Radiator thermostats

Astria

FreeBear said:

Astria said:

MouldyOldDough said:

How many people actually use their radiator thermostats?
We simply run our boiler for say 30 minutes at a time and the room temperature never reaches the cut off....
This is why we Ihave low bills 

Don't have any radiator thermostats, the cost outweighs the benefit.

Heating is on 24/7 in the winter, controlled by a thermostat in the lounge set to 18c when someone is in there or 12c when not. The other radiators get far less flow so naturally those rooms are cooler.

Reduced flow and a failure to heat the other rooms satisfactorily suggests that the radiators are not balanced properly. If you are using the other rooms, having TRVs and a well balanced system will make more efficient use of your boiler.

A basic white angled 15mm TRV is less than £9 from somewhere like Screwfix. Unless your heating system is really old (pre metricification) the valve should be a straight swap.

Odd, when we asked, we were quoted £50 per radiator to have TRVs installed, plus would need the system drained and refilled. House was built in the 90s.

During winter, the main room is the lounge hence the thermostat in there. The other rooms are cooler, but they are acceptable, we wouldn't want them to be any warmer as the energy would just be wasted for how often they are used during winter.

sienew

Astria said:

FreeBear said:

Astria said:

MouldyOldDough said:

How many people actually use their radiator thermostats?
We simply run our boiler for say 30 minutes at a time and the room temperature never reaches the cut off....
This is why we Ihave low bills 

Don't have any radiator thermostats, the cost outweighs the benefit.

Heating is on 24/7 in the winter, controlled by a thermostat in the lounge set to 18c when someone is in there or 12c when not. The other radiators get far less flow so naturally those rooms are cooler.

Reduced flow and a failure to heat the other rooms satisfactorily suggests that the radiators are not balanced properly. If you are using the other rooms, having TRVs and a well balanced system will make more efficient use of your boiler.

A basic white angled 15mm TRV is less than £9 from somewhere like Screwfix. Unless your heating system is really old (pre metricification) the valve should be a straight swap.

Odd, when we asked, we were quoted £50 per radiator to have TRVs installed, plus would need the system drained and refilled. House was built in the 90s.

During winter, the main room is the lounge hence the thermostat in there. The other rooms are cooler, but they are acceptable, we wouldn't want them to be any warmer as the energy would just be wasted for how often they are used during winter.

£50 each with labour is about right.

If you are handy and can do it yourself the parts are about £10 each.

2Sheds

Don't buy or let the plumber fit the really cheap ones, we had 3 leak within a couple of years. So ended buying Drayton and changing the whole house. 

Sterlingtimes

sienew said:

Sterlingtimes said:

I could set our bedrooms for the winter as follows:

07:45 to 10:00 21 degrees
10:00 to 20:00 OFF
20:00 to 22:30 21 degrees
22:30 to 07:45 OFF

But would it be wise to set the 10:00 to 20:00 temperature at say 15 degrees rather than switching OFF?
 

I'm not judging your use but 21 degrees is quite a lot higher than average, most set to 18 degrees.

It's said that every degree over 18 degrees increases your bill by 10%. I'm not sure this is exactly accurate but gives a rough idea of the increased cost and how it can multiply.

Presumably nobody is home between 10:00 and 20:00? If so, switching it off is the cheapest.

Rather than off at any time of day I'd still set it at a very low minimum (mine automatically selects 5 degrees) just as an additional frost protection, it shouldn't ever get below that temp but if it does the heating should really be coming on no matter what time of day it is.

Thank you. That is really helpful.

There are a couple of factors at play in selecting a temperature of 21 degrees: my father ran a hot house during my youth, having lived in warmer climates himself, and I take leukaemia medication that has the side effect of making me feel colder. I am aware that many people feel content with 18 degrees. 

Sterlingtimes

2Sheds said:

Don't buy or let the plumber fit the really cheap ones, we had 3 leak within a couple of years. So ended buying Drayton and changing the whole house. 

My boiler has been controlled by Drayton MiGenie for seven years. At five years plus, I had an issue, and Drayton provided first-class support. Drayton even provided new components and was interested enough to recover the defective components to work out where the fault resided. I have now swapped out MiGenie for Wiser.

It helps that the Drayton product is manufactured in England. 

I bought the Wiser smart radiator valves a couple of weeks ago for £38 each and fitted all twelve valves within an hour.

MouldyOldDough

Sterlingtimes said:

sienew said:

Sterlingtimes said:

I could set our bedrooms for the winter as follows:

07:45 to 10:00 21 degrees
10:00 to 20:00 OFF
20:00 to 22:30 21 degrees
22:30 to 07:45 OFF

But would it be wise to set the 10:00 to 20:00 temperature at say 15 degrees rather than switching OFF?
 

I'm not judging your use but 21 degrees is quite a lot higher than average, most set to 18 degrees.

It's said that every degree over 18 degrees increases your bill by 10%. I'm not sure this is exactly accurate but gives a rough idea of the increased cost and how it can multiply.

Presumably nobody is home between 10:00 and 20:00? If so, switching it off is the cheapest.

Rather than off at any time of day I'd still set it at a very low minimum (mine automatically selects 5 degrees) just as an additional frost protection, it shouldn't ever get below that temp but if it does the heating should really be coming on no matter what time of day it is.

Thank you. That is really helpful.

There are a couple of factors at play in selecting a temperature of 21 degrees: my father ran a hot house during my youth, having lived in warmer climates himself, and I take leukaemia medication that has the side effect of making me feel colder. I am aware that many people feel content with 18 degrees. 

We keep our house at a minimum of 15 degrees 

Rodders53

Sterlingtimes said:

I bought the Wiser smart radiator valves a couple of weeks ago for £38 each and fitted all twelve valves within an hour.

Valve Heads - the bit that operates the valve that is screwed into the radiator and adjust the hot water flow.

Changing normal (non TRV) valves in a radiator for TRV valves takes considerably longer than simply swapping TRV heads.

Spoonie_Turtle

Hope it's okay to ask here, as it's on topic but not actually answering the original question - is it true that the numbers correspond to actual temperatures regardless of what the heating's set to?  We have a heat pump, if that makes any difference.

I think I understand the basic premise, they turn off water flow once the room gets to the relevant temperature, but I'd assumed the numbers on the valves were relative to the temperature of the overall thermostat, not independent temperatures regardless.

[Deleted User]

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Hope it's okay to ask here, as it's on topic but not actually answering the original question - is it true that the numbers correspond to actual temperatures regardless of what the heating's set to?  We have a heat pump, if that makes any difference.

I think I understand the basic premise, they turn off water flow once the room gets to the relevant temperature, but I'd assumed the numbers on the valves were relative to the temperature of the overall thermostat, not independent temperatures regardless.

TRVs (unless they're smart ones) have no idea what your thermostat is set to.

Alnat1

They vary slightly by make and model but usually
* is 5-7C
1 is 10C
2 is 15C
3 is 20C
4 is 25C
5 is 30C