What's your thermostat set at?

HokeyCokey_3

spud30 wrote:

We're all wearing warm clothes, and for the last few days, we have brought a quilt downstairs and snuggled in front of the telly.

Am I a cheapskate

Lol we do the same!

roswell

ours is always on we control it from the thermostat, 15 if night time / going out all day, 20 -25 depending on the night. we live in a ground floor flat with concret base floors, have cavity wall insulation, DG windows and fibre insulation boards between the concrete floor and floor coverings eg carpet / wood.

its only on the coldest of nights that the temp drops below 15. Although we are using slightly more heating at the moment due to a broken window seal in the bedroom.

mr_flibble

Really interesting reading this thread.

Does anyone know what setting is best for the temperature of the boiler output for the heating circuit?

I have been playing with the setings and around 70 - 80 C gets the rads really hot and they heat up the place in no time but I am sure that's not that cost effective. What do you guys set yours at? I found lower temps just didn't heat the place up as quickly.

I have the hot water at about 40 - 50 C as it really doesn't need to be any warmer than that for us running the shower and dish washing.

2 bed end terrace. Baxi combi.

Broken timer so heating left at 10 - 15 overnight / when out of house and 18 - 20 C when indoors.

This is our first year with this boiler as the old one finally went titsup in the summer. It was old and tempremental. Nice to have a shower now at a predictable temperature!!

Kel.

lauren_1

I put it at 18 but my other half constantly turns it back up to 25:mad:
I might get the bill transfered to his account then he might keep it down more often:beer:

jembie

I don't have thermostat as such for my heating.
There is just a dial that starts with a tiny arrow at min. and the arrow gets bigger all the way up to max.

At the moment it is half way between min and max but as it gets colder it will get all the way up to max eventually.

nearlyrich

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Cardew

Firstly, wall thermostats can be pretty inaccurate.

Secondly, they obviously only sense the temperature at the point where they are situated. So a setting of, say, 18C on a thermostat in the hall is no indication of the temperature in the living rooms or bedrooms.

So it is pretty meaningless for people to say what their thermostat is set at. The only way to measure the temperature in a particular room is to get a thermometer. By the way the recommended temperature for living rooms is 21-24C; I think sitting in a room at 15-18C, as some people claim to do, would be unpleasantly cold for most people.

It is much better to have thermostatically controlled valves on radiators(TRVs) as you can then control the heating in each room.

A couple of other points:

To have the heating on permanantly is not cheaper than having it on a timer as suggested earlier in this thread.

The most efficient temperature setting for the water in the radiators depends on the boiler, but is generally toward the higher end of its range. It is this water temperature that determines how quickly the house heats up as a hotter radiator gives more heat output.

The temperature set on the wall thermostat has no effect on how quickly a room heats up. i.e. if the room has cooled to, say, 16C and you want to get it up to 21C. it won't matter if the thermostat is set to 21C or 30C it will reach 21C in the same time.

Jazzyjeff_2

I agree that having a digital thermometer is a good idea, I have one of those indoor/outdoor ones.

I set mine at around 21 to come on 7 - 11pm. I'm lucky in that living in a well insulated flat the temp never drops below 16 even with no heating at all, so only need it on for a few hours a day to be nice and warm in the evening.

Mercenary

We have cavity and roof insulation, so ours is set to between 17C or 18C most of the time but it is situated in our livingroom - which means that if we're in there watching tv, then the thermostat thinks that the room's warm enough because of the body heat and TV, so it has to be turned up a fraction more or it cuts out the heating.

Then when we move to other rooms, any setting over 20C makes the house become unbearably hot and stuffy....so have to turn the thermo down again
....and I'm a chilly mortal with Reynaud's symptoms!

I always turn it down to 17C for the night.

the_gasman_2

First of all every house is different. Some better insulated and some with better heating controls. Obviously mechanical t/stats do go out of calibration so if you are looking at a 15/20 year old room thermostat then yes a new one will help. Digital is the way forward but not a necessity. However they are more accurate.

Before worrying about what the stat should be set at you should be worrying about the basics of the property. Minimum 8" loft insulation, cavity wall ins and stopping un-necessary draughts. If i asked you to heat my garden you would tell me to get lost so why do it... Keep the heat indoors.

The boiler itself is recommended to be run at max. Not at 3 0' clock cause neighbours dad says so. full power. The idea behind this is that it brings the house up to temp and then knocks off the stat. Job done.
One of the biggest question i get asked when working. "What is the best way to run central heating?"

There isn't a perfect answer to this as we are all different creatures of habit and think we know more than we actually do about our heating system. I have no intention of my family or me being cold.
However as a heating engineer with a dated heating system (14 year old boiler with trv's to bedroom rads) but using a programmable room stat this is how i run my heating.
This allows me to have the heating on 24hrs a day but i can set it to separate when i want.
I.e
7 AM = 20 degrees
10 AM = 17 degrees
3 PM = 18 degrees
5 PM = 19 degrees
8 PM = 20 degrees
11PM - 7 AM 16 degrees (only comes on when very cold at night)

As long as the house is warmer than room stat it wont run.

Some people think running heating for 2 hours in morning and then 2 in evening saves money... Does it really......
Remember the fabric of the building is cold and once you have heated the internal walls etc that half the job done then all the boiler needs to do is come on for 5-10mins every hour or two to heat up 1 to 2 degrees. If your heating goes off after 2 hours the house temp plummitts down and when the boiler comes on 8 hours later the house takes a couple of hours or running to get warm and then it goes off on timer. Make your own mind up on this one but i have proven the method i use with my customers especially the elderly ones.

Remember all houses are different and levels of insulation. Don't be cold guys and gals. Get it sorted before the really cold weather arrives.

p.s Many room stats are fitted, but the neutral wire is left diconnected. Most have a built in anticipator which makes the stat work more effectively as it anticipates the room cooloing down. If your's isnt connected the accuracy of the stat could be compromised