Hot Water - Once? Twice? On?

[willougs]

Good afternoon all.

Probably a "how long is a piece of string?" type question, but what is the general consensus on the best setting for your hot water?
As a working family (no one generally in during the day), is it best to be on:

o "twice" setting for water in the morning and evening?

o Or more cost effective to set to "once" as cheaper to maintain temperature during the day than to heat again in the evening?

o Or on permenantly so just maintain temp all the time?


Got to thinking about this as the downstairs of my house is always cold. Last night for example, thermostat on 22 degrees, but it never reached that temperature all evening (LED was on permenantly 17:00 to 23:00). All radiators are very hot to touch, but was thinking maybe it would heat the house quicker if the hot water was already hot and therefore more water going through central heating?

Thanks in advance.
Steve

 

[Moss5]

If your hot water cylinder is well insulted, why not leave it on 24 hours?
My cylinder has a foam layer and very little heat-loss.
I know this is slightly wasteful of energy, but the advantage is worth the cost (in my opinion).
When you have the heating/hot water timed to come on at the same time in the morning, for example, you may find the hot-water gets priority, or is sharing the boiler output. You have all gone to work/school before the heating has had a chance to heat the home. Before this occurs, the heating is most likely timed to go off.
This 24-hour hot water system may not work if you shower in the morning, since the tank thermostat will be demanding heat in competition with the heating.
We shower in the evening, so the morning timed period is devoted to heating.

 

[Diyisfun]

I done a lot of playing about with my settings, I finished by having hot water on 30 mins before heating. Then when showering the rads stay hot until the water is re satisfied. Then in the evening I have the water turn off 30 mins after the heating.
I think it has to be trial & error

 

[willougs]

Sure. thanks for the replies guys. I guess it'll be a case of monitoring gas usage over a period of time with each of the different settings.

Not an easy one to call.

 

[JohnD]

Got to thinking about this as the downstairs of my house is always cold. Last night for example, thermostat on 22 degrees, but it never reached that temperature all evening

just to check, are you keeping the doors shut so the hot air can't rush up to the top of the house?

 

[willougs]

Got to thinking about this as the downstairs of my house is always cold. Last night for example, thermostat on 22 degrees, but it never reached that temperature all evening

just to check, are you keeping the doors shut so the hot air can't rush up to the top of the house?

Thanks for the reply. We try to keep the doors shut as often as possible. For example, the dining room is hardly ever used and that is constantly shut - however walking in there you'd hardly notice it being particularly warm.

I'm thinking that a big factor in my problem is that the thermostat is sat in the hallway which has a piddly little radiator in it and, including the stairs and the upstairs landing, is probably the biggest of rooms to heat.

Is it possibel to just replace the radiator with a bigger one, or so I need to take into account boiler and current size of system total?

 

[JohnD]

There are probably different opinions on that. I have been replacing all my original rads with bigger ones as I redecorate each room - a double, finned one to replace a single panel of the same length is the easiest fix, though the hall needs a much longer one.

If I were to add up the heat output of all the rads, they can take more heat than the boiler gives, but they aren't all going to be full on all the time (TRVs, and unused rooms turned down) so they have the ability ro warm up the needed rooms quicker. If your boiler is already running flat out all the time, they won't work for you. Make sure your insulation and draughtproofing is good to keep the total load under control.

See if you need to do some balancing so that more of the circulation goes to the downstairs rads. Heat will leak upwards anyway.

 

[Nige F]

Once, Twice, Three times daily Lionel Ritchie