20c all day and 18c all night?

[brass monkey]

Just had a greenstar 30cdi installed. Mother is living with us (92), we're all retired so at home most of the time. Are these temperatures asking for a humungous bill? Never had CH before. TIA.

[John Rumm]

Not exceptionally so... however the cost will be largely dictated by your levels of insulation than by the selected temperatures.

I usually have our programmable stat set to maintain a temp of 15 overnight - in reality the heating is hardly ever fired at that level.

[Michael Chare]

It might depend on what you regard as a humungous bill

You could read your meter weekly and see how much you are spending. The consumption will increase as the weather gets colder.

We have a programmable thermostat and use a lower temperature at night, but a higher temperature in the evening when we are likely to be sedentary.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "brass monkey" saying something like:

You should buy big slippers for you all.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Like another poster said, that depends more on the insulation and size of your house. Perhaps you can describe size of house, when built, and what insulation has susequently been added (cavity wall, loft, double glazing, etc).

I don't know what health you're all in, but I would say the daytime temperature would generally be a bit low for someone typical of your mother's age. OTOH, if she's never lived with central heating before, she's probably more hardened to the cold than most people typical of her age.

[Rod]

Is that every room in your house?

Do you have any form of zoning, or thermotstatic radiator valves? These could allow you to keep some rooms (e.g. the 'spare' bedroom) somewhat cooler.

[NOSPAMnet]

Or one of them things like a sleeping bag that you sit in while in your chair .

[Chris J Dixon]

It may well be more economical to lower the settings somewhat, and still use whatever heating you had before (you don't say what) to ensure that you are cosy in the room(s) you mostly occupy.

Much depends upon the nature and flexibility of the controls, though thermostatic radiator valves are usual on a new installation. However the type and location of the overall roomstat is also significant.

Chris

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If you were heating the whole house before by other means you might well find a reduction in bills. A central heating boiler is more efficient than gas fires, etc.

I'd say your nighttime setback to 18c isn't enough. Many would find unnecessarily high when in bed. 15 would be more normal - and a well insulated house probably won't drop this low anyway even with the heating off.

[BigWallop]

I just hope I'm still feeling the cold at the age of ninety two. :-)

But, to get back to the real topic of the thread, if you are all spending time in the same rooms throughout the day, then you could lower the temperature in the other rooms that are not in use.

Keeping the living room, hall and bathroom at the higher temperature during the day and setting the bedrooms at a constant lower temperature, using the radiator valves to regulate them.

As others have also pointed out in the thread, the running costs also depend on how your house stops the heat from escaping. Your bills will be considerably more if the heating system has to continually replenish the warm air throughout the building, because it just keeps blowing out the windows, doors are roof.

Your next check should be to make sure you have upgraded / repaired the insulation properties of the building. Spending a few pounds on another layer of loft insulation, and also hanging slightly heavier lined curtains on the windows in winter time, can save you hundreds of pounds on the cost of fuel bills.

I have read the Which? review on the boiler you say was installed, and it comes out with a good score. So if the rest of the installation matches well with your boiler, it should be quite economical on running costs.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Depends on insulation. Totally.

[ransley]

Whats humungous, how big a home, what is insulation, any bill is big when its time to pay it. But dont freeze yourself.

[John]

Whats humungous, how big a home, what is insulation, any bill is big when its time to pay it. But dont freeze yourself.

I have the following programmed into my thermostat:

Daytime 20 Evening (16:30 onwards) 22 Night 17

In reality it hardly ever comes on at night (if it does I normally wake as I think it is time to get up!)

Need to reduce heat losses - take care not to open doors too much - or for too long or all the heat disappears.

[Dave Liquorice]

Our living room very very rarely gets below 15C and that has 3 external walls solid stone walls and we are high and exposed. Heat loss is high by modern standards.

The programable stat is set to 18.5C day, 20C evening and 15C (I think) night but we actually turn the heating off at night otherwise the creaks and bangs wakes us up. If you're wondering how I know that the temp in the living room rarely gets below 15C the AWS base station is in there and it records the internal temp.

18.5C during the day can be a bit "cool" if the wind is blowing and it's near or below freezing outside. With elderly, not very active, people it is very easy to get rather too cold just sat in a chair and not notice it. 20C day is about right, 18C in a bedroom I'd find stifling 15C would be better but then I'm relatively young with good circulation.

It might best to go with how you feel, if you feel cold or get cold sat in a sensible amount of clothing then the room needs to be warmer. Use the actual temperatures as a guide rather than an absolute it *must* be

22.167892C.

[Chewbacca]

If you are used to a cold house and now have CH the bill will be much bigger.

As others have said do a weekly meter read if you want to avoid nasty surprises. My house which is insulated to standards of 20 years ago, detached and a with heating off at night and set to about 20 during the day with kids leaving doors open etc - yearly gas & electric bill about £1000

[Dave Liquorice]

Yes, space heating eats fuel like no other domestic consumption.

Only =A31000 for both, wee that would be nice. Lecky bill is about =A375=

0 a year, last lot of oil (2000l) was over =A31000 and we use about 4000l/ye= ar. Fortunately the price has dropped so I'm hoping the next fill will only = be =A3800 ish... "Fuel poverty" yeah I know all about fuel poverty. B-(

[brass monkey]

Yes, space heating eats fuel like no other domestic consumption.

Only £1000 for both, wee that would be nice. Lecky bill is about £750 a year, last lot of oil (2000l) was over £1000 and we use about 4000l/year. Fortunately the price has dropped so I'm hoping the next fill will only be £800 ish... "Fuel poverty" yeah I know all about fuel poverty. B-(

Gordon Bennet, if our bill looks like being in that sort of range i'll find a canal and jump in it. Maybe I'll look for some kindling and a few housebricks for the centre of the lounge ;) Thanks for all the input, folks. We used to live in terraced property, gas fires and lecky blankets kinda thing. Now we're in a circa 1965 bungalow, cavity walls (no insulation yet), fairly minimal insulation in the loft. What I hate most is walking past the greenstar and seeing that green light signifying burning gas. Maybe I should tape over it :D

[Owain]

Now that mother (92) is living with you you can get cavity wall insulation and loft insulation fitted free.

If you have suspended wooden floors, and easy access thereunder, might also be worth putting some insulation below the boards between the joists.

Owain

[Roger]

The message from "Dave Liquorice" contains these words:

I am in a lower (535 feet ASL) and probably more sheltered situation than Dave but likewise have a poorly insulated house with 2 foot thick stone walls. I have also had a weather station since early March so I thought I would see what that said about my living room temperature. I don't yet have a winter record but the house seems to get marginally colder than Dave's when it is cold outside.

March and the early part of April dropped to about 14C overnight on a fairly consistant basis. On 21st - 23rd March when I was away and the heating was in protection mode for 2 days the temperature dropped from

17C to 8C and the 2 following nights dropped to 12C and 13C before the house warmed through again. And at the tail end of last month the temperature dipped to 13.5C one night so I expect that if we have a cold winter the heating will often be coming on overnight when the thermostat switches at 13C. Luckily I have mains gas so I don't suffer financially quite as much as Dave on oil.

I have the house set to 17C during the day which can feel a bit chilly when sitting around but warm when I get round to the occasional bit of housework and overpoweringly hot when I come in after being active outside so I agree with Dave that feel is the key. Old people (Mary Fisher excepted) need an envirionment several degrees higher than what typical youngsters find comfortable.

[The Natural Philosopher]

yeah..electric+oil about £3.5k here.. shoud be better next as we are trimming back what we can.

And burning anything that will in the stoves and fires.