Turning your heating on at specific times of day really can help save you money, this much we know. But the devil – or discount – is in the detail.
For maximum comfort, minimum energy wastage, you should be turning your heating on 30 minutes before you wake up and 30 minutes before you get home in the evening, apparently. Equally, it’s advised that you should switch off the heating half an hour before you leave the house.
This is all according to guidance from the Centre for Sustainable Energy, issued as Brits try to keep their bills down amid the ongoing cost of living crisis.
The reasoning behind these timings is that it takes 30 minutes on average for your house to warm up when you switch on your heating – and the same amount of time for it cool down after it’s switched off.
Let’s say you get up at 6.30 am every morning – then turn the heating on at 6am to make sure it’s warm by the time your feet hit the floor. Likewise, if you leave for work at 7.30 am, switch off the heating at 7.00 am – so as not to waste any of that warmth (and energy) when you’re not in the house.
Don’t be leaving the heating on overnight if you can help it either. It costs an average £2.76 an hour per household to use central heating, meaning keeping the radiators on all night for eight hours could cost you as much as £22.08.
As for the optimum temperature, keeping the temperature between 18°C and 21°C is the most cost-efficient way to set a thermostat for almost all people.
Oh, and while we’re here, if you were contacted by your energy supplier in the last week of 2022 about changes to your bill, you might be feeling worried – as some energy companies changed their prices per unit from January 1.
But customers have been urged not to panic as the difference will add pennies not pounds to your bill – you can find out more about the changes in our energy explainer here.