ᐅ Is night setback heating control useful? – Experiences?

Hello everyone,

so far, I haven’t found a satisfactory answer.
The topic is energy saving in today’s context.
Does lowering the room temperature at night really make sense? There are impressive claims from smart thermostat manufacturers about how much energy can be saved, including with geofencing features.
But is that really the case? Don’t I end up using the energy saved at night to heat up cooled-down furniture and walls again? Is there any real-world potential for savings?
Thanks for your input.

A general statement is probably not possible. I know two extremely opposite examples. An old house that is drafty and poorly insulated, with a condensing oil boiler and conventional radiators. In this case, lowering the temperature at night is, in my opinion, not worthwhile because most of the heating energy is wasted. Here, I tried to automate the temperature setback using smart controllers.

Currently, a passive house with a ground-source heat pump. Nighttime setback does not make sense.

There are many gradations in between, where it is difficult to calculate the effects accurately.

We have an older building from 1930, poorly insulated, with temperature reduction controlled by thermostats. This saves us money, so I agree with @i_b_n_a_n.

As described, this is customized. However, I advise against making any potential setback adjustments through the radiator thermostats. It is far, far, far more effective to make these adjustments via the central heating control system.

Joedreck schrieb:

As described, this is customized. However, I do not recommend lowering the temperature using the radiator thermostats. It is much, much more effective to adjust the central heating system controls.

It depends on the specific situation.
If you want to lower the temperature in all rooms uniformly at night, doing it centrally is the simplest and most efficient way.
If you have different rooms with varying heating needs during the day and night, you will quickly reach the limits of what can be achieved using the radiator controls alone.

We are not lowering the temperature in our new build. Because of the underfloor heating, any temperature reduction would have to be staggered over several hours to actually notice a drop. That means you start heating again at 2 a.m. the next day anyway, so the rooms reach the desired temperature again. But we keep the same temperature throughout the entire house, and all thermostats are set to maximum.