Is it cheaper to have central heating on low all the time, or on high for separate periods?

[awholenewworlda]

DD gets up at 630 for school and is saying house is cold when she does. So have set CH to come on at 530.

The rest of the family don't need to get up so early. I am home a lot and get cold during the day.

I have a well insulated home but it's not a modern house so it does get cold during the daytime. I don't mind it being cold at nighttime though. Radiators and boiler are modern and in good condition and do warm the house pretty well. There is also underfloor heating in some rooms, but it has always been really expensive on the electricity to run it so I don't tend to use it.

With the rise in gas and electricity prices, I was wondering what the cheapest approach is?

1. separate periods of heating eg 530, 8am, midday and 5-8pm with thermostat on eg 19-20?
2. having it on for longer but at lower thermostat levels?
3. some other approach?

NB. Obviously the cheapest approach is not to have it on and to dress up in layers, but this is not what I'm asking!

Thank you!

Mine is set to come on for a few hours in the morning and then a few hours in the evening. If I get cold during the day I can boost the heating too so its not on all day if it's not required. It's off overnight

Thermostat is moved up and down depending on whether I feel cold too. Highest I put it is probably 19/20⁰C.

I'm sure I've read that it's cheaper to use a timer and thermostat rather than have it on all day but it depends how well insulated the house is

www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/energy-saving-myths/ looks like its a controversial question

Sounds like you're already doing most things you can.

Seperate periods and set the thermostat to whatever temperature you want. If it's not on for long enough to heat the house in that time then it needs to be on longer. Consider the temperature of your radiator system, lower can be more efficient but would need to be on longer.

I have 2 system thermostats/timers, one water UFH and one for radiators. The radiator one allows setting different temperatures at different times in a more manual way which might be helpful for you. e.g 0600-0800 19deg, 0800-1200 17deg etc. There are more periods of time available than I need.

I live in an old, stone house. The kitchen is a modern extension, well insulated, the rest of the house not, although it is double glazed. The house gets extremely cold in the winter. I find it best to keep the heating on low all day - this combats the build-up of condensation in the walls. In previous years, keeping the heating on all day did not cost any more than having it come on and off twice at a higher level. Realise that my bills will go up anyway this year.

Also, am not working, so am home a lot during the day. The low level works fine although I do use a secondary source in the sitting room in the evenings.

I live in an old Victorian house. Even keeping the CH on all day some of the larger rooms never get warm. I love the large rooms and high ceilings, but the cost...

We had a new boiler installed last year as part of a kitchen revamp, and the fitter told us that it is better to have it on low but constant than it is to have it on high for short periods. Apparently it takes a lot more energy to heat the house from cold every time, and much less to keep it at a steady temperature.

We don't have it on overnight though.

We had it in a lot more last year. Didn't notice an increase in bills.

It was set to come on if it went below 18.5 degrees and cut off at 20.5. Between hours of 6am and 10pm. We also have a setting that if it goes below17.5 outwith the timer it comes on and cuts bk off at 18.5 so often during the night in winter. We did this because sometimes in the morning it was 16 degrees and wld take hrs to heat up and we wld all be freezing.

I tend to do a two pronged approach having read the money saving expert information

During autumn and spring I have the timer and thermostat set to do three booster slots morning afternoon and evening

As we hit winter and the truly cold period we have it on set to 21 in thermostat between 7.30 and 9.30 so that it ticks on whenever it drops lower

This seems to work for us, 3 adults home all day and our average yearly joint fuel cost for a 3 bed detached house are running at £90 a month

This is a question without a generic answer. You could proba by spend days on Google reading the thousands of articles about it but if you think about it, it only matters which is cheaper for you and your house and family .

All you need to do is test both ways, read the meter and you'll have the actual answer. Dont worry about other people, their houses, how many jumpers they wear etc, that has no relevance to you.

Not sure the cheapest but I have mine on all year with thermostat set low in summer (never comes on). In cold months I have it at 15C overnight and when we're out and 20C when we're home. I find the biggest increase in oil consumption is if it goes over 20C but seems a manageable amount doing it like that. I've got an older fairly drafty house.

Our thermostat is set at 19C daytime hours and then at 12C for overnight so I think the heating has come on overnight only a couple of times.

It’s a 1930’s semi with decent double glazing and wall and loft insulation.