r/Glasgow Tools

Title
Author	Farookbuls4r4
Comment	If you are running your heating all that time, it will cost that much. It sounds like you are struggling to heat your house. Setting your thermostat to 22 degrees, for example, in an old tenement is just running your boiler constantly - it will never get to 22 degrees, which is the temperature that cuts out the thermostat. Try turning it down a few degrees. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but if the warmest your house can get to is 20 degrees, let it get there, cut out for half and hour, then kick back in when it drops below. That way your boiler only works half the time it would if the thermostat was at to 22, and running constantly to try and get to a level it can never reach. Also, some boilers have a dial on the front with a radiator and water temperature. They often don’t have numbers on these dials, just a picture or a radiator and a tap, so it takes and bit of trial and error to adjust them. You can turn these down and still get hot water and radiators. It just reduces the temperature at which your boiler sends water round the system. If the radiator dial is all the way up, this sets a high temperature for the boiler to reach before it sends the water round your system. Turn it down, and you will still get hot radiators, but your boiler isn’t working as hard and for as low = less energy used. I am not an expert at all, and the way I understood it when it was explained to me was: - boiler is set to 70 degrees. - it heats water to 70, then sends it round your radiators - radiators give 20 degrees of heat to the room, so water cools to 50 - it goes back in to boiler to be heated back to 70 and repeats until the room gets to the same temperature as your thermostat. You can turn your boiler down to 60 degrees. It then heats the water to 60, sends it round and your radiators can still give 20 degrees of heat out, but the boiler doesn’t have to work as hard to keep the water at 60 than it does to keep it at 70. You should also not have your radiator valves all the way up for the same reason. Keep them half way, or just a bit more and they will still get hot, but will be more efficient. Also, new windows in tenements can be a false economy. We had double glazed sashes put in, only to find the wooden panels below and to the sides were letting just as much cold in - they have massive voids of cold air between them and the external brick, so curtains will do a better job than double glazing (draught proofing is worth doing though)
Reddit Link	https://www.reddit.com/r/glasgow/comments/10zqllc/energy_bill_in_1bed_tenement_flat/j86l0rf/
Created	Sun 12th Feb 2023 12:44am
Status	normal ()

If you are running your heating all that time, it will cost that much.

It sounds like you are struggling to heat your house. Setting your thermostat to 22 degrees, for example, in an old tenement is just running your boiler constantly - it will never get to 22 degrees, which is the temperature that cuts out the thermostat.

Try turning it down a few degrees. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but if the warmest your house can get to is 20 degrees, let it get there, cut out for half and hour, then kick back in when it drops below. That way your boiler only works half the time it would if the thermostat was at to 22, and running constantly to try and get to a level it can never reach.

Also, some boilers have a dial on the front with a radiator and water temperature. They often don’t have numbers on these dials, just a picture or a radiator and a tap, so it takes and bit of trial and error to adjust them. You can turn these down and still get hot water and radiators. It just reduces the temperature at which your boiler sends water round the system. If the radiator dial is all the way up, this sets a high temperature for the boiler to reach before it sends the water round your system. Turn it down, and you will still get hot radiators, but your boiler isn’t working as hard and for as low = less energy used.

I am not an expert at all, and the way I understood it when it was explained to me was:

- boiler is set to 70 degrees.
- it heats water to 70, then sends it round your radiators
- radiators give 20 degrees of heat to the room, so water cools to 50
- it goes back in to boiler to be heated back to 70 and repeats until the room gets to the same temperature as your thermostat.

You can turn your boiler down to 60 degrees. It then heats the water to 60, sends it round and your radiators can still give 20 degrees of heat out, but the boiler doesn’t have to work as hard to keep the water at 60 than it does to keep it at 70.

You should also not have your radiator valves all the way up for the same reason. Keep them half way, or just a bit more and they will still get hot, but will be more efficient.

Also, new windows in tenements can be a false economy. We had double glazed sashes put in, only to find the wooden panels below and to the sides were letting just as much cold in - they have massive voids of cold air between them and the external brick, so curtains will do a better job than double glazing (draught proofing is worth doing though)