# Daily Central Heating Usage



## robyn

Just wondering how many hours per day people have their central heating on for. In a 4 bed house, we have the gas timed to come on for an hour in the morning and for 3 hours in the evening from 6-9pm. Is this pretty average considering the house size?


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## DOBBER22

robyn said:
			
		

> Just wondering how many hours per day people have their central heating on for. In a 4 bed house, we have the gas timed to come on for an hour in the morning and for 3 hours in the evening from 6-9pm. Is this pretty average considering the house size?


 
We use Oil and also have it timed from 5:30am to 6:30am (so when we get up house is nice n snug) comes on again at 6pm until 9pm total of 4 hours a day. Tis pretty average if you are both working as there is nobody else around to use the heating but if one of you was at home it would be 6-8 hours a day maybe depending on the weather of coarse.

Good Luck


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## Danmo

robyn said:
			
		

> In a 4 bed house, we have the gas timed to come on for an hour in the morning and for 3 hours in the evening from 6-9pm.


 
Ditto


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## suzie

Well we have gas. Our CH setup is that rads have TRV, the CH and HW supplies are separate and contolled via motorised values. I have controllers for both CH and HW that can be set for up to 6 different periods per day. The year prior to the child's birth, with typical periods (i.e morning/afternoon/evenings & weekends) was say €x. Once the nipper came along, and we minded her at home for the first year, we switched the CH contoller to be a constant termostat, and manually adjust the temp throughout the day as we saw fit and turning it down say over night. As a result the house was constantly comfortable/warm but guess what, for the year the cost was also near enough to €x!!!! So we have kept it that way!!

No waiting for the house to heat up etc...

You should give it a try, its not as if the boiler is buring 24hrs per day, only just when its needed.

S.


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## Winnie

Hi,

on for 1/2hr before get up & on in evening depending on need.......if i don't feel cold i dont use it, max is usually 2/3 hours in very cold weather...........I find a lot of people's houses too warm & heating is on just as a habit.....


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## BillK

Like Suzie, we have our gas combination boiler on all the time and control it via the thermostat in the hall. All upstairs radiators have thermo- controlled valves so that it is not too hot up there. We turn the hall thermostat down to 15 degrees at night.


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## fullerand

DOBBER22 said:
			
		

> We use Oil and also have it timed from 5:30am to 6:30am (so when we get up house is nice n snug) comes on again at 6pm until 9pm total of 4 hours a day.


 
How quickly do you get through a tank of oil? 

We bought 1000 litres of oil for about 590 euro at the start of December and since then we've had the heating on about 3/4 hours per day just like yourself. As far as I can tell by tapping on the side of our tank we're already 1/3 of the way through - does that sound like a lot? Granted it's been mid-winter and we're heating a 3-bed detached house.


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## DOBBER22

fullerand said:
			
		

> How quickly do you get through a tank of oil?
> 
> We bought 1000 litres of oil for about 590 euro at the start of December and since then we've had the heating on about 3/4 hours per day just like yourself. As far as I can tell by tapping on the side of our tank we're already 1/3 of the way through - does that sound like a lot? Granted it's been mid-winter and we're heating a 3-bed detached house.


 
1100L (Tank Capacity) would see us through the whole winter heating not used in summer or early autumn I've spent a total of E800 on oil this year, that should see me through to next Winter hopefully. You really should have a dip stick to measure your Oil level I got one from my Oil supplier free of charge, very handy to keep track of how much fuel is being used weekly ect..

Good luck


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## MissRibena

I live in an old house that isn't dry lined (early cavity (of a sort) building) but has double glazing and masses of attic insulation. 

Our heating is on for at least 4 hours each night downstairs and up stairs for the last hour of that also.   Our 1000L tank of oil has lasted since August but we reckon we need about another 200-300 litres to get us through the rest of the cold weather.  We have a gauge on our tank to show how much is left and how quickly we are using it.

We do light a fire most nights in the sitting room for comfort and turn the radiator TRV down low in that room.  I'd say we spend less than 20 euro a month on fuel for this fire.

Rebecca


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## icantbelieve

I'm experimenting with heating periods at the moment, I previously used to have it come on at 6am until 9am when the kids would be getting up and out to school, then have it come on again at around 12pm with regular on/off until 10pm. However, what I found was that the house would go from periods of too cold to too hot so what I'm trying at the moment is to have the radiator temperature at the lowest the unit allows but from 6am to 10pm the system is set to be on for 30 minutes off for 15. I'm hoping that this means that running lower temperature rads for around 10 hours a day costs the same or less running fairly hot rads for at least 8 hours a day and at least now I don't have the temperature highs and lows.


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## Round Tuit

2 bed own door end of terrace garden apt. 
No heat in am - I'm only up 45mins before I leave, I can manage without heating house up only to leave it empty. 
30mins heat in pm. 
Out at work for 12hrs, if I'm cold I wear more clothes.


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## DOBBER22

Round Tuit said:
			
		

> 2 bed own door end of terrace garden apt.
> No heat in am - I'm only up 45mins before I leave, I can manage without heating house up only to leave it empty.
> 30mins heat in pm.
> Out at work for 12hrs, if I'm cold I wear more clothes.


 
You are so cold man


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## Round Tuit

Dobber, I'm just a poor SWF who managed to get a step on property ladder and begrudges giving Bord Gais any more money than she has to!!


