Winter is coming for the Northern Hemisphere, bringing with it chilly mornings, cool days and cold weather. During this time, you may experience an endless struggle between keeping your home warm, how long you can withstand the cold, and your bank balance. So what’s the cheapest way to heat a house? Short-term high heat or all-day low heat?
The answer to this question depends on what your priorities are, do you want all-day comfort or are you looking for the most cost-effective way to get by?
How Is The Most Affordable Heating?
The long-held myth that it’s cheaper to let your heating run at a lower temperature all day than to turn it off and back on is truly a myth, says the Energy Saving Trust, a British organization dedicated to energy conservation.
The cheapest way to heat a house is to run the heater only when you need it. You can do this by setting a timer heater to start just before you get out of bed and turn it off when you’re out of the house, or if you’re working from home, just run it during the day when you’re cold.
The difference between the two approaches (all day or intermittent) is that even well-insulated houses always lose some heat. You’ll lose less heat overall and spend less if you turn on the heating for short-term warm-ups than for a long-term warm-up marathon.
But figuring out the best way to heat your home can be said to be a Goldilocks puzzle, because the cheapest way to heat a home will often not be the most comfortable option. Short-term sharp bursts of heat when you need it, also pave the way for cooling periods that can create condensation with sudden warming.
Also, this approach means you’ll get a little chilly waiting for your house to start warming up, and predictably if you leave the heating at a lower temperature all day, you shouldn’t have such a problem.
All of this combined comes to the conclusion: The best approach is to set your radiator valves to the highest setting while keeping your boiler efficiency to a minimum. You will spend a little more money, but in the end it will be worth your money.
Scientists at the University of Southampton spotted the problem in a paper published in 2011 investigating a way to adaptively control a home heating system using a smart grid to try and reduce costs and carbon emissions at the same time. The researchers’ “home energy management agent” was programmed to use the help of Gaussian processes to learn about a home’s thermal properties and predict what the next day’s weather would be. The kit then provided the homeowner with real-time feedback on their outgoing finances and carbon emissions, allowing them to adjust their heating preferences accordingly.
Alternatively, you can just get a blanket and use a hot water bottle as well. It sure isn’t very comfortable, but it’s free after all. . .
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