In the winter, is it more or less efficient / cost effective to leave
office heating on a low temperature over-night rather than switching
off and then having to bring the office up to a comfortable tempeature
in the morning?

Vice versa in the summer with Air Con.

My gut instinct tells me that we should switch off, but others in the
office (probably those that are 'sensitive to the cold'!) argue that
it takes more energy for a heater or Air con unit to work at maximum
power in order to acheive the right temperature in the first instance
than it does for it to run on a low out-put and maintain temperature
over-night.

Thought and suggestions please!

Assuming that you have normal heating and ac systems, it is going to
be far more expensive to keep them going overnight.

You should be using an optimum start controller to get the desired
temperature first thing in the morning regardless of outside
temperature.

The Carbon Trust have some good concise publications that can help,
try starting from here:
http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/
and go to publications

Also you might be able to get free advice over the phone from the
Energy Savings Trust:
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/help_and_support

You might also check to see what your local council is doing to
provide help and support.

Have checked out the links and there seems to be enough information
there for me to put together a comprehensive argument in favour of
switching off at night!

Now for the biggest challenge of convincing the Directors.....!

Cheers.

Shelley

On 12 Mar, 15:28, John Ackers <john.ack...@mail.com> wrote: