Using gas central heating TRVs

Likestowrite

I 've recently had gas central heating installed, so trying to work out the most economical way of using it. There is a thermostat with a timer control in my hall and a TRV on each radiator in the house. I have the hall thermostat set to make the boiler come on when the temperature in the hall is below 19c--- and the TRV on the hall radiator set to max setting

During the day I plan to have the radiators on in my 2 downstairs living rooms, hall, and kitchen.
I have 3 unused bedrooms so keep the doors closed and have the TRVs turned off in those rooms.
I don't really go upstairs during the day so don't need my bedroom to be warm until I'm due to go to bed.
If I turn the TRV off on my bedroom radiator(and also the one on my landing radiator ) during the day, then turn them on about an hour before I go to bed each evening, will the frequent turning on and off cause any problems with the TRVs?

Also will the fact I'm not having the landing radiator on during the day (or heating any of the bedrooms) mean the hall will takes longer to reach the temperature I've set on the thermostat, than it would if I heated the landing too? If it did, would it cost me more than running the landing radiator during the day? Thanks.

Wywth

Likestowrite wrote: »

I 've recently had gas central heating installed, so trying to work out the most economical way of using it. There is a thermostat with a timer control in my hall and a TRV on each radiator in the house. I have the hall thermostat set to make the boiler come on when the temperature in the hall is below 19c--- and the TRV on the hall radiator set to max setting

During the day I plan to have the radiators on in my 2 downstairs living rooms, hall, and kitchen.
I have 3 unused bedrooms so keep the doors closed and have the TRVs turned off in those rooms.
I don't really go upstairs during the day so don't need my bedroom to be warm until I'm due to go to bed.
If I turn the TRV off on my bedroom radiator(and also the one on my landing radiator ) during the day, then turn them on about an hour before I go to bed each evening, will the frequent turning on and off cause any problems with the TRVs?

Also will the fact I'm not having the landing radiator on during the day (or heating any of the bedrooms) mean the hall will takes longer to reach the temperature I've set on the thermostat, than it would if I heated the landing too? If it did, would it cost me more than running the landing radiator during the day? Thanks.

Where central heating is concerned, if you don't plan to heat the whole house by use of the centrally located boiler (hence the term central heating) then the most economical way is not to use it.

Heat rises, so any heat you produce downstairs will rise to the bedrooms anyway, hence why downstairs radiators are usually much larger than upstairs ones.

A greater temperature difference will result in a greater transfer of heat (and may start to result in mould growth in those colder areas of the house)

Likestowrite

Wywth wrote: »

Where central heating is concerned, if you don't plan to heat the whole house by use of the centrally located boiler (hence the term central heating) then the most economical way is not to use it.

Heat rises, so any heat you produce downstairs will rise to the bedrooms anyway, hence why downstairs radiators are usually much larger than upstairs ones.

A greater temperature difference will result in a greater transfer of heat (and may start to result in mould growth in those colder areas of the house)

Thank you.
If I don't use the gas central heating at all, I'll have to use electric fires in the two downstairs living rooms -- which would probably be more expensive than using the central heating to heat hall, kitchen, and 2 downstairs rooms during the day?
The possible mold growth is worrying though.

matelodave

Don't worry about mould, put the TRVs on low (frost protection setting) so the rooms don't get stone cold and make sure that there's some ventilation - mould is caused by damp stagnant air & condensation, ventilation rather than just heat will keep it at bay. The boiler will only generate as much heat as the radiators will dissipate, so if you turn some of them off or right down then the boiler won't run as much. A programmable thermostat will improve the system control and allow the temperature to be automatically varied for different times during the day.

If you read your gas meter regularly and record the readings you can work out the most economical way to run your heating system without being cold or causing damp damage.

Likestowrite

matelodave wrote: »

Don't worry about mould, put the TRVs on low (frost protection setting) so the rooms don't get stone cold and make sure that there's some ventilation - mould is caused by damp stagnant air & condensation, ventilation rather than just heat will keep it at bay. The boiler will only generate as much heat as the radiators will dissipate, so if you turn some of them off or right down then the boiler won't run as much. A programmable thermostat will improve the system control and allow the temperature to be automatically varied for different times during the day.

If you read your gas meter regularly and record the readings you can work out the most economical way to run your heating system without being cold or causing damp damage.

Thank you.I'll set the TVRs to frost setting. Do I need them on this setting from now until the heating goes off in April/May, or only when the weather turns really cold?

If I open the windows slightly in unused rooms for a while each day, will that be enough ventilation? Or do I need to keep them a tiny bit open all the time? (I planned to keep the room doors closed.)

ValHaller

Likestowrite wrote: »

Thank you.I'll set the TVRs to frost setting. Do I need them on this setting from now until the heating goes off in April/May, or only when the weather turns really cold?

If I open the windows slightly in unused rooms for a while each day, will that be enough ventilation? Or do I need to keep them a tiny bit open all the time? (I planned to keep the room doors closed.)

I suggest thta you should have the TRV's set quite low but above frost setting - eg on 1 for a TRV with {off, frost, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. If you have central heating running in the rest of the house, the warm air will absorb a lot of water while remaining at a lowish relative humidity. As that air moves to a colder room, its relative humidity might easily hit 100% and cause condensation.

Leave the thermostats set that way all year. When the weather warms up,the radiators will not come on. Why have TRV's and turn the knobs yourself?

thor

matelodave wrote: »

The boiler will only generate as much heat as the radiators will dissipate, so if you turn some of them off or right down then the boiler won't run as much.

This is something I have asked about before and contradicts the impression I was given that even if all the TRVs are turned completely off, if the central thermostat is triggered, then the boiler will continuously heat a set amount of water to a certain temperature which will not be released to the radiators(until their trvs are turned on).
I was also once advised by a gas engineer to always keep one or two radiators switched on and to use the central thermostat as the main temperature regulator so that any heated water could flow away from the boiler. If the heated water remained in the boiler at all times this could cause it damage apparently.