heating the house

Bendy_House

Ahem... what heating controls do you currently have? Is there a wall-mounted 'stat? If so, what type? And where...

Thanks

Interesting that a 1.2kW electric heater seems to warm up the room, but two radiators don't. The most basic assumption from this is that the rads aren't outputting enough, seemingly less than 1.2kW. But I suspect it's something else like perhaps the electric being a 'fan' type so you 'feel' the heat more directly? In any case, 1.2kW is unlikely to be enough for a sitting room, certainly in an older property and during cold weather.

Until you answer the Q's above, some basic points are:

Any room you do not use, open their windows to 'vent', turn the rads down to 'frost' and shut the doors. There's no point wasting energy, and the rooms will be fine.

If you leave internal doors open, then not just heat but also moisture from normal living processes - bodies, cooking, showering, washing clothes, etc - will move around, and very possibly cause damp and mould in the colder rooms. You can help prevent this by also leave the windows of these rooms cracked open - a waste of energy - or by keeping them heated at the same time - a waste of energy. So, that isn't sensible. Shut that door.

The most important room is the living room, because that's where you live. Other rooms can be heated as and when needed - eg bedrooms an hour before bed, and an hour before/during getting up.

One radiator in your system should ideally be always 'open' - ie either not have a TRV but instead a manual valve open enough to heat that room, or - if it does have a TRV - it should be set to '5' (basically, always 'on'.) And that room should also have the controlling room stat. The best room for that is your sitting room.

Your cat is almost certainly costing you a small fortune. It needs to learn some manners.

Yes, you can just have one rad working on a gas boiler, but there are a few provisos which will be explained once we know more about your controls. Oh, and boiler make and model, please.

BUFF

Agusya said:

BUFF said:

Agusya said:

oh, I forgot - is it cheaper (definitely quicker and hotter) to use electric heater (1200w) than gas boiler? 

for the same amount of heat emitted it will cost ~3x more using electricity than gas (depending upon efficiency of your heating system & assuming that you are on a single-rate electricity tariff).  

but it heats up quicker than radiators (gas) and to higher temp. I know electric heating in general is more expensive but its about my circumstances not in general. Hence my long story in a post. So it takes a very long time (hours) to heat up the house/room using boiler to so so level . half an hr with electric heater to very warm temp . 

but you also said in that long post that you were concerned about the house getting damp in which case you probably don't want to leave the other rooms totally unheated.
Yes, if you have a fan convector & aim it in your general direction you will certainly feel warmer quicker than from a radiator which is having to heat the whole air volume of the room.

More info on your boiler/controls/rads & how you run them (& indeed your lifestyle, are you up & out & back later or are you in most of the day) could help work out whether you are running your heating system in the most efficient manner.

markin

Do you have smart meters? The only real way to tell is to take reading of gas vs electric on similar temp days and nights.

A plug in electric monitor like the Tapo p110 really helps work out just the heaters use.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Tapo-Monitoring-Required-P110/dp/B097YBXHTW


Random links, as its out of stock.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ANTELA-Control-Monitoring-Wireless-Required/dp/B09VP57FBW/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yurayisen-Electricity-Monitoring-Overload-Appliances/dp/B0B38ZBBZH/ 

DRP

markin said:

Do you have smart meters? The only real way to tell is to take reading of gas vs electric on similar temp days and nights.

A plug in electric monitor like the Tapo p110 really helps work out just the heaters use.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Tapo-Monitoring-Required-P110/dp/B097YBXHTW


Random links, as its out of stock.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ANTELA-Control-Monitoring-Wireless-Required/dp/B09VP57FBW/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yurayisen-Electricity-Monitoring-Overload-Appliances/dp/B0B38ZBBZH/ 

Still available at the BT. I got mine there last month:
https://shop.bt.com/category/networking,smart-home,power/11318?q=Tapo%20p110

getmore4less

 My boiler is 5 years old. Its been hard to heat up the house ,

Wonder if the boiler temp just needs raising to get the rads hotter.

These new fangled condensing boilers need low return temps to work efficiently.

Might need to take the hit and whack it on higher.

