Earth Notes: General Bibliography (terry2021unused)

• [terry2021unused] Nicola Terry Turning down the radiators in unused rooms (accessed 2022-08-11), 2021-09 (www) (BibTeX).
  abstract

  To reduce our heating bills we are often advised to turn down radiators in rooms that we are not using. However, this can be a bad idea if you have a heat pump. The adjacent rooms leak heat into the colder room which means the working radiators have to work harder. This is generally OK with a boiler but not with a heat pump which gives better efficiency at low temperatures. With the radiators working harder they need to run hotter which often means you end up using more energy rather than less. I have done some modelling to see what this effect looks like. The savings on the overall heating demand is probably smaller than you might think - typically 3.5-5.5%. On the other hand the impact on the radiator heat demand surprisingly high - 20% or more.
  note

  [Archive snapshot URL referenced as of 2022-08-11. Original URL checked as of 2023-04-26 https://energy-surprises.blogspot.com/2021/09/turning-down-radiators-in-unused-rooms.html]