is it OK to leave heaters off all year round?

[Modestas]

Hello.

I have 2 rooms where I do not spend much time in... one of them is like a storage room. and other is like a room where I keep my wet laundry for drying (leaving window slighlty open all the time).

both of the rooms have gas based heaters (central heating based). to save gas I am thinking to keep these heaters off all year round. is it a good idea?

I wonder, would it not affect pipes in a negative way? and also would it not affect carpets, walls (especially in the room where wet laundry is kept) if there was no heating all year round all the time?

thank you for any comments.

 

[Ian Howe]

I'm not a heating engineer, but I don't think it's wise, the money saved will be minimal and having cold spots in you home is not good.

 

[quality]

in any building occupied by humans my advice would be to keep them heated and aired

 

[Darren Jackson]

If you have thermostatic radiator valves TRV's then just leave them on number 1 so the rad only come on to just air the room and will shut off at a low room temperature. If no TRV's fitted then you may want to consider investing in some. You can just turn them off but in my experience this could cause problems in time to come with the stagnant water sediment settling in the dormant rads due to no flow through for long periods of time.

 

[king of pipes]

Always better to leave the heating on its lowest setting on each radiator TRV. Kop

 

[quality]

I have seen many unoccupied spaces destroyed by moisture and lack of air

 

[townfanjon]

An unheated room in a central heated house with just cause damp . TRV set to 1 or 2 will be sufficient .

 

[gmartine]

Agree, leave TRV's set to one or two especially in drying room.

 

[centralheatking]

We have two holiday lets in Cornwall (which is always damp) we close them up Jan to Easter. Over the years we have learned how to handle it. 1. Put some windows on trickle vent 2. Put slight heat..trv for you on 1 just above frost. 3. Avoid little micro climates so strip beds take wall hangings down (mould loves the gap between wall and picture frame). The trick is to avoid see saw temps 4. Thouroughly clean carpets
before closing up. 5. Take curtains down. centralheatking

 

[Modestas]

thank you for the comments. I dont wanna tart a new thread, so I thought I would ask one more question related to the central heating. is it a good idea to turn the boiler off when leaving the house and turn it on when coming back home? I mean to keep it on only while being at home, cause I do not see a point of heating the house while Im away for 9 hours.

 

[centralheatking]

A heating system with radiators should bring a dwelling up to heat quite quickly, underfloor heating must be left on to keep the thermal mass background heat up.
centralheatking

 

[king of pipes]

Personally I advise my customers to leave their heating thermostat set to 15° c when the house is unoccupied on their return it easier to raise it to a comfortable temperature , insulation and draught proofing is vital if your looking to reduce your usesage then maybe a weather compensation maybe work for you . Kop

 

[Scott_D]

You will have no frost protection with the boiler turned off.
As above, invest in insulation and better controls to reduce energy bills