Why You Could Be Using Your Central Heating the Wrong Way

Photo grabbed from http://www.cube-pm.co.uk/

Central heating can feel like the greatest invention in the world when it is cold outside, helping you and your family stay snug and warm in your home. With the stylish looks of some modern radiators, like the ones from warmrooms.co.uk, your radiators may well also be one of your favourite home decor features. However, much as we love our central heating, it is thought that many of us are actually using it in the wrong way, and therefore wasting energy and driving up the costs of warming our homes. Here are three ways you may be using your central heating incorrectly:

Turning Up the Heat When It’s Very Cold Outside

It can seem logical that the colder it gets outside, the higher you will need to set your thermostat to keep your home warm. In actual fact, this isn’t how it works. You should always set your thermostat to the temperature you actually want it to be indoors, regardless of whether it is a slightly chilly day in early spring or a snowy day in the depths of winter. Central heating thermostats are designed to help you maintain a consistent temperature inside the house, and provided you have double glazing and good general insulation your heating system doesn’t have to work too hard to do this, but if you urge it up to Caribbean temperatures you’ll be wasting energy and your house will end up being uncomfortably hot.

Turning It Up to Heat the Home Quickly

When you’ve just come in from the outdoors and are craving the warmth of your heated home, it can be tempting to stick the heating on high to heat the rooms more rapidly. This doesn’t actually work, according to heating experts. Instead of doing this, simply switch the heating on to the usual ambient temperature you like. 

Leaving Heating On a Low Temperature at All Times in Winter

There is a myth that it uses less energy to have your heating running constantly at a low temperature throughout the cold season than to turn it off and on as needed. This may relate to other energy saving advice, for example driving at a consistent speed uses less petrol. Central heating thermostats however, do not work like a car’s engine, and when you leave the heating on when it isn’t needed, for instance when nobody is at home, you are simply paying to heat rooms for nobody’s benefit. Some other forms of heating like underfloor heating should be left on all the time as the systems take a long time to get the home to the desired ambient temperature. However with radiators, it is far better to use them only when you actually need to have your home warmed.

By learning to use your thermostat the right way you can enjoy a more comfortable heating experience as well as be more fuel efficient, so it is well worth looking at your heating habits.