What Preps are you doing this week? Part 9

[jennyjj01]

Apparently I did actually use that much gas for a few days this time last year, so maybe it is right. It was colder then, but I've had it coming on earlier recently. Had a chat with lodgers, and I only need it on this early 2 days a week, so tweeked my settings. Will see if the reset changes anything, but starting to think it won't.

Sometimes gas usage from the central heating defies simple logic. E.g. having the heating start 30 min earlier in the morning would be expected to save money. But when it does start, it hits a colder house and comes on higher, so it may use more.... Or less?. Similarly, having the boiler temperature higher for less time might be cheaper than having it lower for longer. I understand that condensing boilers are less efficient if they're set below a certain temp. Some folk swear by keeping the boiler on and low 24/7
We could do with a plumber to chip in.

[Sneddle]

Car preps today. I've changed the existing rear fog light and reversing lights from incandescent to led bulbs. About £7 each. They're both much brighter. The fog bulb will make me more visible in bad weather and the reversing lights will make reversing in the dark much easier.

[Frnc]

Apparently I did actually use that much gas for a few days this time last year, so maybe it is right. It was colder then, but I've had it coming on earlier recently. Had a chat with lodgers, and I only need it on this early 2 days a week, so tweeked my settings. Will see if the reset changes anything, but starting to think it won't.

Sometimes gas usage from the central heating defies simple logic. E.g. having the heating start 30 min earlier in the morning would be expected to save money. But when it does start, it hits a colder house and comes on higher, so it may use more.... Or less?. Similarly, having the boiler temperature higher for less time might be cheaper than having it lower for longer. I understand that condensing boilers are less efficient if they're set below a certain temp. Some folk swear by keeping the boiler on and low 24/7
We could do with a plumber to chip in.

My boiler is set how the installer set it. Water temp is 52 and rads is set to "efficiency", which seems to be about 65-70%. I could turn it down, but as you say that might be less efficient. You'd expect "efficiency" to be best.
I've turned the 'stat temp down half a degree and set it to run for shorter periods. Some mornings it's only going to run at the higher temp for 40 minutes. It was on 2 hours before. Weekend mornings it will run for 2 hours instead of 3. Other weekday mornings it will run for 70 minutes instead of 2 hours.
Today I cracked and over-rode the 'stat to get some heat for about half an hour or so. My room went from 18.3 to about 20. Strangely the heating came on a bit this afternoon even though the stat was dialled down to 17. The room went from 17.1 to 17.8 between 3pm and 4.30. Unexpected, but not ridiculous. Maybe the stat is a bit trigger happy. But it probably only came on for a few minutes. I'll keep an eye on it.

Yesterdays use was about 44 kWh, down from 74 on Monday. Today is 33 so far.

[jennyjj01]

My boiler is set how the installer set it. Water temp is 52 and rads is set to "efficiency", which seems to be about 65-70%. I could turn it down, but as you say that might be less efficient. You'd expect "efficiency" to be best.
I've turned the 'stat temp down half a degree and set it to run for shorter periods. Some mornings it's only going to run at the higher temp for 40 minutes. It was on 2 hours before. Weekend mornings it will run for 2 hours instead of 3. Other weekday mornings it will run for 70 minutes instead of 2 hours.
Today I cracked and over-rode the 'stat to get some heat for about half an hour or so. My room went from 18.3 to about 20. Strangely the heating came on a bit this afternoon even though the stat was dialled down to 17. The room went from 17.1 to 17.8 between 3pm and 4.30. Unexpected, but not ridiculous. Maybe the stat is a bit trigger happy. But it probably only came on for a few minutes. I'll keep an eye on it.

Yesterdays use was about 44 kWh, down from 74 on Monday. Today is 33 so far.

.
I've been wrestling with my Central heating, too. If it's a science, then it's rocket science.

After consulting my plumber, I lowered the 'Flow return' to 60 and I've been steadily sneaking down the core room stat, in the hall. Today, I think I reached the limit of domestic tolerance 20.5 from 07:30 till 08:30 then 18.5 till 21:30. That's in the hall, and with that and the lounge door closed, the lounge somehow reaches 21 degrees. rest of the house was quite cool with a bit of shivering and grumbling going on. But crikey. Open the lounge door and an icey gale blows in. I turned the downstairs loo rad off and got quite a grumpy response for that. Set it to '2' now just to take the edge off.
53kWh today. 3 Bed detached.

