New house heating issues

kittykat7210

Hello, our brand new build house is wonderfully toasty in the lounge, but FREEZING upstairs, I’m especially worried for my daughters room (she’s 15 months) which is normally 4-5C lower than the thermostat setting and drops temperature very quickly, I’ve put thermo blinds up but it’s not made a bit of difference!

Is this a fault? Or should I wait for a bit? We’re in a semi and our neighbours have no problem with their heating however they were moved in 2 months before we were!

Any advice/experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Streaky_Bacon

If you have TRV valves on the radiators, you might want to consider turning them up in the cold areas and down in the hot areas, especially where the thermostat is. If you make it warm near the thermostat, that will obviously switch the heating off and no longer heat the cold area.

dj1471

Have you bled the radiators?

I had a new build where they just left the system full of air.

D_M_E

Has it had zoned heating controls installed - one zone for downstairs and another for upstairs?

kittykat7210

I haven’t bled the radiators, I’ve never done that so I’ll get my father in law to try that, annoyingly the only radiators that I can’t individually turn down are the two in the lounge where the thermostat is 🙄 the rest are all on full but I WISH I could turn down the ones near the thermostat, would help the problem at least, I still don’t understand why the upstairs loses heat so quickly as well 🤷🏻!

kittykat7210

No zone temperature control either, I’m really stumped!

wavelets

kittykat7210 wrote: »

I haven’t bled the radiators, I’ve never done that so I’ll get my father in law to try that, annoyingly the only radiators that I can’t individually turn down are the two in the lounge where the thermostat is 🙄 the rest are all on full but I WISH I could turn down the ones near the thermostat, would help the problem at least, I still don’t understand why the upstairs loses heat so quickly as well 🤷🏻!

There should be a manual valve on the radiators, even if no TRV.
Restricting the flow will reduce the amount of heat given out, even to the extent you could turn them off completely if necessary.

But heat rises, so consider just opening the doors and get some air around the house

Other than that, there is no fault, as most central heating systems are designed so that bedrooms do not heat up as warm as living areas.

This is quite old now (12 years), but I see no reason for the recommendation to have changed.

21C - recommended living room temperature

18C - recommended bedroom temperature

Source: West Midlands Public Health Observatory
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5372296.stm

matelodave

As others have said, you need to ensure that all the radiators are bled to ensure that water can flow through them all - you can usually identify a rad with air in it as it may only get warm or hot down at the bottom. Here's how to do it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVP1rbzk4DU

The others thing is to balance the system so that each radiator gets it's fair share of hot water - it's very easy to do. Have a look at this video on how to do it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6slCr3Vdv1g

Lastly you need to be able to reduce the heat output of the rads in the lounge so that the rest of the house gets sufficient heat before the room stat shuts down. Alternatively change your room stat for a wireless stat and then relocate it to a place where it's more representative of the whole house temperature.

tacpot12

kittykat7210 wrote: »

... annoyingly the only radiators that I can’t individually turn down are the two in the lounge where the thermostat is �� the rest are all on full but I WISH I could turn down the ones near the thermostat, would help the problem at least, I still don’t understand why the upstairs loses heat so quickly as well ����!

I'm sorry you are struggling with the poor heating controls we have in the UK, the two radiators in the lounge are designed to controlled by the thermostat!

The thermostat should be installed in the room that loses heat quickest, and that room should have heat emitters (radiators) that are only just big enough to heat the room. All the other rooms should have radiators that are bigger than necessary to heat the room and have a TRV. This way when the room with the thermostat needs heat the heating will come on and all the other rooms will get up to the TRV limited temperature before the room with the thermostat. It is a !!!! design, the UK persists with it because plumbers sort of understand it. The problem is never explain it to their customers!

Adjusting the manual valves on the radiators in the lounge will reduce the heat they output, so the lounge will take longer to come up to temperature but at least all the other rooms should be at their TRV limited temperature by the time this happens.

Upstairs might be losing heat because of a lack of insulation. You could try adding more into the loft.

System

There is some excellent advice above but I confess that I am a little confused. My wife and I recently downsized to a modest new build and the house is divided into 2 heating zones in accordance with the latest Building Regulations:

Quote: Every home must be divided into at least two heating zones, using a thermostat controlling a motorised valve. If the house is smaller (less than 150m2), then these can be controlled by the same timer.

If the house is larger (more than 150m2), then each zone must be controlled by its own timer.

Every radiator should be fitted with a radiator thermostat, unless it is the reference radiator for a thermostat (i.e. the radiator where the room thermostat is fitted). Unquote

It should be possible therefore to leave the upstairs zone on overnight; however, you need to make sure the the zone temperature is set high enough to keep the CH zone valve open. My upstairs thermostat is on the landing which is heated by hot air rising from the hallway as well as the adjacent upstairs radiators. Turn down the TRV settings in upstairs rooms that you do not wish to heat. Radiator balancing is a must but if the radiator in your daughter's bedroom is getting hot then this is not the nub of the problem. A room will only stay at a given temperature when the incoming heat equals the heat loss from the room. If the radiator is on hot and your boiler is set at its design operating max flow temperature, then you have an under sized radiator or heat loss through the walls; ceiling or floor. With a new build, none of these should be issues if the property was built and signed off properly. Is the bedroom by any chance over an integral garage?

I would put your concerns to the Builder in writing. If you are not happy with the response, then take the matter to the NHBC.

Finally, when I showed your post to my wife she gently reminded me that during cold Winters we spent a lot of our time scrapping frost off the inside of our baby daughters' bedrooms. Please do not take this as a criticism; it is just an observation that babies did survive in the days before central heating.

kittykat7210

Unfortunately our house is under 150sqm so it’s not required to have zone heating controls! I’m only 23 and we saved up our deposit whilst renting so it’s not huge but it’s ours ❤️ We’re hoping to upsize in 3-4 years to have a 4th bedroom for another little one!

We have managed to find a ‘leaky’ window so we’ve sealed that up and it really does seem to be helping, her room is now only 2 degrees lower than the lounge and doesn’t lose heat anywhere near as quickly!

Thank you everyone for the replies, hopefully we’ll be able to sort all the heating out soon 😊