My house is cold!! :o((

AngieSt

Hi Folks,

Can anyone help me? I recently moved into a newly built house and I'm still getting to grips with the gas central heating system.

I've set the thermostat to 20 degrees which heats the hall and living room nicely. However the bedrooms are freezing! They barely get above 16, even with the heating on all day.
The heat goes off at 10pm and by morning the bedrooms and bathroom can be as cold as 10 degrees!

I queried this with the builder, thinking that perhaps the house isn't properly insulated, and he told me that I should turn down the radiators in the living room and crank up the thermostat to at least 26 degrees and leave the heating on 24/7.

Surely this can't be right? It would cost an absolute fortune to heat the place!!

Thanks

Fishingtime

Your rads upstairs may need bleeding, are they warmer at the bottom than they are at the top?

lemontart

me thinks the rads in bedroom/bathroom may need bleeding - builders advice is rubbish . If that fails get independent gas safe engineer to check system and report

brewerdave

You have got rads upstairs I presume? If so, check them as yoxford2008 says. If its a new build they "should" have left you a key for the radiator bleed valves.

HappyMJ

I'll go with the bleeding as well. The installer would have bled it to begin with but there may have been a bit more air that got into the system and not bled again.

I'll assume the TRV's in the bedroom are also set to maximum. Although they shouldn't be but just to elimate them. You might also want to try taking the TRV head off (it's easy to unscrew them with your hand) and make sure the pin underneath isn't stuck down.

If you can't find a key they don't cost that much.

macman

The system may not have been balanced properly. It's however normal to balance it so that the bedrooms are colder than living areas, about 17C would be typical.

diywhynot

O.P.: assuming the heating system was properly designed and commissioned (not a given) and the property meets Part L for insulation you shouldn't be having this problem.

If the newbuild is covered by NHBC see here.

How large is the property, what make and model boiler do you have, and do you have the EPC for the property?

Btw always take heating advice from a builder with a shaker of salt.

Wywth

AngieSt wrote: »

Hi Folks,

Can anyone help me? I recently moved into a newly built house and I'm still getting to grips with the gas central heating system.

I've set the thermostat to 20 degrees which heats the hall and living room nicely. However the bedrooms are freezing! They barely get above 16, even with the heating on all day.
The heat goes off at 10pm and by morning the bedrooms and bathroom can be as cold as 10 degrees!

I queried this with the builder, thinking that perhaps the house isn't properly insulated, and he told me that I should turn down the radiators in the living room and crank up the thermostat to at least 26 degrees and leave the heating on 24/7.

Surely this can't be right? It would cost an absolute fortune to heat the place!!

Thanks

Open the doors to the upstairs rooms - they'll soon warn up

macman

How warm are the upstairs rads getting with the TRV's open fully?
Are they cold at the top? Bleed them if the latter.

MoneyMate

macman wrote: »

The system may not have been balanced properly. It's however normal to balance it so that the bedrooms are colder than living areas, about 17C would be typical.

Sounds like Balance to me too. (ajust amount of water going through some Rads)