Help... Problems with my central heating system

GoldenEye

Not sure if I should be posting here. I have recently moved into my new home and I have a problem with my gas central heating system. I am assuming that I am doing something wrong.

I do not use the central heating for too long. I switch the central heating on in the morning for one hour and occasionally for another hour in the evening. The problem is that the radiators are hot but the rooms are not. I am basically paying just to heat the radiators because the rooms are cold. It appears that the heat is not circulating.

The room thermostat is set to 18degC and is located in the hallway. I have closed the valves on the radiator off in the hallway (also have done the same to bedroom 2 and 3). My boiler is approximately 21 years old (Potterton Flamingo). My parents central heating system is older than mine and they have the room thermostat at 16degC. Their radiators are always hot and the rooms get very warm too. The rooms heat up in less than 30mins.

Should the radiator in the hallway be switched on?

Any advice would be grately appreciated.

OddjobKIA

if the hpuse has been empty for some time it might be advisable to open all rads to max and run at max temp for an hour or two..

this will give the house a chance to get its ambient temp up a little..

also do you have furniture in front of your rads..they are called RADIATORS due to the fact the heat should radiate out from them if there is a sofa in the way then you could be stopping the heat getting out..
as the rads are getting hot then there is no prob with the boiler..

try to keep the rads in bed 1+2 and the hall way on even just a little as the cold air and walls in those rooms will chill the rest of the house...

what type of build is it ie 70's victorian, georgian, or modern

dander

My immediate thought is insulation - is the heat heading straight out of your house through the roof, draughty doors, windows etc?

GoldenEye

The house is modern (21 years old). I topped-up loft insulation when I moved in. The majority of the windows/doors are new (1-5 years) old. Heat is not escaping through the windows, i'm pretty sure of that and there are no draughts. The EPC in the HIPS pack assumed that the house has cavity wall insulation but i'm not 100% sure.

The radiators are not blocked. The thought of heating every room in the house had crossed my mind. The next step would be to open all the valves on the radiators to full and leave for a couple hours.

18degC is a reasonable temperature to heat the house?

Many thanks for the suggestions!

Monkey1984

GoldenEye wrote: »

The house is modern (21 years old). I topped-up loft insulation when I moved in. The majority of the windows/doors are new (1-5 years) old. Heat is not escaping through the windows, i'm pretty sure of that and there are no draughts. The EPC in the HIPS pack assumed that the house has cavity wall insulation but i'm not 100% sure.

The radiators are not blocked. The thought of heating every room in the house had crossed my mind. The next step would be to open all the valves on the radiators to full and leave for a couple hours.

18degC is a reasonable temperature to heat the house?

Many thanks for the suggestions!

If your not sure on the walls being insulated then give any energy supplier a call and they can arrange a free survey for you.

Normal advice on heating is anywhere between 18-21deg maybe turn it up to 21deg for a while and see if that gets some more heat in there.

a&akay

Is your boiler thermostat set too low? It's OK to do this when temps are relatively high outside, but when they are approaching zero and there is a high wind and draughts from gaps in windows etc then you need to put it up much higher. It controls the temperature of the water running though the rads.

GoldenEye

I'll have a look at the boiler and see what temperature it is at when I can figure out how to open it!

I opened all the valves on the radiators and switched the central heating on for two hours. Downstairs appears to be okay. Upstairs is definitely cooler, especially my bedroom. It isn't as bad as before and there is some improvement. I do want my bedroom warmer though.

maninthestreet

18 dec C is too cold for sitting around in (about 20 - 21 deg C is what I have set my thermostat. How your parents manage to sit around without feeking cold at 16 deg C is surprising.

moonrakerz

GoldenEye wrote: »

The room thermostat is set to 18degC and is located in the hallway.

This is your problem !

Your hallway might naturally be warmer than the rest of the house. If you set that to 18deg the rest of the house will be far below that.
Put a thermometer in the lounge, put the heating on and keep adjusting the thermostat over a period of some hours until you get the temp you require. Ignore the setting on the hall thermostat.
The best long term solution would be to put thermostatic valves on all your radiators.