Does anyone know approx what it would cost for say half hours use of gas (per day) on a combi boiler running 6 radiators in 2 bedroom house. I ask as I have a 60 mile round trip to turn on or off the central heating in a vacant house, and thinking it might be just as cheap to leave it on for half an hour each day as the 15 day forecast is not too severe.
So asking say cost of 3.5 hours worth of gas (approx) for a weeks use.
Any offers.
Hi, A better idea leave it on 24hr but turn the room stat down to 15 or 12 deg c
You haven't told us anything about the construction and insulation of the house but, all things being equal, the steady state heat requirement shouldn't be more than about 6 or 7 kW.
If you're heating it from cold each day, you could conceivably throw twice that energy rate at it during transient conditions. So, if you assume 15kW (say) for half an hour, that's 7.5 kWh per day - which, at 4p per unit (should hopefully be a bit less than that) would be 30p per day.
Quite a few assumptions and guesses in that - but it should give some sort of an indication.
As others have suggested, you could - alternatively - leave it on all the time with the stat set very low, so it only comes on if required to prevent the house from freezing up.
A few assumption here, but if you have a 24kW boiler that is on full for 30 minutes a day and you pay 7p per kWh, then 24 x 7 x 0.5 x 0.07 = £5.88 a week.
Personally I would turn the room stat down to 10 deg and leave the boiler on constant.
Adam
If its vacant why heat it at all, depending on who designed your heating system and domestic water the pipes may be to near exterior walls and freeze anyway with just lowering temps. im in the US where it gets to -20f, colder than where you are, and draining the boiler and all water pipes is common, If you dont use it shut it down.
Too many variables to provide a meaningful answer.
60 mile round trip is going to cost between =A310 (fuel only, 30mpg) to =A325 if you fully cost the running of the car (insurance, tax, maintenance, depreciation etc).Set the programmer to constant heating (no hot water) and the room thermostat to about 10C. That will keep the frost and damp out. I guess this could be a TRV only system and no room stat in which case fit a room stat to kill the short cycling on the boiler.
Completely unsanswerable. At best one can set an upper limit on it, so say that assuming the house is freezing cold and the half hour never gets it anywhere near the sort of temperature required to switch it off, its 3.5 hours times the peak output of the boiler over the efficiency.
beware of not heating the water if there is any danger of pipes freezing in the hot water circuitry.
Shortly before I demolished my house I left it with a boiler that had run out of oil over christmas. Two days later I came back and the header tank over an extension was pissing water through into the ceiling via a burst pipe.
A sad end to a pretty ropey house, by that stage.
What's wrong with the thermostat such that you have to turn it off and on?
Probably because it won't work that way. The boiler will have program timer which will come on for a fixed period, whatever. My system has thermostat valves on the individual radiators and a bypass radiator in the bathroom that comes on full whenenever the system is running. If I leave the house unattended I can set radiator thermostats in individual rooms to different levels according to proximity of plumbing, but bathroom will always be warmed up for period of timer operation.
Toom
I've yet to come across an programmer that doesn't have a "constant" setting of some description.
No room stat? Doesn't comply with current regulations. I'd advise fitting one it'll stop the boiler firing just to keep itself and the bypass hot once the house is up to temperature. You may well see a saving in your gas bill.
To answer some of your questions.
I was renting the house and it was costing an arm and a leg (dont ask) so now going to sell it. The central heating does not have a room thermostat. I can ill afford any additional cost if I can avoid it. (nor do I want burst pipes) I dont know about the house insulation but it did sit with no heating on during a cold spell with no adverse effects. The house is a distance away so dont want the expense of commutes if possible. I have currently set all rad thermostats at frost setting and put system on clock for 4 times daily, thinking if we hit a cold spell at least some heat will be in the house, which is more than I had for the previous cold spell.
Interesting, how do you sell something your are renting thus don't own? Perhaps you mean letting?
That'll probably work well enough. Have one of the on periods around dawn that, in general terms, is the coldest part of the day. A simple mechanical room stat is less than =A320 but the cabling between it and the boiler might be hard. You can get wireless stats but they cost a bit more. As you are selling abd presumably pricing to sell it's not worth it.
Fitting a room stat may make the house more saleable though. YMMV.
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