Heat one room or all with Combi

destiny234

I have a Combi boiler (newly serviced) in my council 1 bed flat.
I have started just putting a radiator on in just one room just for an hour or so obviously with door shut.
I have the radiator on max to heat up quickly, the room stat is in the hall so doesn`t apply here.
The trouble is the boiler is `going` constantly whilst this is happening for the whole hour or so.
My question is.... if the boiler is going constantly anyway what difference would it make to my bill to have `all` the radiators on?

Smiley_Dan

IANAHE (I Am Not A Heating Engineer) however the boiler will keep going because a vast majority of radiator valves (TRV or not) will not turn a boiler on or off - that's the job of thermostatic sensors, either whole house or room by room. So if you want the boiler to turn off you either need to do it yourself, use a timer programmer or use a thermostat with "boiler interlock".

That said, going by my own boiler, it has more states than "on" and "off". Sometimes it's firing, sometimes it's just ticking over, sometimes it's just pumping the water around the circuit... This will happen, for instance, because the boiler itself has a thermostat for the temperature of water leaving the boiler. Because of THAT, having all your rads on WILL make a difference because there's more water to heat.

I'm not sure what the energy use is in all cases. It might be that although it's on it's not using much energy... it might depend on your type of boiler. Condensing? If unsure, how new?

matelodave

If your thermostat is in the hall and you shut the doors and the hall rad is shut off then the hall won't get warm and the stat won't shut off the boiler.

The thermostat has to be in a room that is heated by the heating system otherwise it doesn't know when to shut the boiler down.
If you don't want to heat the hall then you've got to move the stat to a room that you do want to heat.

The radiator in the room with the thermostat must also have any TRV opened fully otherwise it will compete with the room stat and you won't have proper control of the boiler.

The easiest way to do it is to replace it with a wireless programmable stat - they are less than £50 - see here http://www.amazon.co.uk/Salus-RT500RF-Programmable-Frequency-Thermostat/dp/B003ERP1LE.

They are easy to install - the receiver unit is connected to the boiler and the thermostat unit can then be used in whichever room you want without having trailing wires about. You can set different temperatures for different times of the day (and different days of the week if you want)

shammyjack

If you are only heating one room with all other rads turned off you need to move your thermostat from the hall to the room .

As the hall rad is off the thermostat is calling for heat all the time and you boiler runs constant until it hits its preset water temperature .

You also need to balance the room rads by turning down the lockshield valve on the opposite side to your TRV so that you get at least a 12 degree drop in temperature from the top of your radiators to the bottom .

The return temperature to your boiler needs to be under 55 C otherwise it will not operate in condensation mode at its most efficient . This is very hard to achieve when only running 1 or 2 rads. You may need to turn down your boiler heat control to achieve this .

Have a look at the following links

http://www.homebuilding.co.uk/advice/DIY/how-balance-radiators


https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=how%20to%20balance%20radiators%20without%20thermometer

lstar337

FYI, turning up the rad stat does not make your room heat up faster.

imho

matelodave wrote: »

The easiest way to do it is to replace it with a wireless programmable stat - they are less than £50 - see here http://www.amazon.co.uk/Salus-RT500RF-Programmable-Frequency-Thermostat/dp/B003ERP1LE.

They are easy to install - the receiver unit is connected to the boiler and the thermostat unit can then be used in whichever room you want without having trailing wires about. You can set different temperatures for different times of the day (and different days of the week if you want)

£35 now

Farway

The OP is in a Council flat, so altering or moving the thermostat could be be problem

I suggest open up the hall radiator where the the thermostat is located, not ideal, but you have limited choices as you do not own the property

shammyjack

My Daughter is in a HA ex Council House and I have altered all sorts to make her life better. Just move it , believe me they will not have a clue you have done it. Wait for them to alter and you will still be waiting in 10 years time !