Keeping Doors Shut When Using TRVs

chewthecarpet

Hi, any opinions would be welcome.
I have a small bungalow consisting of living room, kitchen, two bedrooms and bathroom. The thermostat is mounted in the hall and I have TRVs on all rads except the hall. I do not heat the bedrooms so the TRVs there are turned down to no1, but I do not shut the doors because it is important to keep air flowing to stop mildew problems. My question is this: will the cold air from the bedrooms mean that the wall thermostat is telling the boiler to work flat-out to heat the house, because the hall is never getting up to the set temperature? Should I just turn up all the TRVs so that the boiler is shutting down more often?

Thank you.

roddydogs

Get a radio controlled thermostat and keep it in your main living room.

tim_p

If the bedrooms are cold and open to the hallway then yes, they will affect the thermostat and you’ll be throwing away heat via the bedroom.

matelodave

Heat move towards cold (not the other way) so any heat you are producing in the hall will percolate into the bedrooms and the hall rad is then trying to heat both the bedrooms as well as the hall. As it's probably not been sized to heat that size of space then the thermostat may never turn off.

Talldave

Setting a massive difference between thermostats and leaving doors open is illogical, because all you're doing is very slowly heating the entire place with the radiator(s) with higher TRV settings. Eventually the whole place will be at the same temperature but it'll take forever to get there. 

If the bedrooms were on 4 and elsewhere on 5, the effect would be less noticeable.

chewthecarpet

Thanks, that is what I thought. I'm leaning towards keeping the bedroom doors open during the day when the heating is off, but closing them when it is on.

RelievedSheff

Unless you have a really bad damp or condensation issue then shutting your bedroom doors should not cause a problem with mildew.

FreeBear

chewthecarpet said: I do not heat the bedrooms so the TRVs there are turned down to no1, but I do not shut the doors because it is important to keep air flowing to stop mildew problems.

At a setting of 1, the TRV will be shutting the radiator off at around 10-12°C - Way too cold for a bedroom. When you go to sleep, all that warm, moist air that you exhale will condense on the cold walls. Turn the TRV up to 2 (15-16°C) or preferably 3 (18-20°C), and you'll have less of a problem with condensation.