Best way to keep landing heated using central heating?

PopeSock

I've finally got to grips with the idea of using the TRV valves on my radiator - ta for the advice on this forum - and the thermostat. However, I'm wondering what the most efficent way of heating the landing is?

I rent a three floor house which is quite thin. The lounge is on the top, the bedroom and bathroom are on the middle floor and the kitchen (doh - edited) is on the bottom.

I'd ideally like to now heat the upstairs, 2nd floor bedroom and third floor lounge, and landing again without heating the kitchen too much. However, I don't have a radiator on the landing. I have a very large radiator in the kitchen, the same room where the thermostat is. I have a medium sized one in the lounge, a slightly smaller one in the bedroom and a really small radiator in the bedroom.

It seems like I have two options - unless anyone can suggest others..

1) Leave all the radiators on, since the heat in the kitchen will presumably drift upwards - it's got a very open staircase with no door.

2) Use the upstairs radiators, but open the door so that the heat from the bathroom and lounge radiator heats the landing.

I also have an electric portable heater, with a thermostat, but I gather they're far more expensive to run than gas, which is what my central heating uses.

Any advice?

Cardew

PopeSock wrote: »

I rent a three floor house which is quite thin. The lounge is on the top, the bedroom and bathroom are on the middle floor and the lounge is on the bottom.

not understood!


Where is the thermostat?

PopeSock

Cardew wrote: »

not understood!


Where is the thermostat?

Whoops. The thermostat is in the kitchen. The bottom floor's the kitchen.

windup

if there are no radiators in the vicinity, use the electric on low, and keep the doors shut

the only way to find the answer is to try it.

reeac

It sounds as if the ground floor kitchen may suffer from overheating due to the large rad. and input from cooking operations. That could be cured by letting the warmth convect upstairs which would compensate somewhat for any inadequate radiators there. I suggest that you set the radiator valve in the lounge to max. And those in the bathroom and bedrooms to a mid level. Then try different valve settings in the kitchen to see if you can get an appropriate balance between the different rooms. Try all of this with an average, say 20C , setting for the room stat. . The ideal would be to achieve a suitable balance using the TRVs s and adjust overall temp. with the room stat.

PopeSock

reeac wrote: »

It sounds as if the ground floor kitchen may suffer from overheating due to the large rad. and input from cooking operations. That could be cured by letting the warmth convect upstairs which would compensate somewhat for any inadequate radiators there. I suggest that you set the radiator valve in the lounge to max. And those in the bathroom and bedrooms to a mid level. Then try different valve settings in the kitchen to see if you can get an appropriate balance between the different rooms. Try all of this with an average, say 20C , setting for the room stat. . The ideal would be to achieve a suitable balance using the TRVs s and adjust overall temp. with the room stat.

Thanks - I'll give that a go. Should I keep the bathroom and bedroom doors, closed to keep the heat in, or potentially let the heat out to heat the landing?

Biggles

Get the thermostat out of the kitchen; it's totally the wrong place, especially with a large radiator in the same room.

Can you move it to outside the kitchen door, eg at the foot of the stairs?

missbiggles1

Why do you want to heat the landing?

Cardew

I appreciate you are renting, but perhaps the landlord would get a remote portable thermostat fitted??

PopeSock

Biggles wrote: »

Get the thermostat out of the kitchen; it's totally the wrong place, especially with a large radiator in the same room.

Can you move it to outside the kitchen door, eg at the foot of the stairs?

I can't move it, as I'm renting. It's at the bottom of the lower stairs, in the kitchen. There's no actual kitchen door, the stairs/kitchen are open.

lstar337

PopeSock wrote: »

I can't move it, as I'm renting. It's at the bottom of the lower stairs, in the kitchen. There's no actual kitchen door, the stairs/kitchen are open.

You could fit a remote stat in place of the current one and just return it to normal when you leave.