Brits are most likely to turn on their heating from October 30, according to research reported by the Huffington Post.
For the following four months, central heating and bills will be a consideration for households and many will be wondering how long to turn it on or off for.
The Sleep Foundation said the room you are in should ideally be 15-20C for you to get a good night’s rest but around 30 per cent of Brits responding to a survey admitted to leaving the boiler on all night.
This is the lowdown on being warm versus being cost effective.
Central heating: leave it on low all day or turn it on when you need it?
If you’re looking for ways to save money on your energy bill, then one of the most common questions is whether it is cheaper to leave your heating on low all day – or use it only when you need it.
The answer is, whether you have your heating on high or low, you’re still consuming energy. Therefore, if you leave it on low all day, the cost will quickly add up and increase your energy bill.
The general advice from the Energy Saving Trust is that have your heating on when you need it and turn it off when you don’t need it.
Homes lose heat through windows, walls, doors and chimneys. If you leave the heating on all day, you will be using more energy and more of it will be wasted.
What if my house is prone to condensation?
If your house is prone to condensation, it might not be that clear-cut. The Money Saving Expert website says some specialists argue you should keep the heating on constantly if this is the case. It advocates keeping the heating on low all day and turning all radiator valves up to the maximum level and the boiler down to the minimum.
It says the problem with turning the heating on and off is that every time it’s turned off, condensation collects within the walls. This can help to conduct heat outside the home, the website says, meaning you leak heat more quickly and will use more energy as a result.
How much does an electric blanket cost?
The average price per kWh of electricity is approximately 27p so a 100W electric blanket would cost 2.7p at full power for an hour.
If you leave it on for two hours before going to bed – that’s just over 5p. If you were to leave it on all night for seven hours, that would amount to approximately 19p.
Money-saving expert Martin Lewis shared a guide to help “heat the human not the home”. He revealed that an electric blanket (costing £14) costs 3p an hour to run, which equals £1.37 per week if used for seven hours a day. This equates to approximately £5.48 per month.
How much does an electric heater cost?
UK-based price comparison service and switching website Uswitch says a plug-in electric heater uses around 3 kilowatt hours of energy (kWh), reported the Sun.
As energy typically costs about 27p per kWh it would cost approximately 80p per hour to run an electric heater.
If we use these calculations, if you left your heater on for an evening while watching TV for say, four hours, it would cost £3.20. If you did that every day for a week, it would cost about £22 or £95 for a month.
How much does central heating cost for one hour?
Gas is much cheaper than electricity and is usually about 7p per kilowatt-hour. So someone with a 24 kW boiler would pay about £1.68 an hour at November 2023 prices.
Which is cheaper, an electric blanket, an electric heater or central heating?
It is cheaper to use an electric blanket than central heating or an electric heater. It is always helpful to know what your energy tariffs are so you can assess how much you are spending on keeping yourself warm, and work out the relative costs of each method.
