Will house heat up quicker if I turn the boiler temp up?

simonhgreen

Hi guys

I'm gradually getting to grips with my heating system, but one of the problems is the time it takes to get up to temperature.

I live alone (I'm sure you could tell!) so if I put the heating to come on at 5:30 am (20 degrees) it's still nowhere near warm by the time I leave the house at 8am. Yesterday it took 8-9 hours to get up to tempereature.

Although I haven't got cavity wall insulation the loft & pipes have been recently well lagged & I have double-glazing.

The dial on the boiler (Baxi Bermuda 675) goes 1,2,3,4,High and as I understand it that's the temperature of the water in the rads. At the mo' it's on 3. I have what I believe is called a microbore system (thin pipes!)

Trying to think logically (not easy for me), if I turn the boiler up to high will the system heat the rads hotter, so heating the house more quickly?

If I'm right are there any other considerations I need to bear in mind, as I have seem some posts that talk about "balancing" the system with a certain temp difference needed between different parts of the system (rads/stat/boiler, etc)?

Any advice, as it always is, will be very much appreciated.

crossleydd42

If you turn the dial to about 4.5, it will certainly make the water running around the system hotter, which should warm the property faster. However, one thing you should try is 'bleeding' all the radiators of air that has accumulated inside them. You'll need a key which should easily be obtained from somewhere like B&Q if not a friend/neighbour. the last thing is certainly balancing the radiators, which is connected with the control at the bottom of one end of each radiator. I suggest you try the forst two suggestions first and come back for more information if these are not successful. I'm assuming the that room thermostat is around 20 degrees C! The hot water tank thermostat should be about 60 degrees C, no higher.

simonhgreen

Thanks for the advice.

The rads are quite air free as they do get hot all over, just not very quickly.

I don't think I can balance the rads as they can't be fitted with TRVs as they have both pipes going into the same point on the rad, rather than in/out at different ends.

The HW cylinder stat is on 60, although it is quite cool at the bottom, but as there's only me here it still heats the water up ok in 20-25 mins.

I will certainly try to improve the time the house takes to warm up by turning the boiler up higher, but I just wonder why there needs to be 1-5 as surely you would alwys want the place to heat up asap?

Thanks again.

crossleydd42

If they all get hot all over, there shouldn't need to be a balancing job: a good thing.

I have one more suggestion and that relates to the pump (in the airing cupboard?) which often has a slow/medium/fast control. If it's not on FAST, try moving it up one notch.

As for the 1-5 control, it's there because the range of a boiler could cover a different number of radiators and sizes - clearly the more rads and size of house, the more water needs moving about, with potential to cool down. So the smaller the system/house, the lower the number.

BTW - you will usually find the rads/tank to be slightly cooler at the bottom than the top, that's natural. It's extreme difference that shows a problem.

Do post the result in a few days (via a PM if you like) as it's always nice to know the result! Good luck!

mattt44

Could your system need flushing? If its microbore that means your water flows slower than bigger bore pipes I presume and if you have a build up of sludge(?) in the system it would slow it down further I suppose.
Do you know if your system has ever been flushed out, or if you have inhibitor in the system?

alanobrien

The short answer is yes, if you turn up the boiler you burn more gas which heats the water to a higher temperature which in turn will heat up your home quicker.

It will cost more to run the boiler by turning the dial all the way up so dont forget to turn it down again in spring when the weather turns milder.

mummytofour

I have heard that it is better to keep a system on low all that the time as that way the temp stays pretty much the same, better than letting the system get cold then trying to heat it up again.

jobbingmusician

mummytofour wrote:

I have heard that it is better to keep a system on low all that the time as that way the temp stays pretty much the same, better than letting the system get cold then trying to heat it up again.

Absolutely right. Geoff the builder in the Sunday Telegraph is always saying this.

According to beloved OH, who is a real wiz around the house, the best thing to do long-term is to have a thermostat installed, together with a TRV (thermostatic radiator valve) on each radiator, then leave the system on whatever temperature is good for you. The boiler will only come on when the temp drops, and you can leave it on all year :eek: cos when the weather is warmer it just doesn't come on!

Works out much cheaper as you don't constantly have to keep heating the house up, is better for the system blah blah

mattt44

jobbingmusician wrote:

the best thing to do long-term is to have a thermostat installed, together with a TRV (thermostatic radiator valve) on each radiator, then leave the system on whatever temperature is good for you. The boiler will only come on when the temp drops, and you can leave it on all year :eek: cos when the weather is warmer it just doesn't come on!

Works out much cheaper as you don't constantly have to keep heating the house up, is better for the system blah blah

Right, thats what I think too.

We have gone one better in my mind, which is a timed thermostat, the heating is left on all year, but the timed thermostat turns up the heat at certain times, but then if we go out, turns it down at certain times too, so we don't forget to turn it down.

ie we have the heating on 15 deg all night, but at 6.50am it automatically turns it up to 17 deg, then at 8.30 turns it back to 15 deg, if we are staying in then we just have to turn it up again, where it will stay until the next time period, which I think is at 12 noon. At 5pm it automatically turns it up to 18 deg and then at 10pm back down to 15 deg, by the time its cooled down, its time to go to bed, or we turn it up manually again etc.

Our heating never goes below 15 deg, but then in these hard times, hardly ever goes over 18 deg either.
However the temp setting on the boiler is different, our plumber told us that it shouldn't be set too low, because ( I think) the house never heats up due to the rads never being hot enough, so the boiler is on more often.

Recently I turned up the heat of the boiler about 10% and the boiler seems (I stress seems) to be on less and the radiators are hotter.

We don't have thermo valves on radiators, as I don't think they are really worth it and they get stuck very easily in my experience, besides all our house is mostly open plan upstairs and down, so not really needed for us.

moneysavingplumber

A programmable room thermostat in conjunction with TRVs is considered best practice for energy efficiency, providing that you use the programmer. We've discussed this matter often on several threads. Leaving the heating on 24/7 is less efficient than using the programmer. Even with a room stat set at 15 or 10 degrees, at cold times during the day or night the heating will kick in whilst everyone is asleep or the house is empty, where there is simply no need. Turning the boiler stat down on non-modulating boilers won't make any difference the the gas rate, it just means it will cycle on and off and probably never get the property to required temperature, thereby decreasing efficiency.

I would try running the boiler in the OP at max and see if it's better. If not I would suspect a balance or sludge problem.

SnapFish_2

Some great advice here, wish I'd found this forum a few months back. Is it that your radiators take a long time to heat up, or your house in general to heat up? My heating gets piping hot quite quickly, but the house took a long time to warm up, I insulated the roof, which didn't seem to help much. After fixing the following my house is now warm:
1) The balanced flue wasn't properly sealed on the boiler - a plate was missing so the fan was sucking air from inside my house rather than outside, thus blowing my warmer air out
2) My electric cupboard was recessed into the wall, and the cavity had a draft blowing thorough it
3) I'd recently removed carpets and polished the floors, and drafts were coming from between the floorboards.
4) Bathroom fan was just open to the outside - I fitted one which just opens when the fan is on.
5) Disused chimney breast was not capped off so yes...even more draft.
Anyhow, these fixed - my house warms up a lot faster - although I have to now have a vent put in my livingroom when the cavity wall gets done next week (as I have a gas fire)
Sorry if this is not relevant to your problem - but might help someone else.