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by wickedsight 426 days ago
> the theory being that warming up a cold house in the morning costs more energy than maintaining a stable temperature

I've heard this theory a lot too, but it doesn't match with physics. A warm house loses more energy than a cold house, due to a higher temperature difference allowing easier heat transfer. So in most homes, with radiators and high temperature CV, it's way more efficient to just turn it off when you gone.

One exception is when you have a very well insulated house, combined with floor heating and a very efficient, low temperature heat pump. In this case, it takes a lot of time for temperature to move in the house and it's already incredibly efficient.

1 comments

It does match physics if you consider other factors. Apart from the heat pump scenario, this statement can also be true when you have condensing boilers (and okay-ish insulation)

The reasoning: when you heat up the house, then your boiler needs to produce constant high-temperature water. When you keep the house at the same temperature, then the boiler produces much lower temp water and it is more efficient.

Insulation also matters because if your house has outer insulation then it means that heat transfer from the house to the environment is mostly blocked, but cross-room heat transfer is likely not (through the walls). Therefore it is better to heat the whole house than heating just a couple of rooms because if you do the latter then you'll end up heating the whole house anyway but you're using less surface area (meaning you need higher flow temperatures, meaning less efficiency).

> The reasoning: when you heat up the house, then your boiler needs to produce constant high-temperature water. When you keep the house at the same temperature, then the boiler produces much lower temp water and it is more efficient.

How does your boiler produce heat for your water in your scenario?

> Therefore it is better to heat the whole house than heating just a couple of rooms because if you do the latter then you'll end up heating the whole house anyway but you're using less surface area (meaning you need higher flow temperatures, meaning less efficiency).

Just model the other rooms as very weird wall to the outside.