Help with radiatior thermastats and heating our living room

mbbetter

Any help greatly appreciated. I'm trying to heat our living room more effectively without heating the whole house ground floor.

We live in a pretty small semi-detatched victorian house. We have a combi boiler with thermastat valves on every radiator, and my question is how do I set these to heat the living room. Here is the set up.

(the rooms are laied out in this order:))

Living room - small radiator near window - much colder than rest of house.
Dining room - fairly warm - the boiler thermastat is located in this room - near the kitchen)
Kitchen - effiecient radiatror after cooking pretty comforatble.


The problem is my wife gets cold in the living room, so she cranks the thermastat in the dining room up to 21-22, and eventually the living room gets warm. But the dining room and kitchen are also blasting away (its only the 2 of us, so after 8pm this seems pointless).

Is it as simple as dropping the thermastats in the dining room / kitchen? Then the boiler will just keep heating the living room rather than all three room.

Any idea what number to set the radiators to? The numbers mean nothing to me.

Cheers in advance, and sorry if this is a stooopid question.

Thanks

colinsmithathome

Dear mbb,

yes it is as simple as that

The thermostatic radiator valves' (TRV) numbering is not an absolute quantity. Trial and error is the way. They may be different from manufacturer to manufacturer and even room to room.

Try turning the valves down one number at a time in the rooms you want to keep cool. Be aware TRVs do stick especially if left fully off or on for a while. If you get all the way off (or on) and the rad stays hot (or cold respectively) then it's time for a new one,

regards,
Colin

pixiepie99

Sounds like you'd benefit from investing in an extra/bigger radiator in your living room. They don't cost very much to buy and get installed as long as you go for a bog standard one (obviously the "designer" types are more).

mbbetter

Colin - Many thanks for you swift response!

I'll have a few nights experimenting as I guess there are no hard and fast rules. I think its the boiler thermastat that is confusing me. I guess room thermastats are the way to go. Ideally I'd like the living room to be 20 and the dining room / kitchen to bet 17/18. But with the thermastat in the dining room, I can't quite figure out what to set it at.

The problem we may have is that in the mornings we want thing in reverse... don't care about the living room, but want warmth in the kitchen and dining room.

Talk about complicated.

I guess the solution is to walk around turn rads on off, but I don't fancy that.

Cheers!

mbbetter

pixiepie99 wrote: »

Sounds like you'd benefit from investing in an extra/bigger radiator in your living room. They don't cost very much to buy and get installed as long as you go for a bog standard one (obviously the "designer" types are more).

Thanks Pixiepie,

I guess a bigger radiator would be a good idea. We have an open fire in the room and when we use that at weekend we are well toasty! however during the week we both work and its a bit of hassle to set-up the fire.

I'm just keen to heat the living room from 7-11pm in the cheapest way possible (when the open fire isn't going). I have a 2kw electric heater I could use and turn the heating off all together, but I think its more effieicent to use gas on the rad (but not heat the other two rooms?)

Cheers! :j

I_have_spoken

The problem we may have is that in the mornings we want thing in reverse...

Terrier i-temp programmable radiator controls

Also, ideally you should remove TRV on radiator in living room where the boiler thermostat is located but most peeps would just set it to max.

Richie-from-the-Boro

mbbetter wrote: »

Thanks Pixiepie,

I guess a bigger radiator would be a good idea. We have an open fire in the room and when we use that at weekend we are well toasty! however during the week we both work and its a bit of hassle to set-up the fire.

I'm just keen to heat the living room from 7-11pm in the cheapest way possible (when the open fire isn't going). I have a 2kw electric heater I could use and turn the heating off all together, but I think its more effieicent to use gas on the rad (but not heat the other two rooms?)

Cheers! :j

A chimney without an effective restrictor where outside air does vent into the room would lose 8kWh per 24 hours of heat .......... for those who can not for whatever reason have double glazing ponder the following :

Heat Loss Reduction Values are ish !

- secondary glazing + insulated shutters 77%
- secondary glazing + heavy curtains 66%
- stand alone insulated shutters 60%
- double-glazing 55%
- honeycomb blinds 36%
- modern insulated roller blinds 22%

amtrakuk

Have a look at - http://www.homesupply.co.uk/radiator_output_calculator.php

If you fill out the Calculator and chose "standard" radiator type you can compare the radiator you have with what they suggest.

People think undersizing a radiator will save money, false economy - sadly it wont radiate enough heat into the room.

Also checkout the recommended heat 21-24 is recommended for living rooms - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5372296.stm