Turning off radiators to heat one room?

PopeSock

I've got gas central heating, and at times only need to heat one or two rooms. I've heard that the way to do this is to turn the radiators in the other rooms off.

However, other people have said this doesn't work. Are there temperature sensors in each room typically, or does it take the temperature from near the physical thermostat? So if I turned all radiators off but the lounge one - the thermostat being in the kitchen - would it just turn the lounge radiator on till it heated the whole house?

I'm trying to save energy on heating, so would turning of all but the lounge radiator - eg putting the dial down to zero -work? Or would I better buying an electric heater?

windup

if you've got dials (thermostatic radiator valves), just set them properly to suit your requirements, low (0/1) in unused rooms, low to medium (1/2/3) in occasional rooms, medium (3/4)in the one you live in. Then they will all shut off themselves when the room reaches the set temp, and redirect boiler heat to the rooms not upto temp.

You need to leave a couple of radiators on (bathroom/hall/kitchen are usual suspects) to protect the pump

It can be cheaper to heat one room with a fan heater, but bear in mind electricity costs 3 times more than gas, and the rest of the house will be uncomfortably cold in the depths of winter.

The thermostat in kitchen, turns the pump off or on depending on current temp of the room it's in, and what you have set the thermostat to, so what happens in the whole house depends on the temp in that room. if that switch isn't on, no hot water will be pumped, so it needs to be set high enough to maintain pumping elsewhere

victor2

Turn down the radiators in the rooms you don't need to heat.
Your kitchen needs to be heated by the central heating if that's where the thermostat is. Even if most of your radiators have TRVs (valves with numbers on them usually), the one nearest the main thermostat shouldn't. Experiment with the thermostat so that the lounge is being heated enough - turn it up higher with only the lounge and kitchen radiators getting hot. If the lounge radiator has a TRV on it, use that to get a comfortable temperature in the lounge. Then reduce the thermostat setting slightly so that the heating pump turns off. You shouldn't need to buy an electric heater.

PopeSock

So given that the thermostat's in the kitchen, it's going to get heated no matter what if I have the heating on?

victor2

PopeSock wrote: »

So given that the thermostat's in the kitchen, it's going to get heated no matter what if I have the heating on?

It should do unless you turn that radiator off. But then the thermostat would never be able to control the heating as it is intended.

matelodave

You could change the kitchen stat for wireless one - you can then put into any room you like. Just ensure that the radiator in the room with the stat has the TRV fully open.

modsandmockers

How much simpler would it be if each radiator had an electrically-operated valve which could be opened and closed from a single programmable control panel in the kitchen or hallway, backed up with a simple override switch (on/off) next to the light switch in every room?

john.o1

When my heating broke down I only heated one room with a 2 kWh fan heater.

While the room I was in was warm the rest of the house was cold and damp.

Took me back to the days of a coal fire in the lounge and no heating elsewhere in the house.

I would never heat just one room again.

I was so glad when my heating was fixed.

However there is nothing to stop you trying it out.

Report back telling us how you got on.

windup

what will happen in the kitchen depends on what valves are installed, what setting they are on, what temp the room is, and what temp the stat is set to.

you can heat the rest of the house and leave the kitchen cold if you wish, or vice versa, the wall thermostat is just an on/off switch, you decide at what temp is turns on and off.

matelodave

windup wrote: »

what will happen in the kitchen depends on what valves are installed, what setting they are on, what temp the room is, and what temp the stat is set to.

you can heat the rest of the house and leave the kitchen cold if you wish, or vice versa, the wall thermostat is just an on/off switch, you decide at what temp is turns on and off.

This is wrong - the thermostat that controls your heating has to be in a room that is heated by the heating system. If you shut the rad down in that room it won't get heated and the stat won't switch off and the heating will run continuously.
Conversly if you turn the stat down then the heating system wont come on at all.

Cardew

matelodave wrote: »

This is wrong - the thermostat that controls your heating has to be in a room that is heated by the heating system. If you shut the rad down in that room it won't get heated and the stat won't switch off and the heating will run continuously.

Without being pedantic, I don't think that is what you meant to say.


The pump will run continuously in the scenario described in your quote. However the boiler will switch on and off(cycle) as the water reaches the temperature set on the boiler thermostat.