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Etiquette for turning on heating
We have a small building with three apartments. The building is a bit old and has a high energy consumption, G rated. We have switched to gas based central heating recently. Every radiator has a thermostat and there is a central thermostat at the central heating system itself.
Some people stay the whole day whereas some are away for the day.
As we are switching from Mazhout to gas, we want to start conservatively, to avoid seeing a huge heating bill end of the year.
We trying to figure out what is the best common sense in setting up our central heating operation. Looking for some recommendations/best practices
1) What is the ideal threshold temperature under which the central heating should automatically turn on, 18 degree C or 21 degree C?
2) Should the heating be on 24 hours a day or can it beset to turn of middle of the night for energy saving, turned on early in the morning? Are there some norms which can enforced via in-house regulation (acte de bas)?
Thanks in advance
If it's a new gas heating system, it will be a condenser heating system.
Expect savings of anything up to 40% on an old, decrepit mazout system.
Thermostat: 20c when you're in, 18c overnight & when you're out.
Perhaps all of you can do a visual inspection to see that all the apartments have double or treble glazing and are properly insulated (walls and the attic/loft). A cheap and effective way to keep the draft out from windows is to plastic wrap/cling film/plastic bubble wrap; just stick it around your windows to keep the draft out. Also check that all the radiators are regularly bleed and working correctly. If you all agree you can place rugs on the floors and place radiator reflectors (thin sheet or foil applied to the wall behind, and closely spaced from, a domestic heating radiator) behind each radiator. The intention is to reduce heat losses into the wall by reflecting radiant heat away from the wall. All occupants can dress in layers; drink warm liquids; use rice heating pads. One just pours uncooked rice into an old sock, sew it closed. Microwave it until hot and use it as a warmer. Make sure your room is well ventilated. Always have a carbon monoxide detector, smoke detector/fire alarm. One can also use a silver survival blanket to cover themselves. All agree to take quick warm showers and place wet washing outside on a washing line on the balcony or put all the wet washing in the tumble dryer.
During the day put set the heating at 17 degrees and at night (for a few hours) turn it up to 20 degrees.
Since you only have three apartments, why did you not go with individual gas heaters and individual counters? All owners/tenants then make their own gas/electricity contract and it's up to them how much they spend or do not spend. Thank God we have this in our place - 20 degrees during the evening? Rice in an old sock?? SILVER SURVIVAL BLANKET??? This is our home, not a bloody refugee camp! So we heat to 22,5 degrees when we are home, and to 20 degrees when out (and during the night). And there is no need to have any "in-house regulations" or anything else. We are solely responsible for our consumption and it's nobody else's business. The way you describe is going to lead to endless arguments, petty grievances, and unhappy people.
we set up ~ +20 C during 6 - 22 h and +15/16 C between 22 - 6 h,
weekends day 7 - 23 h,
works well - we asked ahead of that the tenants on their 'general life style / hours' and all fine since 10 years.
We have also everywhere thermostats to do individual set-ups (even by smartphone possible, if you like), some rooms / spaces are sparsely heated only when temps drop below 5 - 10 C.
