Thermostat & radiator questions

[Deleted User]

Hi,

I've been reading up on boilers and a lot of sites seem to suggest I should see a thermostat in the house or temperature controls on the radiators. We have the latter (with "by Orkli" stamped on the valve), but I've never managed to figure out how they work as they always seem to be hot or cold. Available options:

5 - 4 - 'star shape' - 2 - 'snow shape' - >|

I'm also struggling to find a thermostat in the house - is this likely? The boiler is a "Main Combi Eco" boiler with a current temperature of 48c, hot water set to 50c and radiators set to 60c.

We rent and our house seems pretty rubbish at keeping the heat in however I'd like to try and make the best of what there is.

In addition to the above the heating is on for 1.5 hours in the morning and 3.5 hours in the evening.

Advice welcome

anotherbaldrick

Set it for starters on star shape and adjust to higher number if still too cold , down a peg if too hot . Snow shape is if you are away but need to leave some heat on to stop everything freezing up. A room stat in the lounge would be nice but you might not have one on a cheapo system. 60 is a bit low to achieve heat transfer from radiators to room , we are running ours at 70

MX5huggy

Thermostatic Radiator valves set (which is what you have) turn off the rad when the room temperature is reached, they don't set the rad to be warm, it can only be on because the room is too cold and off because it is warm enough.

[Deleted User]

MX5huggy wrote: »

Thermostatic Radiator valves set (which is what you have) turn off the rad when the room temperature is reached, they don't set the rad to be warm, it can only be on because the room is too cold and off because it is warm enough.

Oh right. That would make sense. I've never noticed it go off though while the heating is set to on, on the boiler. It's always pretty cold though!

[Deleted User]

As an aside I'm also seeing legionella mentioned quite a lot and a temperature of 55c required to kill it with 60c the default. I assume as we don't have a hot water tank (at least I didn't think we did!) this doesn't apply?

keystone

Deleted_User wrote: »

As an aside I'm also seeing legionella mentioned quite a lot and a temperature of 55c required to kill it with 60c the default. I assume as we don't have a hot water tank (at least I didn't think we did!) this doesn't apply?

Thats for stored DHW and not CH so you are correct with a mains fed DHW system like yours.

Cheers

[Deleted User]

keystone wrote: »

Thats for stored DHW and not CH so you are correct with a mains fed DHW system like yours.

Cheers

Cheers. Would I be right in thinking if I start the washing machine on a 60c job it'll only ever reach 50c with the current setup?

HappyMJ

Deleted_User wrote: »

Cheers. Would I be right in thinking if I start the washing machine on a 60c job it'll only ever reach 50c with the current setup?

The washing machine has a heating element in it so it will heat the water further to 60 if you have a hot water feed or from 5 or 10 (the temperature of the cold water) if you have a cold water feed only.

If the water is set at 50 the temperature at the taps will be lower than 50. Possibly 45 due to losses in the pipework.

keystone

No because modern machines don't use a hot supply operating on mains cold only. They bring it up to temp themselves and even if it did have a hot supply and the temp was insufficient it would still heat it until it was.

Cheers

keystone

HappyMJ wrote: »

If the cylinder is set at 50 the temperature at the taps will be lower than 50. Possibly 45 due to losses in the pipework.

Why would he have a cylinder when he has a:

The boiler is a "Main Combi Eco" boiler

Just sayin'

Cheers

[Deleted User]

anotherbaldrick wrote: »

60 is a bit low to achieve heat transfer from radiators to room , we are running ours at 70

I think this may account for how cold it is - I'll increase it to 65 and see how we get on.

HappyMJ wrote: »

The washing machine has a heating element in it so it will heat the water further to 60 if you have a hot water feed or from 5 or 10 (the temperature of the cold water) if you have a cold water feed only.

keystone wrote: »

No because modern machines don't use a hot supply operating on mains cold only. They bring it up to temp themselves and even if it did have a hot supply and the temp was insufficient it would still heat it until it was.

Thanks guys - I think I'll increase it to 55 only to try and increase the temperature in the house! If neither increase works I'll look to put it on for longer.