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## Toby

How do you arrange for the heating to be on downstairs only - is it possible to get it easily set up or is it a big job or are you manually turning off rads upstairs? Thanks


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## DOBBER22

Round Tuit said:
			
		

> Dobber, I'm just a poor SWF who managed to get a step on property ladder and begrudges giving Bord Gais any more money than she has to!!


 
Here ya go a nice wooly jumper for ya, don't blame you not wanting to give Bord Gais any money


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## MissRibena

Hi Toby

It's part of the heating system I just had installed in the house in the summer.  I have a thermostat upstairs and one downstairs and an overall control for the system.   All the rads have their own stats too so you can leave a little bit of heat on and adjust it easily (but to be completely honest, I used to do this with the rads in my old house anyway but just not fully turning the knob and I thought it worked pretty much the same).

I love being able to turn on the heat downstairs only without messing with radiators. I think I would get more use out of the system in a newer house because then I would maybe tinker with the temperature on the stats more, whereas now I find I either want the heat on or off.   I don't really understand why anyone would need so much specific control over temperatures but maybe the whole thermostat thing will grow on me and I'll use it more in less cold weather.

I don't know if it would be a big deal to retro-fit it but even if you could just switch it on and off up/downstairs would be enough for me.

Rebecca


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## ribena

Mine is on from 7.15 - 8.30 in the mornings and from 6 - 10.30 in the evenings.  I have a back boiler in the sitting room so most nights the rads are still nice and hot going to bed.  I'm fascinated about leaving the heating on all day at a low temperature.  Would this work on any heating system?  I have an oil cooker in the kitchen, would you turn that down to its lowest setting and leave it at that setting?  I'm sure you burn a lot of oil powering up and down the boiler so it does make sense to leave it on.


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## Ann-Marie

we got a bill of €300 euro from bord gais this month. 
Just wondering on average what everyones bills do?


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## icantbelieve

I'll let you know about keeping the heating on for longer but at lower settings when I get my next gas bill. I'm hoping it'll work out around the same cost or less as in theory I shouldn't need as much gas to run the rads at a lower temperature. The heating aspect already works better as there aren't any uncomfortable highs or lows any more.


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## Fat Tony

PINK said:
			
		

> we got a bill of €300 euro from bord gais this month.
> Just wondering on average what everyones bills do?



Mine was €79? What's average?

(3 bed semi)


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## brian.mobile

I'm actively avoinding my bill this month!

Post NO bills!

BM


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## annamac1

Like you all I am trying to find the most economical way to run our OFCH - 
I am now trying to find the cheapest supplier of oil (Mayo/Galway) -
what is the average you pay per litre this month?
If this is the wrong thread please redirect me.
Thanks.  Annamac


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## Sue Ellen

Hi Anna,

This site might give you some help www.irishfuelprices.com.


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## annamac1

No, that site quotes for car fuel only.  I need the litre price for Kerosene, which we use for our OFCH.
Thanks.


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## Sue Ellen

Hi Anna,

That site covers both car and home heating. If you go to the very bottom line of the site you will see that there are links to both. The site times out on the link to the home heating section so you will need link to it yourself. They split the survey between oil and kerosene. You go to the map and select the area you want to view. 

Sueellen.


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## icantbelieve

icantbelieve said:
			
		

> I'm experimenting with heating periods at the moment, I previously used to have it come on at 6am until 9am when the kids would be getting up and out to school, then have it come on again at around 12pm with regular on/off until 10pm. However, what I found was that the house would go from periods of too cold to too hot so what I'm trying at the moment is to have the radiator temperature at the lowest the unit allows but from 6am to 10pm the system is set to be on for 30 minutes off for 15. I'm hoping that this means that running lower temperature rads for around 10 hours a day costs the same or less running fairly hot rads for at least 8 hours a day and at least now I don't have the temperature highs and lows.


I received my latest bill and this policy appears to have done the trick, my bill is about 20% less than that for the same period last year despite there having been a substantial increase in the price of gas during 2005. The only thing I now have to check out is whether the increased frequency of the boiler being powered on/off will cause detrimental wear and tear. Hopefully not as I wouldn't think there are that many moving parts but I don't know for certain.


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## ITGuy

*Honeywell CM Zone*

Hi, has anyone looked at this



I am building a kitchen extension and underfloor heating is installed. Thinking of getting this installed for the existing gas fire central heating system for the existing dwelling.
Only need to add controller, interface unit and TRVs - lots of TRVs.
Looks like an excellent idea - I was looking this for a few years (not actively) and this is the first time I have seen a product that fit exactly what I am looking for.

Just curious whether anyone has tried this already?


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## ITGuy

Mine is over 300 this bill. Last year is around 200+. + 25% increment on the rate. And we are adding an extension to the house so the house is not sealed hence the over 300 bill. I think.


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## justsally

Hello Toby,

For what it's worth.    We have 2 valves fitted to the central heating pipes in the kitchen kitchen.(one on the pipe leading to the upstairs rads and the other on the pipe leading to the downstairs rads)    One turns on/off the radiators downstairs, and the other turns on/off the radiators upstairs.   So everything can be regulated from downstairs.  I can't believe that's it's a big job to have these fitted.  But then I'm a woman and to me nothing seems too difficult. We also have our thermostat located in the room that we use most, i.e. the livingroom, because to us it's best that the heating suits the room we use most.
This may not be much help to you.....it's just my tuppence worth.
good luck


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