New build house. Cannot heat above 18.5 degrees

ps2mint

Hi all,
Recently have purchased a new build property. We are pleased with the house and snags have been addressed, but our main issue is with the heating!

Basically we cannot heat the house above 18.5 degrees (even with the boiler continually running). 

We have the boiler set at 75 degrees for the heating.

Our thermostat is based in the hallway. We have a small single panel radiator in the hall which I’m certain isn’t big enough to heat the space which is causing the thermostat to not click off.

Does anyone have any solutions to this? We are seriously considering replacing the radiator with a double panel.

Thanks

74jax

How hot can you get it? I don't mean the hall, but the other rooms. Are they hot enough?
If the hall isn't getting to 18.5 then every room with keep heating up. How hot do you want the hall? 
Can you move the thermostat to the room you are in. Or learn if the rooms are at a comfortable temp, the hall is 18,so you know too set it at 18?

ps2mint

Thanks for the reply. The highest it can get to is 18.7.
Rooms have thermostatic valves and are warm enough, so I suppose I need to change the thermostat to 18.5 and leave it there so at least the boiler cuts off.

canaldumidi

ps2mint said:

....

Our thermostat is based in the hallway. We have a small single panel radiator in the hall which I’m certain isn’t big enough to heat the space which is causing the thermostat to not click off.

Why do you want the stat to click off if you are complaining that the house is to cold? Increasig the size of the hall rad might warm up the hall and turn off the stat, but then the rest of the house will get colder.

Is your problem just the hall, or are other rooms also too cold?

robotrobo

Hi.
Is your thermostat hard wired on the wall in the hallway ?, or is a wireless one that you can take off the wall ?, and take it with you in any room .
i suspect its fixed to the hallway wall.
myself i would concentrate on getting the living room up to the desired temperature first,Have you got single panel rads in that room ?,if so i  would replace them first with doubles
usually now adays new build are generally well insulated, before you shell out any money i would get advice from a heating engineer first.
replaceing the hallway rad will improve the output, which may well switch the heating off sooner. without the living front room reaching your desired heat.
 i am putting a new double in our cold bedroom as well shortly

in our case the central heating once its reached the 20 degrees ?. is backed up with the gas fire ,our gas and electric bills have been about £800 per year, up to press as we know we will all be in for a shock come april when things change.

74jax

I'm confused.

You say you can't heat the house above 18.5, but then say the rooms are warm enough with their individual thermostats, but the hall isn't.  Do you mean you can't heat the HALL above 18.5? In which case, yes I think your plan to add a double radiator could help. What space are you needing to heat (Hall stairs landing) and what size radiator do you currently have.

What builder and house type is it? 

theoretica

That sort of fixed thermostat is supposed to be in a less heated part of the house - and then a sort of juggling game - setting the thermostat to 17 might make the heater switch off when the living room is a comfortable temperature.  You probably need to forget that the numbers on it are degrees and just treat them as an arbitrary scale you adjust to taste or to switch off about the time the thermostatic valves in the other rooms switch off the radiators.

74jax

canaldumidi said:

ps2mint said:

....

Our thermostat is based in the hallway. We have a small single panel radiator in the hall which I’m certain isn’t big enough to heat the space which is causing the thermostat to not click off.

Why do you want the stat to click off if you are complaining that the house is to cold? Increasig the size of the hall rad might warm up the hall and turn off the stat, but then the rest of the house will get colder.

Is your problem just the hall, or are other rooms also too cold?

The op says Rooms have thermostatic valves and are warm enough so I'm guessing it's just the hall. 

ps2mint

Thanks for all of the replies. Yes, living room and downstairs are all ok. We have two big radiators in there.

The situation is a bit more difficult as we have two heating zones. We don’t currently heat upstairs during the day. We keep all doors closed upstairs though but some heat may be drifting upstairs.

Also don’t really understand how to set two zones efficiently in the house as never had this set up in previous houses.

Sanctioned_Parts_List

Even with thermostatic valves on radiators, the heating system will still need balancing, which developers never bother to do.

Simply put, turn off heating, wait for everything to get a little cold. Make sure the thermostatic valves on all radiators are set to max, and the throttle valves on the opposite sides of the radiators are all fully open. Also, fully bleed the radiators. Turn the heating on and walk around noting which radiators heat up first. Turn their throttle valves down so they heat more slowly. Repeat until all radiators heat up roughly evenly. 

canaldumidi

So you just want to heat the hall more? Put in a biger rad, then set the stat at whatever temp gets the hall up to a comfortable level.

Then turn down the rad stats in other rooms so they switch off when that room is comfortable even if the boiler is still firing to heat the hall.

If your front door opens straight into the hall consider either adding an external porch, a curtain over the door, or an internal lobby - anything to stop the warm air in the hall rushing out every time the front door is opened.