# Best efficient way to use oil central heating with new baby



## chris20051 (20 Jan 2010)

Hi All,

The misses is due to give birth to our first child in 2-3 weeks what an exciting moment for both of us, I have a question regarding central heating in our house once the new baby decides to greet us :O)

Whats the best efficient way to use my oil central heating when the baby comes into the world, I do know the house needs to be warm but not to hot, I have my rads temp set at 67 C which 65C is the normal temp, 500 litres can last anytime from 3-5 months using on average 5-7 hours per day.

Lets say from 6am to 9pm how often should I stick the heating on should I use the timer to bring it on for an hour and off for an hour etc, I don't think there is any easy way of saying other then if the house is cold or drops in temp put the heating on, while I understand oil usage is not an option with a newborn at the same time I want to use our heating efficiently

Thanks for anyone that can give me some ideas on how best to use the heating

Chris


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## huskerdu (20 Jan 2010)

I cant help your with your specific query.  There is different opinions on whether it is more efficient to leave heating on all day, or switch it on when you feel the house getting cold. I think that  it depends on now old and how insulated your house is
and what construction method was used. 

But, I know that you are very concerned to be doing the right thing for your new baby, but there is no real need to be doing anything different whan you usually do -  which is to heat your house to be comfortably warm.  Babies do like to be warm, but they like to be wrapped up cosily in blankets so are usually warm enough anyway. 

You might find yourself heating the house a bit at night initially, to be comfortable for all of you during night feeds, but this would only be an issue in Winter. 

Good luck and have fun.


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## pudds (20 Jan 2010)

If you don't have TRV's fitted (Thermostatic Radiator Valves) then I strongly recommend that you get them. I got mine last year and they are great at letting you fine tune the heat in individual rooms to suit your needs.


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## DGOBS (20 Jan 2010)

TRV's are great, but they do not operate the boiler (no interlock) so if used they
should be coupled with a timeclock, roomstats and cyliner stats, linked through mv vales that turn the boiler on on demand only


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## gary71 (20 Jan 2010)

Stick a decent thermometer in the room and look to maintain a suitable temperature, either from your central heating or a secondary heat source ie... a thermostatically controlled oil filled heater, Gary.


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## tufty1 (21 Jan 2010)

we have a new born in our house (3 months old). We cant afford to run the heating all day so i bought a couple of those free standing oil filled heaters from powercity (€70 each), i have saved a fortune - over halved our gas bill!
they are easily portable and have one in the living room and one in our bedroom (which is where he still sleeps). I put on our heating system in the morning befroe i go to work for about an hour just to get the chill out of the house. works well for us.


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## NHG (21 Jan 2010)

tufty1 - did you get an esb bill yet, i hope i am wrong for your sake but i think that those oil filled rads (if that is what you are speaking about) are heavy on electricity. 

Congrats on the new arrival, god be with the days when one got a good auld night's sleep.


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## tufty1 (21 Jan 2010)

cheers, yeah sleep is a distant memory, been up since 3.30!
the gas was coming in at €700 for 2 months and whilst the portable rads are relatively expensive, their a fraction of cost of running the heating system, best thing we ever did (well almost!)


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## huskerdu (21 Jan 2010)

The oil filled rads are heavy on electricity, but presumably tufty1 is using them to heat individual rooms only, and not heating the whole house with the GFCH so the overall cost per week is less.


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## Leo (22 Jan 2010)

Could thermostatic valves be fitted to the rads to achieve much the same result and save even more?


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