How long does it take to heat your house?

[transatlantic]

Assuming you turn off your heating over night and have it switch on in the morning, how long is it taking over these cold winter mornings?

Please state :

- Morning Temp (outdoor)
- Morning Temp (indoor)
- Target Temperature (indoor)
- Time to reach target temperature
- House size

I did mine this morning and it's not great

- 1c
- 15c
- 18c
- 1.5 hours
- 2 bedroom bungalow

 

[flh801978]

0
14
22
Never
4 bed Victorian solid stone detached

 

[RobinBHM]

0
14
22
Never
4 bed Victorian solid stone detached

The 22 and never imply there is at least 1 female in this house

Has anybody tried to explain that, if the thermostat is calling for heat, turning up the dial wont increase the rate of heating only the final temperature........

 

[MrDavidRoberts]

I have properly insulated all the house from inside and eliminated all the cold leaking spots when doing renovation, it stays 18-19c all day long with heating turning on only around 10 times per day for just 10minutes each time to maintain the temperature. Even in winter my electricity bill is higher than the gas bill, for almost half of the year the heater is turned off completetly.

 

[Fatboy]

we found our gas bill went down by leaving the heating on constant; once the fabric of the house was warmed up it only needed the smallest tweak to keep it there; around 10-12 degrees over night when its really cold and during the day when we're at work and turn it up to 18-20 when we get in for an hour. Letting the house get cold over night uses more gas to warm it back up again than it does to keep it at a moderate heat.

 

[Bigdanny]

last week was

-19
14.7
21 to 22
2 to 3 hrs
3 bed bungalow

 

[Phil Pascoe]

0
14
22
Never
4 bed Victorian solid stone detached

The 22 and never imply there is at least 1 female in this house

Has anybody tried to explain that, if the thermostat is calling for heat, turning up the dial wont increase the rate of heating only the final temperature........

I worked for many years in a hotel, and it was an ongoing battle to stop chambermaids altering the thermostats every day. One would go in one day and think the room to warm and switch it off, the next day one would find the room freezing and switch it on full ... :?
Actually when we had central heating swmbo did the same ...

 

[DennisCA]

I have not tried this nor would I dare to mess with anything like that on a new house. I doubt the drop would be much because the heated and insulated floor slab would keep the temperature constant for a good while. It's usually around 21C in our house, down to 19C some mornings.

 

[Keithie]

we found our gas bill went down by leaving the heating on constant; once the fabric of the house was warmed up it only needed the smallest tweak to keep it there; around 10-12 degrees over night when its really cold and during the day when we're at work and turn it up to 18-20 when we get in for an hour. Letting the house get cold over night uses more gas to warm it back up again than it does to keep it at a moderate heat.

We tried this...after a couple of years we found the capacitor in the heating control system lost sufficient capacity to switch modes (3 pot switch needed to be kept open to keep heating on and let house just run by thermostat rather than timer & thermostat). My precision soldering techniques not up to the job of replacing it so a new £100+ unit was needed.

As for us, any attempts at rational heat/cost management were irrevocably destroyed by my wife installing a 4 oven oil fired aga. It seems that money and use of carbon based non-sustainable fuels are less important than a constantly warm oven for the dog to lie next to.

 

[Doug71]

Keithie you think your fuel costs are bad, I have some friends with an aga like yours and they have had air con fitted in their kitchen. Through the summer the aga makes the kitchen too warm so they have the air con running to cancel out the aga #-o

Transatlantic, I think the question should be how quickly your house LOSES heat, that is where the problem lies.

 

[Keithie]

now that is really bad ! .. I thought leaving the back door open to let the excessive heat out was bad enough!

 

[DennisCA]

Thank god for induction stoves, very little waste heat.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I've been trying to educate my teenage son that leaving his window open when it's minus 2 outside will cause our thermostat to switch off only when our boiler has heated the entire universe! And that therefore removing his beloved Nike hoody might be a preferable approach to maintaining his comfort. But if the grunt is anything to go by, not sure it went in!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've been trying to educate my teenage son to put some clothes on and open his windows, to help prevent his bedroom going black with mould. Meh.

 

[John Brown]

we found our gas bill went down by leaving the heating on constant; once the fabric of the house was warmed up it only needed the smallest tweak to keep it there; around 10-12 degrees over night when its really cold and during the day when we're at work and turn it up to 18-20 when we get in for an hour. Letting the house get cold over night uses more gas to warm it back up again than it does to keep it at a moderate heat.

I'm sorry, but I think that's a myth. Heat loss (from house to outside) is dependent upon temperature difference.
But being a basic law of physics, it can of course be refuted by a single piece of anectodal evidence.

 

[Keithie]

But being a basic law of physics, it can of course be refuted by a single piece of anectodal evidence.

:lol:

I guess sometimes though we need to understand whats happening in more detail before we, albeit temptingly, resort to asserting that the laws of thermodynamics are wrong. Of course they may be ...but also it might be that for a house with primarily concrete block construction (like mine) the losses are less than one might superficially expect as the blocks might take quitesome time to either heat up or cool down. Too complicated for me!

I definitely dont know but I can see howit might be possible that keeping heating on full time (at a sensible level, eg 18deg) might conceivably be cheaper than letting the house get cold overnight and having to heat it up from a lower temp. This, after all, is how an aga works ...its not designed to be allowed to go coldevery night ...its always on. I figure that AGA have probably thought about why they recommend its used that way on oil fired ones. But who knows!

 

[dzj]

The Danube froze this winter. Temps as low as -20... The heating is never off (18 deg at night, 22 C in the daytime)

 

[treeturner123]

Hi

There is one factor that has been eluded t, namely the other half. After spending a hour or more sat down reading, suddenly it's too cold and the heating needs to be turned up!!

Phil

 

[DennisCA]

No that's when you need grandmas knitted woolen socks

 

[Paul200]

This, after all, is how an aga works ...its not designed to be allowed to go coldevery night ...its always on. I figure that AGA have probably thought about why they recommend its used that way on oil fired ones. But who knows!

We treat our stone cottage like an Aga. One or both of our log burners are banked up every night. It works a treat.