velvet"
Newsgroups: uk.d-i-y
Sent: 28 January 2004 10:01
Subject: CH - most efficient way to run in cold weather?



Snipped

Now, after all that background, the question. Since I'm not out all day
at work, I'm not sure what the most efficient way of heating the place is.


Snipped


Heat loss is proportionate to the insulation factor and temperature
difference between the inside and outside of the house. Hence if you turn
down your thermostat, you will lower the inside temperature and the heat
loss will be less. I'm sure there are small effects due to the way the
boiler performs, but I think the overall picture will remain the same - turn
it down, use less fuel. As you have a programmable thermostat you'd be daft
not to.

In very cold weather, you may need to program the boiler to come on a bit
earlier to get the place warm enough.

The lower the inside temperature, the more heat you'll gain from (or less
you'll lose to) the house below :-)

Alan Shilling
Remove packaging from e-mail address before replying



Sorry, maybe I wasn't that clear. I know running the overall temp lower
leads to less heat loss, but my question was whether keeping it at (for
example) a min of 17C overnight (which would mean the boiler coming on
and off) would be more cost-effective than letting it cool down
overnight from the 19C in the evening to perhaps 14C before stat turns
it up to 18C for the morning blast of heat.

Bearing in mind I'd likely get no heat overnight from downstairs, since
I don't think they run theirs overnight, I lose a lot of heat quite
quickly, and I'm not sure if it's better to maintain the temperature,
albiet a bit lower, overnight, or just let it drop then have the boiler
firing for a long period in the morning to bring it back up to temp?

Added to this, I've got the option to changing the boiler temp (of the
water circulating in teh rads). I normally have it set to about a
third, not quite sure what that is in degree's C of water but I have
thermometers on the pipes at teh boiler exit/return so can find that out
if it would help. I turned it up to about 2/3 because it does take
quite a long time to warm up in the morning. Not sure if that will make
much difference as I only did that after I got up this morning.

Having already lowered the stat temp and got used to (and indeed finding
I prefer a cooler rather than warmer house most of the time, as long as
I don't have cold feet), I don't really want to drop it any further.
Handy bit about the programmable room stat is it gives me an easy
indication of what the current temp is, just by flicking the override
up/down and seeing when it stops/starts firing. This is how I know how
cold the house drops to overnight (sometimes I'm up before the next
programme on the stat kicks in, though that's rarer these days).

Ta for the reply though.

Velvet