Is it cheaper to run central heating all night than letting it boost up again in the morning?

Answer 1

In my opinion, definitely not.

Turning your heating off, or down, over night and then letting it heat up again in the morning, will always use less fuel than leaving the heating on for the whole, say, 8 hours of the night. As someone above mentioned, the heat in your house eventually "leaks" outside. So, if you leave your heating on all night (the coldest part of the day, remember), you're basically paying to heat the street!

Also, several people have mentioned digital heating control systems. Here in the UK, the one I use is Dataterm (www.warmworld.co.uk). It's a really clever piece of kit and I've had it in two houses now. It has "Optimum Start" which means you don't have to worry about setting your heating to come on early so that the house is warm for when you get out of bed. You just tell Dataterm what time you get up, and what temp you want the house to be, and it sorts it all out, coming on earlier if the house is cold, or later if it's not so cold.

It has other advantages as well. I think it's great. And no, I don't work for the company! :)

Answer 2

It is cheaper to let it boost up in the morning. By running the heat all night you are required to constantly generate heat to keep the house up at a certain temperature. By turning off the heat (or turning it down) the only heat used is the heat required to heat the home one time. Effectively no heat is lost on the one time heating of the house in the morning. This is why it is suggested for people going on vacation to turn off their heat/AC because it will constantly use energy to heat/cool the home. However, one should be careful about turning down the heat too low in colder climates because this can cause the pipes to freeze, in which case it is far cheaper to have payed for the heat to run while you are away.

Answer 3

No, it is cheaper to cut back on heat at night and boost it in the morning. The house looses heat only until it gets as cold as outside, then it stops loosing heat. Even if it never cools all the way to outside temperature, the rate of heat loss goes down as the temperature difference between inside and outside gets less. Just keep warm with lots of blankets for free until you need to get up in the morning.

Answer 4

I have a digital programmable thermostat. It has to be one of the best investments I have made. I just program my heat cooler at night and have it come on just before I get up. I also have it low during the day as no one is in the house. Then it comes back up before I get home. I would say that I have cut my heating bill by 30% using this thermostat.

Answer 5

No, it's not cheaper to leave the heat on all night.
Cloothe's and mg's answers explain why, but I'll make an attempt to say it clearly also:

When your house is at a comfortable temperature, it has a certain amount of thermal energy. Engineers call it "internal energy" (not internal to the house, but internal to the atoms in all the objects (and air) in the house).

Assuming it is colder outside than inside the house, heat will flow from the inside of the house to the outside. (There are 3 commonly recognized means of heat transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation. All three operate to transfer heat from warmer objects to cooler objects, in this case, from your house to the outside air (or outside ground).) You can slow down the rate at which heat flows out of your house by means of insulation, drapes, keeping the door closed, etc. But the heat will flow out at some rate.

The warmer your house is, the faster the heat flows out. So if you allow the house to get cooler, it will lose heat at a slower rate. If you let your ouse cool to the temperature of the outside air, it will stop losing heat altogether.

The amount of fuel you use to heat your house is simply the amount required to produce the amount of heat was lost due to heat transfer. So if you let your house cool down, you reduce the amount of heat transfered to the outside, and this reduces the amount of fuel you will use in order to replace the lost heat. So it is cheaper to select a lower temperature at night.

Of course, there are other considerations. Are you making yourself unreasonably uncomfortable by turning down the heat? Are you damaging anything in the house by allowing it to get colder than it should be? Does it damage your heating system to have to run a long time in the morning to re-warm the house (rather than running intermittently throughout the night to replace the heat as it is lost)?

In my case, I'm stingy, so I keep the house cooler at night, and set the thermostat to bring the temperature up to a comfortable level BEFORE I wake up in the morning. It probably saves a few hundred dollars a year.

Answer 6

on the 2d because of fact the climate remains challenge-free I genuinely have my heating switched on and the thermostat grew to become to the temperature which i detect the main tender. it is going to basically kick in if the termperature drops. I oftentimes pass away and pass away my heating on continually yet at an extremely low termperature to confirm that ought to it get so chilly the pipes might freeze the domicile remains above this so i would be certain that i'm able to't return to a burst or frozen pipe. we live in a moist us of a and a low point of heat temperature retains that scent of unheated homes away. all of the fixtures and carpets and so on maintain warmth and so with a minimum of rate my domicile remains frost unfastened and damp smelling unfastened. It takes a huge volume of heat to heat up the area if left to pass chilly and for this reason is the two reasonably priced average and greater secure to maintain the warmth temperature even at a low point extremely that shop hotting up from chilly. a reliable thick insulating jacket on your immersion heater can shop its contents heat and so little think approximately conserving it on. reliable domicile insulation i/e. double glazing thick curtains and a properly insulated roof will pass an prolonged thank you to maintain costly fossil gas intake at a minimum.

Answer 7

I think it is. The theromstat on low keeps the temp at a level, whereas if you turn it off its starting from cold and will take longer and therefore burn more energy to get to the same place (as when the heating is on all night).

Answer 8

Keeping a room at a constant temp is more efficiant for the boiler.

Leave it running, the room should not feel hot or cold

Answer 9

Some say you do, but when I try it I think I spend more. Because I leave it on on cold nights, have thermal drapes in my house, and then open them up in the day to let the sun bring in warmth. I also have thermal windows...

So no, I do not leave it on all day.

Answer 10

It all depends on the thermal insulation of your home. Your question is best answered by comparing the rate of room temperature gain/time to the rate od room temperature loss/time. The higher you keep your desired room temperature the more energy it takes to reach that level. I have recorded my own room temperatures and ambient (weather) temperatures every three minutes by dataloggers. I have studied how long it takes to raise room temperatures from one level to another. Basically it takes three times longer to raise room temperature from 17.5 degrees C to 21 degrees C compared to from 14 degrees C to 17.5 degrees C.