Economics of Zoned Heating

theirish

I have 4 zones in my house 1 for upstairs 1 for down 1 for water and 1 for one back room in the house. My question is the following, should I put one zone on at a time when I need to heat areas or should I turn them all on as the boiler is going anyways. Sorry if it seems like a silly question. Cheers

Bruthal

Only the areas that need heating should be put on. It will make a big difference to the amount of fuel used by the boiler. Its not as simple as just having the boiler on and since its on anyway just have all the rad`s going.

As a test about 2 months ago I did a run for an hour here with 7 rads on, then same with just 1 on. With 7 on it was around 60 cent an hour at the level i had boiler set. With just one it was around 14 cent an hour once the cylinder of water was heated up(25 cent for first hour with cold cylinder at start), so you can see the difference with more rad`s on. The boiler spends more of its duty cycle firing with more rad`s or zones on, so uses more fuel.

theirish

Cheers, you've saved my a couple of bucks!!

Bruthal

Any zones you do have on, if any rooms are not used you can turn of the rads in them rooms too, just have the ones on you need.