is it OK to leave heaters off all year round?

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Modestas

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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.
 
Without knowing if you are in a freezing climate, or a humid area, or an area where animals, rodents or burglars can access via the window that is slightly open, I don't know if an answer is possible.
 
location: UK. so the brittish weather depends of the season. can get cold, can get hot.. the room is located on the 2nd floor.
 
Living in Southern California, I have no idea what the humidity is in the UK, but all I will recommend it to shut down the heat, but periodically check for mold smells or black staining in corners and on wet material. That will indicate your material is not drying.
 
Bad idea. Drying clothes puts a lot of moisture in the room, and it cools the room down (latent heat of vaporization, much like when you spray your face with water in the hot weather to cool you down). The resultant high humidity will likely find surfaces at or below the dewpoint in cold weather. That will promote mold growth.
Leave the heaters on and set to about 50 degF (10 degC).
If you insist on drying clothes inside in winter, monitor RH and temp. in that room and keep RH below about 60% at 10 degC and below about 50% if you keep a higher temperature.
 
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.
 
Turning the thermostat down to about 50-55 degF (about 10-12 degC) when you leave the house will save energy. The faster the house cools down, the more energy that will be saved (but that also means that the house uses more heating energy in general). The rate of heat loss is directly proportional to the temperature difference between inside and outside. If the temperature difference drops to half of when started, you will use about half of the fuel for heating. When you return and turn the thermostat back up, it will NOT take more energy to heat the house back up as some believe. In fact, the boiler (or furnace or space heater) will now run for a longer time, rather than in short bursts of a few minutes each, and will save more energy and run cleaner. Every time a combustion appliance starts up, it is not very efficient until it reaches a steady state temperature.
If the weather is milder then turning the heater(s) off will also work.
 
Have you thought of a programmable thermostat? Or better yet, Internet enabled thermostat? I can see and change mine from anywhere in the world. I don't think you will see a lot of savings turning off your climate control while out. It depends a lot how efficient your house is. My house, during the day, would not lose more than 2-3 degrees if the heater was off. Especially upstairs.
 
also, I don't really understand. if humidy causes problems in regular rooms, whats about the bathroom? it is always humid there, does it mean heater needs to be on all year round in the bathroom?
 
The bathroom needs an exhaust fan, to be run during and for a while after a shower or bath.
To remove the moist air.
A window will not vent the moisture well enough.

And of course to remove stink from using the toilet.
 

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