Do I need to amend my boiler temperature

village_life

Hi there

running on bulk LPG, I have a Baxi 28 HE System boiler thats used to heat the home - the temperature dial is currently set to about 3/4 of maximum.

There is a water tank which is set to 60 degrees (not that we use hot water other than washing hands/dishes as we have electric showers), we also have a room thermostat in the hallway (Set to 19degrees) and thermostatics in each room (typically on max in the main rooms just to give the most output of heat)

question then is whether there is a good reason to boost the temperature dial on the boiler? - what benefit would this gain? would there be a change in the usage rate of gas by doing this [i'm expecting so, but possibly offset by reduced time the boiler was set on for?]

If I had to say there were problems with current system it would probably be
a) time to get house nice and warm from the timer kicking in could be a bit too long
b) because a number of the rooms are so big (and open plan) the room with the main thermostat hits temperature before the big rooms are fully warm and cosy - is there any way to fine tune this other than boosting the overall target temperature - in my experience the TRV's seem to be a bit "rough" in terms of setting a temperature - hence moving them to full in the rooms that we occupy

appreciate any thoughts

Cardew

Turning up the boiler temperature means the water will get hotter, hence the radiators hotter and the house will warm up quicker. The maximum temperature is in the region of 80+C on most boilers so there is a risk of toddlers getting burned.

With the old non-condensing boilers there was no downside in economy terms for having it at Maximum - I have mine at 82C.

However yours is a modern condensing boiler and they are at their most efficient when the temperature of the return water is at its lowest to enable it to be in condensing mode.

You can read thousands of articles on the web and there is a lot of conflicting advice. See:

http://www.condensingboiler.org.uk/

I have no idea how to quantify any savings for having the boiler temperature a little lower - and I doubt many others have either. So personally I would have it as hot as you want initially and then perhaps turn it down when rooms are to temperature.

With regard to the roomstat, your problems are experienced by many. There is no ideal location for the roomstat. Wherever it is located it is a compromise as that room effectively determines the heating in the rest of the house. i.e. have it lounge and when temperature reaches that set on the stat, the CH is off and there is no heating in any other room.

You could of course turn the roomstat up to Maximum(28C) and use the TRVs to control heating in every room(including the roomstat location). The downside is the pump will run all the time the CH is on and the boiler will cycle - but so what!! Thats what I have done in my house for 23 years as several rooms might be in use.

village_life

Hi there

Thanks for the reply! I've had a bit of a read round and the boiler temperature setting certainly appears to be an interesting and potentially complex topic, particularly when there are other control systems in use.

I guess the issue I have is that the temp dial on my boiler has no context as to what temp it's currently set at, all I know is that it's 3/4 of max (whatever max is!). I've not long had the property so the current setting is somewhat arbitrary really, so I'd be happy just to understand why it is set where it's set.......

Cardew

I believe max temperature on many boilers is 82C

Doesn't the user manual tell you? - down load brochure on-line