Random question and just out of interest

[AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii]

I know everyone’s home will be different but just interested to know what people have figured out is best.

we are in a 3 bed semi detached house, good double glazing, cavity insulation and loft, energy rating D. Gas central heating and radiators have TRVS which I have set at 4 for the living room and 2-3 on the other rooms, boiler was fitted 2017. I have a nest thermostat that flicks to away when we leave and comes back on when we are home so have noticed a lot of energy being used to initially heat the house when coming home especially at the minute with temps here being -6,-7 and not heating up much during the day.

today I have left the heating on at 16.5 to tick over and not drop so low as it can be dropping to 14.5-13 when we are out at work. It will be interesting to see if this uses less money as we have a smart meter so can see.

so I just wondered what others experiences were as there is so much conflicting evidence of leaving on low vs leaving it timed. I think I would just leave it off when we aren’t in the house anyway but maybe leave it low at the weekends instead of it going off for a period during the afternoon as set by the schedule
but then maybe better to have it’s away setting set to say 15 instead of the pre set 12 to save it having to work so hard? Honestly no clue 🤷‍♀️

This is technically supposed to be more expensive, leaving it on a low heat all the time. But there have been people on here who have a smart meter who have tried it and it's been cheaper so I think it depends on your very specific set up of heating and house

@Heavyraindropsarefallingonmyhead This is what I mean it’s so confusing! On my nest app I can see each day when the heating is running and when I get in from work it takes about 1.5-2 hours to heat up to 17.5 from 13 or 14 (only at the minute because it is so cold previous winters often wouldn’t go below 15) where as today it was on solidly this morning for an hour or so to heat up after being off all night but is only coming on and off every so often for shorter periods. I suppose I’ll know better tomorrow when I check the usage from today compared to yesterday

Ok so following on my from my experiment, my best app shows my heating ran for 7 and 3/4 hours on Friday and only 5 and 3/4 hours yesterday being left at 16 all day. Not sure if it will have been cheaper as can’t seem to compare Friday and Saturdays prices only today and yesterday