I'm not sure the wireless remote stat is doing what it's supposed to do. It has a 'flame' icon which I THOUGHT was supposed to show when the receiver light and boiler are on, but that's not exactly what I get. Often the icon is showing when the boiler is off. Plumber tried to explain that it was something to do when the room was NEAR to target temperature, but i'm not convinced. If I manually set the temp High or Low, the boiler does go on or off, so the stat wireless is working. And I've changed the batteries for good ones. Maybe time for me to set spycams on the stat and receiver to see what's happening through the day.

I could possibly save more by heating just the lounge from the gas fire, but it makes my eyes sting. (Not CO)

Still. It's steadily trained us all to keep internal doors shut.

Will soon be time for me to have to worry about the garage being too cold for the freezers to work. That cost us a fortune last winter.

Do we have any plumbers reading?

[Frnc]

Gas is back down to about 40 kWh a day, so problem solved.

Got woken up by smoke alarm chirping. Replaced batteries in two, but the CO is a sealed unit. They are sending me a replacement. I'v no idea which of the 3 was chirping, only which room it was coming from. The chirping stopped when the heating came on. Old CO alarm has to go to electrical recycling at the tip.

[Frnc]

My boiler is set how the installer set it. Water temp is 52 and rads is set to "efficiency", which seems to be about 65-70%. I could turn it down, but as you say that might be less efficient. You'd expect "efficiency" to be best.
I've turned the 'stat temp down half a degree and set it to run for shorter periods. Some mornings it's only going to run at the higher temp for 40 minutes. It was on 2 hours before. Weekend mornings it will run for 2 hours instead of 3. Other weekday mornings it will run for 70 minutes instead of 2 hours.
Today I cracked and over-rode the 'stat to get some heat for about half an hour or so. My room went from 18.3 to about 20. Strangely the heating came on a bit this afternoon even though the stat was dialled down to 17. The room went from 17.1 to 17.8 between 3pm and 4.30. Unexpected, but not ridiculous. Maybe the stat is a bit trigger happy. But it probably only came on for a few minutes. I'll keep an eye on it.

Yesterdays use was about 44 kWh, down from 74 on Monday. Today is 33 so far.

.
I've been wrestling with my Central heating, too. If it's a science, then it's rocket science.

After consulting my plumber, I lowered the 'Flow return' to 60 and I've been steadily sneaking down the core room stat, in the hall. Today, I think I reached the limit of domestic tolerance 20.5 from 07:30 till 08:30 then 18.5 till 21:30. That's in the hall, and with that and the lounge door closed, the lounge somehow reaches 21 degrees. rest of the house was quite cool with a bit of shivering and grumbling going on. But crikey. Open the lounge door and an icey gale blows in. I turned the downstairs loo rad off and got quite a grumpy response for that. Set it to '2' now just to take the edge off.
53kWh today. 3 Bed detached.

I'm not sure the wireless remote stat is doing what it's supposed to do. It has a 'flame' icon which I THOUGHT was supposed to show when the receiver light and boiler are on, but that's not exactly what I get. Often the icon is showing when the boiler is off. Plumber tried to explain that it was something to do when the room was NEAR to target temperature, but i'm not convinced. If I manually set the temp High or Low, the boiler does go on or off, so the stat wireless is working. And I've changed the batteries for good ones. Maybe time for me to set spycams on the stat and receiver to see what's happening through the day.

I could possibly save more by heating just the lounge from the gas fire, but it makes my eyes sting. (Not CO)

Still. It's steadily trained us all to keep internal doors shut.

Will soon be time for me to have to worry about the garage being too cold for the freezers to work. That cost us a fortune last winter.

Do we have any plumbers reading?

