Advice for best way to use gas central heating and water

totallytoast

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I've been looking up tips to keep energy costs down in my new apartment but I'm a bit unsure on how a gas setup works as we've only ever had oil in the past.

I have my hot water set for ten minutes in the morning and evening and that seems to give us constant hot water. Minus the service charge from the management company (they do the gas bills) it costs about 20 euro a month to do this.

Today was the first time it got chilly enough to use the heating and the radiators heated up almost instantly.

There's a timer where you can set both the heating and water and in the sitting room there's a thermostat which I set to 21 and it made the boiler go off as soon as the radiators went on so I don't know if it goes by the room temperature or the radiator temperature.

What is the most efficient way to run this system? If I put the heating on for an hour will it burn gas for the entire hour or does it just heat it up to the right temperature over the hour? Should I just pop the heating or water on for ten minutes as needed or is the biggest cost at the beginning when it heats up anyway? And should I have the water and heating on at the same time or does it not matter?

Sorry if these are really dopey questions but I just don't have a clue when it comes to gas.
 
It goes by the room thermostat and 21 is sauna type heat, do you like going round in shorts!! Set it at 18 and see how it goes, also buy your own thermostat. And put on water and heating at same time, dont use gas twice.

If the rads have thermosats they will only stop the rad getting hot, will not stop burner.
 
Also,
just think of the room thermostat as an on/off switch for the heating. When the heat (in the room) is below the set heat, the heating is on. When the room reaches the set heat, the heating is turned off by the thermostat.

This of course is assuming that the heating is turned on at the timer.

So think of it like this

Boiler -> Timer -> Thermostat -> Radiator (with possible TRV)

Set the timer for the times that you want to heat the house.
Set the thermostat to the heat you want the house to be at (typically 18/19 degrees)
And leave it to do its thing.

If the timer is off - the heat wont go any further
If the timer is on, and the room is at the thermostat setting - heat wont go any further
If the timer is on, and the room temp is lower than thermostat setting - heat goes to the radiators.

The hot water circuit operates independently of the above, but as Noah says, it should be turned on during the same time as the heat is on, for efficiency. It will also have it's own thermostat (I hope) on the tank, so that the water will only reach the set temprature, and will turn off the need for heat into the tank when that temprature is reached (typically around 60 degrees to kill legionaires bactaria.)
 
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