am I wasting energy like this

tanith

I don't like a warm bedroom in the winter and unless it is freezing I turn the bedroom radiators off.. but I am just wondering if this means I am actually using more heat trying to heat the rest of the house.. as all the heat from downstairs and bathroom struggles to raise the temperature in the rest of the house... we have an openplan living area that is open to the stairs and the bedroom doors are usually open.. the thermostat is in the living area ... so I wonder wether by having the bedroom rads off its actually costing me more to heat the house than if I had all the radiators on?..... Any thoughts about this peeps..?

Cardew

The temperature of the room where the thermostat is situated controls the boiler. It makes no difference if your bedroom radiators are on or off.

However you really should have thermostatic valves fitted to all your radiators for optimum efficiency. They are not that expensive and then you can control your heating much better.

tanith

Yes I do realise that but what I am saying if you read the post is that my living room is open plan and I wonder wether the heat from the living room is just drifting upstairs to heat the cooler bedrooms? (heat rises) It would make no difference if I had rad valves on the bedroom radiators because they are mostly turned off as I like a cool bedroom.....

Jet

I understand what you are saying.

It would probably help to keep the bedroom doors shut but then the landing will probably become very warm. As soon as the living room reaches the required temperature, the thermostat will cut out. If you leave the bedroom doors open, it will take longer to heat the living room because a lot of the heat will be travelling upstairs.

However, if you have the rads on in the bedroom, the thermostat will cut off sooner but you will end up with a hot bedroom. I shouldn't think there will be a lot of difference in cost but at least with option A, you get the cool bedroom you want.

Cardew

I understand what you are saying about your layout but as I understand it, you asked if having your radiators in the bedroom turned off would use more heat.

If you had the bedroom radiators on they would use more heat and you would be be more uncomfortable. I appreciate you would get a little less heat loss from your living area but that would be very little compared to heating up bedrooms.

Of course the other alternative is to keep the bedroom doors closed and open them for a while before you go to bed.

John_3:16

Put rising butts on the hinges of your bedroom doors that way they will close on there own. Is there no way making a partion around the stairs to keep the heat downstairs with a door in it?

Cardew

John_3:16 wrote:

Put rising butts on the hinges of your bedroom doors that way they will close on there own. Is there no way making a partion around the stairs to keep the heat downstairs with a door in it?

How do rising butts on the hinges make the door close on its own?

All the ones I have had fitted in the past just raise the door as it opens - to clear, say, a fitted carpet.

Ken68

Hi Tanith, similiar concerns here.
As part of a window heat collector experiment, I can gain by switching off the radiator in a south facing bedroom window, but need to seal off the bedroom door from rising heat.
Got to be economic tho, initially thinking of quilting , fibre board or 1" polystyrene board.Or maybe simple draughtproofing. Like the idea of a seperate door either at the start of the stairs or top of the landing.

tanith

Thanks everyone for all the ideas, I asked an expert (my bros the plumber) and he as much said the same thing , close the bedroom doors but that just means a very warm landing....

Its not really possible to shut the stairs off again as the dividing wall has been removed to make the room bigger (its fairly small ) so I guess either I put up with it or as my daughter suggested just have the bedroom radiators on a low setting so that they are not cold enough to suck the heat from downstairs......:T

Sujamjen

Nothing to do with your question, I just wanted to say I hate hot bedrooms too! We are obviously 'hot' enough

Graham1

If you want a scientist's answer to the original question lookup Fourier's law on wikipedia or similar.