Most efficient way to keep house warm for new baby.

rabbit Stew

Hi everyone.
Myself and my wife are having our first baby in the end of October and after talking about it I said I'd put a post up to find what was the best/most efficient way to keep the house warm for herself and the new arrival during the long winter months.
We have a gas fired central heating system with thermostats for downstairs and upstairs. These are not zoned on the timer.
What i'm really looking for is a timing plan with settings for both thermo's that'll keep the place at a nice heat without costing me a fortune on gas.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Stew

Carlow52

TBO: heating the whole house will cost money what ever way u do it so you need to think about what rooms will be required and work from that and turn off the rads in ti=o not used rooms.

The times will depend on usage but if u keep the whole house at 21 + degrees from 0700 to whenever then the gas meter will spin:)

From experience with both kids and grand kids we used layers of clothing to keep them warm with a background heat of maybe 18
The same applies to the adults

Re the house itself look closely at air-tightness, drafty windows doors etc but do NOT block off wall vents

Good luck with the new arrival; post here every time u get the night shift, particularly during first 6 weeks:D

Simple things, check the esb meter box for a source of drafts: do u have a porch door

rabbit Stew

Cheers Carlow,
All sage advice. I suppose alot will be trial and error and no doubt there will be plenty of 4AM posts.

Ps. (Trial and error with heating that is, not the baby);)

JohnnieK

rabbit Stew wrote: »

Cheers Carlow,
All sage advice. I suppose alot will be trial and error and no doubt there will be plenty of 4AM posts.

Ps. (Trial and error with heating that is, not the baby);)

Believe me it's trial and error with babies too:D

My Katie was born last December and only a couple of weeks old the cold spell hit. My house has the same set up as yours, two room stats a cylinder stat controlled by a boiler time switch. We have a solid fuel fire in the living room so she was in there for most. I done the last feed at night and turned the down stairs stat down and left the boiler on to heat upstairs. When my wife got up during the night the living room was still warm because of the fire and when she was going back to bed after the feed she turned the stat up so the place would be warm in the morning. I think the most important thing was I read the meter my self near bill date and to be honest the bills were not out of this world.

I was going to upgrade my own controls for two programmable room stats and a programmable cylinder stat so I would have independent control on all zones but I just cant get around to it, maybe next year.

Good luck with the baby.

Wally Runs

Having lived in a freezing cold house and had three boys (now aged 5 to 1) I can tell you that it is not easy. Our solution was to get an oil rad for the night in the nursery. Pay a little extra and get one with a timer and quality thermostat. Also buy a nursery thermometer that records, current min and max temps so you can see just how cold or hot the room gets over night. I got mine in Boots I think.

No with a little practice you can get the heating set up so that it is steady through the night. But very aware that you should not have it too hot as I understand overheating is bigger problem than being cold.

Outkast_IRE

try and get the insulation upgraded if possible, long term its probably the best soloution also try to eliminate any draughts and ensure all windows are sealing properly.

Sparkpea

My first baby was born last Oct so is nearly 1 now and we had him through that cold cold winter.

At that time I was living in a house with an oil fired unzoned system. I installed TRVs on all the radiators, byepass & sealed system to avoid pumping over and I ran the heating 24/7. I had the TRV in his room set to 1 notch over 2 on a myson valve so his room was sitting about 18 degrees day and night. The rest of the valves were set for each room depending on what heat was needed. Our bedroom and spare room which didn't need heat was set to 1, landing outside his bedroom was set to 3 as it was a cold area as was the hall downstairs and living room during the day, at night they where turned down to 2.

Basically it meant

1) I had no burst pipes as heating was on 24/7 and the pipes where going overhead into the garage from the house so where at risk of freezing
2) the baby was warm enough - always
3) I wasn't heating cold cold water at different times of the day when the heating was first started up
4) if I wanted extra heat at anytime of the day we got it instantly
5) loads of HW

I did this approx for 2 months straight. Yes it cost money but everything does. Did it cost me much more than I'd have normally paid? Yes probably but not that much more. At the end of the day it would have cost me (well not me because I'm a plumber but it would have cost someone else as much to repair a burst pipe) and the baby was healthy and warm which is the most important thing.

Good luck with your new arrival