Turning off Heating whilst away for long periods?

Leodogger

bagand96 said:

Leodogger said:

Just renewed my home insurance and they said just to ensure the frost stats are set on all the TRV's and boiler.   The Boiler is new with a frost stat and I have frost stats on all the radiators except two, the bathroom and the hall (1st off the system which is always on when the heating is on), but have been told they won't matter.    So do I need to leave the heating thermostat on all day and night with the frost stats set or for only part of the day/night ?   They never mentioned that.

You're looking at 2 sets of settings - the general heating and the TRVs.  Your heating thermostat/controller is the overall control dictating when the heating is on or off based on the time and temperatures set.  The TRVs work on top of that and will respond to their setting for each room.  

As you say set heating thermostat to frost protection and the TRVs. To be honest you could leave the TRVs on their normal setting, because if the heating thermostat is set to frost protection then the heating won't be coming on so the TRV setting doesn't matter.

If I was away for that long I might consider setting the heating to come on maybe once a week to warm the house through, particularly in the coldest months.

So if I understand your meaning, I could leave the TRV's on Frost setting and set remote control to the hours we normally use (7 hrs a day to come on) and it will just keep the room temperatures above freezing.   Is that right?

bagand96

Leodogger said:

bagand96 said:

Leodogger said:

Just renewed my home insurance and they said just to ensure the frost stats are set on all the TRV's and boiler.   The Boiler is new with a frost stat and I have frost stats on all the radiators except two, the bathroom and the hall (1st off the system which is always on when the heating is on), but have been told they won't matter.    So do I need to leave the heating thermostat on all day and night with the frost stats set or for only part of the day/night ?   They never mentioned that.

You're looking at 2 sets of settings - the general heating and the TRVs.  Your heating thermostat/controller is the overall control dictating when the heating is on or off based on the time and temperatures set.  The TRVs work on top of that and will respond to their setting for each room.  

As you say set heating thermostat to frost protection and the TRVs. To be honest you could leave the TRVs on their normal setting, because if the heating thermostat is set to frost protection then the heating won't be coming on so the TRV setting doesn't matter.

If I was away for that long I might consider setting the heating to come on maybe once a week to warm the house through, particularly in the coldest months.

So if I understand your meaning, I could leave the TRV's on Frost setting and set remote control to the hours we normally use (7 hrs a day to come on) and it will just keep the room temperatures above freezing.   Is that right?

You could do it that way. Or you could leave your TRVs on their usual settings and leave the main heating thermostat on frost protect and that would achieve the same.

It depends exactly how your system is set up but if you do it the way you suggested then the radiators without a TRV will heat up each day as heating comes on. 

Leodogger

I suppose I could leave the thermostat set to "Off" which is the Frost setting set at 5c to stop the pipes freezing up.

Rodders53

Most insurance companies demand a set 12C or similar heat level to protect water pipes in loft spaces and similar for a reason (based on their homeowner claims experience....  To low and it might not allow enough heat to leak in to ventilated lofts / under floors...

Ideal course of action is to drain down all water; and/or consider antifreeze in the heating circuits.

Frost/freezing isn't the only thing that might lead to an escape of water.  Mice seem to love plastic pipes used in modern houses (as we discovered a few years back).

Leodogger

Rodders53 said:

Most insurance companies demand a set 12C or similar heat level to protect water pipes in loft spaces and similar for a reason (based on their homeowner claims experience....  To low and it might not allow enough heat to leak in to ventilated lofts / under floors...

Ideal course of action is to drain down all water; and/or consider antifreeze in the heating circuits.

Frost/freezing isn't the only thing that might lead to an escape of water.  Mice seem to love plastic pipes used in modern houses (as we discovered a few years back).

Well our insurance company didn't stipulate a heat setting, just said it was OK if all stats were on the "Frost" setting, because I presume that is what boiler companies design the stats at that temperature for.   Or I could just leave the TRV's set to "1" which is about 7c I think but then I would have to leave the timer on manual so it keeps it at that temperature I presume.   What I also thought about was changing the batteries in the programmer stat in case they run out during our long break !!    

martindow

Maybe it is a good idea to set the heating to come on for a few hours at night - say 2 to 5am - when it is likely to be at its coldest to keep a decent level of warmth in the house?

eDicky

It seems to me that you may be over-complicating the situation. Bagand explains very clearly above how controls normally function. Why not just set the main thermostat/timer for the lowest safe usage and leave the radiator TRVs on their normal settings, as he suggests.

Leodogger

eDicky said:

It seems to me that you may be over-complicating the situation. Bagand explains very clearly above how controls normally function. Why not just set the main thermostat/timer for the lowest safe usage and leave the radiator TRVs on their normal settings, as he suggests.

You may be right, I assume that the thermostat/programmar then needs to be set to Manual so it keeps the same temperature all day and night at whatever temperature you select.

silvercar

Leodogger said:

eDicky said:

It seems to me that you may be over-complicating the situation. Bagand explains very clearly above how controls normally function. Why not just set the main thermostat/timer for the lowest safe usage and leave the radiator TRVs on their normal settings, as he suggests.

You may be right, I assume that the thermostat/programmar then needs to be set to Manual so it keeps the same temperature all day and night at whatever temperature you select.

That is what our Hive heating control does in holiday mode. sets the minimum temperature 24/7. The default is 8 degrees, but I increase it to 13 to play safe. The only other thing I do is turn off the water pre-heat function on the hot water side of the combi boiler.

Leodogger

silvercar said:

Leodogger said:

eDicky said:

It seems to me that you may be over-complicating the situation. Bagand explains very clearly above how controls normally function. Why not just set the main thermostat/timer for the lowest safe usage and leave the radiator TRVs on their normal settings, as he suggests.

You may be right, I assume that the thermostat/programmar then needs to be set to Manual so it keeps the same temperature all day and night at whatever temperthiurn off the water pre-heat function on the hot water side of the combi boiler.

They offered me a Hive controller when I changed my boiler but hubby is hopeless with technical computerised things as he has never even used a computer so I opted for a normal manual one.    As for temperatures, I don't see how it makes much difference to the house if the temp is set to 8 or higher since the rads and pipes won't freeze anyway at 8.   My central heating fitter told me to set it at 9c when we leave home.    I am looking for ways to cut down on heating since we are living on the worst pension in Europe !!