central heating -thermo setting

[tali122]

now ive been told that it is better to leave central heating running rather than switching it on and off,(which means greater cost even though it is on for less of a time period) trouble is central heating takes time to warm up and requires full thermstat setting (30c)- so would it be far better to time the central heating to come on earlier and on longer at a lower thermostat setting- therfore what thermostat setting should it be?-

[ianess]

I would choose to go for a programmable thermostat available from any good DIY store. Fitted in minutes and you can arrange for your house to be heated to different temperatures at different times of the day.
I have one [Drayton Digistat] set for 19*C between 0630 and 0830, then 16*C when I'm usually out until 1630, then 20*C until 2230, and finally overnight from 2230 until 0630 at 15*C.
You can over-ride the settings at any time, or else just fit and forget.

Hope this helps. Best wishes.

[stanleyman]

It depends on how long the house is empty for. Once it is cold it will take the same fuel and time to heat up again regardless and will waste fuel if running low for a long time empty. I don't see why you need to set the stat to 30c, it won't warm up any quicker than if set at 20c. Set the times for when you want the heat and add half an hour or so to warm up and subtract half an hour to start cooling down. A programmable digistat is a good idea to maintain a minimum temperature overnight for example, these are meant for combination boilers but you can fit them to conventional systems if the original programmer with hot water is set to constant or the heating circuit bypassed. You can also fit another watchdog stat that will do the same thing by overiding the programmer at a lower temperature.

[KARL]

Setting the thermostat above your target temperature does nothing to speed up the process but, unless you turn it down before it reaches the target, you may overshoot it - the output capacity per minute/hour remains more or less constant throughout. I favour operating on a thermostat rather than timing and in our case it is set at 18 while sleeping or out for several hours, 20 otherwise, except if we are away for several days or more in which case it is turned down to perhaps 15 degrees (water heating off). The cost per year for a 150 square metre house with high ceilings in much of it, all in a colder than average part of Britain, is less than �500 over the past year and we regard that as well worth it.