Agusya

Bendy_House

thank you for taking time to help me  and explain things:):smile:
I have controller by some crap company salus which I got with my boiler ( Bosh Worcester greenstar 30I) Since upstairs and downstairs have different temperature there was no point putting it up. I take it with me to the bedroom or living room, where I am at the time. 
I think pipes might be small/narrow as radiator in the hall (the one which meant to be always on) isnt working and I was told pipe is small or something but I didint bother with replacing it. Im guessing maybe pipes everywhere are like this and thats why heating doesnt work great. 
Boiler temperature : water 60, radiators 75 

My electric blanket just died
I also have usb heated outfit which I got powerbank for off ebay ... and it run out of juice after an hr. 
Cat is 17 years old, I cant say no to her  

thank you!!!

Agusya

BUFF said:

More info on your boiler/controls/rads & how you run them (& indeed your lifestyle, are you up & out & back later or are you in most of the day) could help work out whether you are running your heating system in the most efficient manner.

Its in one of the replies Ive just posted 
I live by myself (well with a cat) work full time. Come back home after 6pm (twice a week later as I have classes) and spend time in the living room for up to 3 hrs. at weekends Im at home or Im out for most of the day 

thank you!!!

Agusya

getmore4less said:

 My boiler is 5 years old. Its been hard to heat up the house ,

Wonder if the boiler temp just needs raising to get the rads hotter.

These new fangled condensing boilers need low return temps to work efficiently.

Might need to take the hit and whack it on higher.

radiator temp is set at 75 and water at 60
should it be higher than 75?
It does heat up faster when instead of using a thermostat device, I just switch on heating on the boiler ,to overwrite what thermostat says. it heats up harder, Im guessing using more gas?

Bendy_House

If the boiler indicates it's sending CH water out at 75oC, then presumably it's working just fine.

75oC is 'HOT' - if you were to touch a pipe at that temp, you'd go 'ouch'. So the question is, do the rads in the sitting room go 'ouch' hot? If not, that's why they are not heating your room.

The Salus is a wireless room stat. It might also be 'programmable'? Ie, does it have a digital display showing temps and times and day and stuff? Or does it just have a knob you turn up and down for heat? (Does it have a model number on it?)

Your rad TRVs have numbers on them which roughly correspond to room temps. So, for example, if you turn it to '2', the room should warm up to roughly 15oC (that's 'cool', so good for, say, overnight, or if the house is left unoccupied during the day). '3' should get it to around 20oC, '4' to ~25oC and '5' is basically 'always on'. ('1' is around 10oC, so might be used in a room that's left unoccupied.)

So, with the boiler running, when you turn a TRV on any rad up to 4 or 5, do they get HOT?

If any rad does NOT get properly hot, it'll likely be down to one of these things:

1) The TRV could be stuck closed.

2) The other valve is too far closed.

3) There is a blockage in the pipe - and, yes, narrower pipes are more prone to this.

Were you living in this house when the boiler was replaced? Did it work then? Is there a magnetic filter installed (have a look at the pipes under the boiler - is there a 'thing' fitted to one of the 22mm pipes?)

In theory, when the boiler was fitted, the installers should have ensured that the system was 'clean', so you shouldn't really have any blockages in the pipes.

Heating your house using gas is FAR cheaper than using electricity, so you should try and work out what's going on.

So, could you turn on the boiler for CH, ensure it's running, and then open up the sitting room TRVs to '5' and report back, please?

macman

Using any form of electric heating, unless it's running on E7 cheap rate, is about 350% more expensive than mains gas. The fact that you can warm up one room more quickly with a portable electric heater is irrelevant. What we are talking about is the cost per kWh, not the time it takes to get from temp A to temp B.
It takes the same amount of energy to get from A to B, regardless of how long it takes.
It might well be cheaper to only heat one room using an electric heater, but then you are simply not comparing like with like.
Your understanding of how a thermostat works is completely wrong: it heats up at the same rate, using the same amount of gas per hour, until it reaches the set temp. The 'stat doesn't regulate the rate of boiler heat output, it just sets a point at which the room reaches the desired temp and then switches off. Once the temp drops below that point, due to heat loss, it switches on again.