Central Heating - on yet?

[Alex321]

And rather than fix that problem with multiple thermostats and a decent controller, UK residents keep beggaring about with timers and doing what didn't work properly last year. 🤦

Oh well, it's not like heating costs hundreds of pounds a year(!)

If we were having the heating system replaced completely, then we would get a different control system, as you suggest.

It really isn't worth the hassle and cost of doing so on an existing system IMO. We have thermostatic valves on the radiators, which allows us to control the heat in each room separately. I don't know what you mean by "doing what didn't work properly last year"? It worked just fine for us last year, and I expect it to this year.

We also have a non-condesning boiler, with a hot water storage tank in the airing cupboard, but with solar panels, that means we can turn off the boiler completely from around April - September, with the hot water coming from an immersion heater powered by excess solar. We turned the hot water back on last week, I don't expect to be wanting the heating on for a few weeks yet. I'm still comfortable sleeping with just the duvet cover, we tend to put the heating on around the same time I start wanting a duvet inside the cover, which is usually late October.

 

[Dan Lotus]

I had a Netatmo wireless thermostat, but that died a death after 3-4 years - I have replaced it with a Tado thermostat, that connects a controller to the boiler via wires (Just replaces an existing wired thermostat - and we did ourselves) and then you have a separate part that connects into your router, or a repeater in your house - you then connect this to your wireless, and hook it up to the app.

The thermostat is wireless, so we can move it to wherever we want - ie if we have the stove on in the main living room, we might move it into a different room, so the rest of the house doesn't become like a fridge.

I have mine set pretty simply, especially now with working at home, but you can set them up as complicated as you want iirc, but the interface is pretty good.
I think weekdays are all the same, weekends the heating just stays on a bit later, and drops to something like 18 overnight iirc.

I can also bump the thermostat temp up or down for a set period of time, or until the next schedule change - from anywhere via the app.

The other bonus is that you can drill down into any day, and it will show you a 24 hour graph, and within that graph you can see what the temperature was at any given time, and then also if the boiler was on, whether it was at power level 1, 2 or 3 - it's pretty good at throttling off the power as it approaches the desired temperature.

I think it gives you a summary for how long the boiler has been on for a given day, week, month etc etc,

 

[Gunk]

Ours is a simple pumped S plan system with micro bore pipes, 40 years old and still working perfectly.

The only thing I’ve changed is the timer. That packed up about 3 years ago

 

[presta]

central thermostats aren't always even present at all

A roomstat's required by building regulations, or at least it was when I had my new boiler in 2017.

 

[Mo1959]

I’ve still got storage heating so it’s very expensive. I’ll try and hold off putting it on until at least next month.

I sometimes put the dehumidifier on and it keeps the air warmer.

 

[Alex321]

A roomstat's required by building regulations, or at least it was when I had my new boiler in 2017.

So far as I can see, the requirement is for either room thermostats, or TRVs (Thermostatic Radiator Valves). Though the recommendation is to have both.

 

[presta]

So far as I can see, the requirement is for either room thermostats, or TRVs (Thermostatic Radiator Valves). Though the recommendation is to have both.

The regulations require that there's a stat that switches the boiler off when all the TRVs are satisfied.

 

[Gunk]

A roomstat's required by building regulations, or at least it was when I had my new boiler in 2017.

Some older systems don’t have one, they just have individual radiator stats

 

[mjr]

If we were having the heating system replaced completely, then we would get a different control system, as you suggest.

It really isn't worth the hassle and cost of doing so on an existing system IMO.

It's an easier decision when replacing the main heat source, it is true, but I'd argue it's worth it otherwise. Modern working controls really are that good.

We have thermostatic valves on the radiators, which allows us to control the heat in each room separately. I don't know what you mean by "doing what didn't work properly last year"? It worked just fine for us last year, and I expect it to this year.

I thought you previously posted that you only switched the heating on for a few hours a day. I don't call that working properly. Working properly is setting the thermostatic controls and mostly just leaving it to hold the desired temperature(s).

 

[presta]

Some older systems don’t have one, they just have individual radiator stats

Yes, my old system was one of them, that's why I was investigating the legality of leaving it out when I had the new boiler.

 

[raleighnut]

We have one rad that doesn't have a TRV on it to protect the boiler

 

[presta]

We have one rad that doesn't have a TRV on it to protect the boiler

My old system was like that, but it's not needed any more, boilers now have a bypass valve built in.

 

[raleighnut]

My old system was like that, but it's not needed any more, boilers now have a bypass valve built in.

Ours was changed about 14 years ago to up in the attic and then replaced with another Bosch Worcester about 3 years back (parts would have been nearly as expensive as a new boiler with labour on top) it was also swapped for a less powerful boiler 25 wotsits as opposed to 30. You're lucky to get 10 years out of a boiler these days not like our old back boiler which a British Gas engineer said " these never go wrong, it'll outlast you but Maz was set on getting rid and fitting a Woodburner in the fireplace due to her ex-husband painting it with horrible dark brown varnish

fire

• raleighnut
• 1 Jan 2016
• 2

great move for us and the Cats