It's autumn, cool temperatures are arriving, time to turn the heating back on. But at a time when energy prices are soaring, how can you combine comfort while controlling your energy bill?
At the office, as at home, there are simple tips to follow: our Energy Manager shares 3 tips and best practices to follow.
How to properly adjust the set temperature?
It is advisable to turn the heating back on, from at least October 15 , depending on the region in which your building is located.
To optimize energy consumption, you must use a thermostat which allows you to set a heating setpoint temperature. As is the case with air conditioning, mentioned in a previous article.
The set temperature is adjusted according to several criteria:
- occupancy or vacancy of the room or area of a building.
- type of room in a building (office, changing rooms, production area)
Ademe , the Energy Transition agency, recommends a temperature of 19°C in an occupied office-type building.
You should remember to program to lower this temperature for periods of unoccupancy. This is what we call a discount for the night or the weekend for example.
- Unoccupied room/zone: setpoint of 16°C.
- Unoccupied for more than 48 hours: 8°C only.
With heating, 1°C more temperature setpoint induces additional consumption of 7% per degree increased. It is important to measure the exponential growth of this overconsumption: If I set the temperature to 23°C, consumption will increase by 7% compared to 22°C, but by 31% compared to 19°C.
What should you also watch out for?
Be careful not to obstruct the radiators, for example by transforming them into a shelf to store things.
The presence of obstacles in the path of the air flow prevents its proper diffusion. To compensate for this lower diffusion, the radiator will heat up more and cause excess consumption and discomfort for the occupants.
Above all, you should also avoid using additional electric convectors . These small radiators provide an oversized source of heat production. This does not allow the defined setpoint temperatures to be respected.
In addition, as they are connected to mains, they are not controlled centrally by a thermostat. And unfortunately, we often forget to turn them off when leaving the room. They therefore generally remain on during periods of unoccupancy.
On average, the power of an electric fan heater is 2000 W, or a consumption of 2 kWh. The fixed radiator, for its part, consumes on average 1 kWh.
standard 2kW model electric auxiliary convector , which represents the emission of 832g of CO2. If it is not unplugged and operates 24 hours a day , this represents 2.496 kgCO2/day and approximately 450kgCO2/convector/season. Or the equivalent of the emissions emitted by a plane flight between Paris and New York.
And to go further by replacing your equipment?
If you are equipped with a gas boiler, you can opt for a condensing model, which has a better calorific value. Because this model recovers the heat contained in the water vapor.
The efficiencies of condensing boilers are generally 5% to 10% higher on average compared to traditional boilers:
• Condensing boiler: 1.05 (i.e. 105%, yield on Lower Calorific Value – PCI)
• low temperature boiler model: 0.95 (i.e. 95% on PCI)
• Boiler at end of life: 0.80 (i.e. 80% on PCI)
Furthermore, we can even use carbon-free heating equipment.
To no longer use fossil fuels, such as gas which emits CO2 when burned, it is possible to install a heat pump system that runs on electricity.
While a gas boiler emits on average 227gCO2e for 1 kWh of heating, a heat pump emits almost 5 times less: 49gCO2e ( Carbon 4 , 2018).
Find here our previous energy advice for the summer period.