RobDon

Not sure if this has been answered previously or not, but, is it more economical to keep
the heat pump on 24/7 or for the morning/evening time only?

simonsi

The house will continually lose heat and cool down so 24/7 at 25deg inside will be loads more expensive than raising it from ambient to 25deg for the morning and evening comfort periods. Even if you insulate both cases are equally affected so the cost differential will remain.

Ours takes about 3mins to cold start before you get heat so there aren't any reasons for 24/7 running I can think of, unless you heard that from a heat pump salesperson (cos 24/7 will wear it out quicker), or a power company salesperson...

Of course a quick experiment will give you real figures to work from

Bo-Jangles

Have thought about it, as we used to think nothing of leaving central heating on 24/7 in the UK BUT I'm not brave enough to try same here with the heatpump.

I don't know about the economics of this at all, but we have a heatpump in the hallway that warms approximately half the house: hall, bathroom, toilet and 3 bedrooms. I have this on timer to heat only with thermostat set to 21c, when we're at the stage of needing it on every day for most of the hours that we are home. i.e. set to come on at about 7pm and off at around 7am when we get up in the morning. It's on for just over 12 hours and that's perfect for us and our needs and I gradually reduce this by ten minutes at either end of the day as we get near the end of winter. (I may be a little obsessive.)

We don't feel the need for it to be on when we're not here during the week. As mentioned above, it takes no time (maybe 15 mins) to go from very cold to quite comfortably warm. Also, much like the central heating, with it being on thermostat it only kicks in as required to maintain temperature, so it spends a lot of the time idle and I don't worry too much about the bill. I usually try not to use heating during the day at weekends, as I find just being in the house and keeping busy, cooking etc on all but a few of the worst days, it's usually quite manageable, especially if there's a little bit of sun.

I can though vouch for the fact that our house doesn't stay very warm at all for very long, once the heat source has gone. Thus I am convinced enough that heating an empty house would not be a viable way for us to go.

BEVS

No it isn't. Heat when you need & I hope you have good insulation and double glazing. This type of heat source does not make for an ambient temperature. It's just not comfy on many fronts..

mwhite1962

Hi,
I work for a heat pump installer, the same one Dan Carter is promoting at the moment, I will say if your unit has been sized correctly for the size of your house, you shouldnt need to have it running all the time just as and when you need it, and if sized correctly it will not take to long to heat up the area needed, but as other people have wrote , your insulation will play a big part on how long it takes to warm the house through.

Woodpigeon

I find that the heat pump dries the air out too, so wouldn't leave it on all the time. When we're not at home all day I just put it on for a bit first thing in the morning, and then again before the kids come home from school, around 3.45pm for an hour or so, then use the pellet fire during the evenings.

If we're at home, unless its a really cold, snowy/icey day (in which case I have the pellet fire on all day), I just turn the heat pump on and off as and when I think it needs it. Rest of the time I tell the family to put a fleece on