One thing I have is a Govee digital thermometer next to my thermostat. It send readings to my phone and plots a graph. So I have a pretty good idea when the heating was on. On a sunny day the heat through the window obviously kicks in late morning, but apart from that it's easy to see. I'm aiming for 17.5-18 first thing in the am and evening, 17-17.5 during the day. Stat is set to 17.5 and 17.0. 13 at night. I can over-ride it obviously if it gets too cold. Noticed lodger's rad was dialled to 5, when sorting the smoke alarms, so turned it down a bit. No need!
17.5 in the living room should translate to about 19.5 in the bedrooms. The living room is hardly used.
Of course another factor is the radiator in the room with the thermostat, if it has a thermostat valve. I can't get my head around how different settings might affect the C/H, so it's just set to about middle.

[Frnc]

I just got an email with a Black Friday offer from the people who fitted my boiler. 40% off 4 smart TRVs. You can control what a radiator is set to via your phone. This is a no-brainer for me, so I can turn the lodgers' rads down when they're out. Unfortunately it's come at a time when I daren't spend money, so, bit of a dilemma.

[jennyjj01]

I've been wrestling with my Central heating, too. If it's a science, then it's rocket science.

... a bit of shivering and grumbling going on.

I'm not sure the wireless remote stat is doing what it's supposed to do.Do we have any plumbers reading?

One thing I have is a Govee digital thermometer next to my thermostat. It send readings to my phone and plots a graph. So I have a pretty good idea when the heating was on. On a sunny day the heat through the window obviously kicks in late morning, but apart from that it's easy to see. I'm aiming for 17.5-18 first thing in the am and evening, 17-17.5 during the day. Stat is set to 17.5 and 17.0. 13 at night.

FRNC, Kudos for being able to survive with those low settings. You're one sneaky landlord
I'm trying to acclimatise us lot to lower temperatures without it being obvious and entering the grumble zone. Below 18.5 is not yet accepted.

Currently have my phone camera gaffer taped to a broom handle recording the display. Will be putting another one in front of the boiler receiver. I need to figure if it's faulty before winter gets a grip

[Frnc]

I've been wrestling with my Central heating, too. If it's a science, then it's rocket science.

... a bit of shivering and grumbling going on.

I'm not sure the wireless remote stat is doing what it's supposed to do.Do we have any plumbers reading?

One thing I have is a Govee digital thermometer next to my thermostat. It send readings to my phone and plots a graph. So I have a pretty good idea when the heating was on. On a sunny day the heat through the window obviously kicks in late morning, but apart from that it's easy to see. I'm aiming for 17.5-18 first thing in the am and evening, 17-17.5 during the day. Stat is set to 17.5 and 17.0. 13 at night.

FRNC, Kudos for being able to survive with those low settings. You're one sneaky landlord
I'm trying to acclimatise us lot to lower temperatures without it being obvious and entering the grumble zone. Below 18.5 is not yet accepted.

Currently have my phone camera gaffer taped to a broom handle recording the display. Will be putting another one in front of the boiler receiver. I need to figure if it's faulty before winter gets a grip

Below 18.5 is quite cold, for the main rooms you are using. Our living room is set below that because it's hardly used, and because it tends to be a couple of degrees colder than my bedroom. My room is currently 19.4 and I have a fleece on and warm joggers (Under Armor Amour Fleece). Had to override it when the chirping woke me up, plus a quick boost later. Sun's warmed the living room up now anyway. If my room goes below 19 I might give the heating a quick half hour on. I hardly heat the kitchen at all, and the hall is on about 50%.

[jennyjj01]

Below 18.5 is quite cold, for the main rooms you are using. Our living room is set below that because it's hardly used, and because it tends to be a couple of degrees colder than my bedroom. My room is currently 19.4 and I have a fleece on and warm joggers (Under Armor Amour Fleece). Had to override it when the chirping woke me up, plus a quick boost later. Sun's warmed the living room up now anyway. If my room goes below 19 I might give the heating a quick half hour on. I hardly heat the kitchen at all, and the hall is on about 50%.

Yes. 18.5 is cold. I doubt i'll take it lower. The boiler stat is in the hall and i haven't figured out how the lounge gets > 21 when the core stat is set so low. Bedrooms have to take their chances and currently are about 19.
I'll figure it out. I do know that draughts make cold more conspicuous. Might invest in some door sausage draught excluders. Maybe door open beepers to nag us

Did you say that app was edf? It get's rubbish reviews and offers very few features. I haven't managed to install it yet.
Roll on summer.