Confused by thermostats!

boyse7en

Hi, hopefully someone with a bit of knowledge will be able to share. I seem to get different opinions from everyone i ask.

My house (4 bed) is heated using a oil-fired combi boiler. The boiler has a built-in programmer for timing the heating and hot water.
All the rads in the house have TRVs fitted, but we do not have a wall mounted thermostat anywhere. Should we fit a wall-stat, and how would it affect the operation of the TRVs?


Secondly, there is a dial on the front of the boiler that alters the output temp of the water (range 1-5). Should that be set to maximum so that the TRVs can regulate the temp of the rooms, by cutting the boiler off when they are all up to temp, or should it be set lower to save money on oil?


Colin

Cardew

Firstly the water temperature. All boilers have an optimum operating efficiency; and generally that tends to be at the higher water temperatures.

Yo don't save money by having the water temperature lower, it just takes longer for the room to reach the desired temperature. Like comparing costs for warming a room to, say, 20C with a 1kW heater or a 2kW heater - the 1kW heater would be 'on' for twice the time.

The question of a Room(wall mounted) thermostat attracts differing opinions. The problem is where do you situate it? Do you want it in, say, a cool hall and that control the rest of the house heating when it operates? or in a warm living room and that will cut off heat to the bedrooms when it operates.

Personally I leave mine(in a hall) set high so the pump is always running and the temperature of all rooms are controlled by the TRVs - I appreciate that some will disagree with that method.

I do know other people have posted that they don't have a wall thermostat either.

Obviously the best method is to fit one of the modern zoning controls that can regulate differing temperatures in various areas of the house at different times

moonrakerz

I have just left a house with an oil fired boiler which fed a system with TRVs on each radiator and no room stat anywhere.The controller had two channels, one for hot water and one for CH. The boiler was always set to "max"

I found this arrangement to be very efficient. Once you have gone round and set all the room stats to the required temperature, which can take a few days, everything was great.
I don't know if there was a by-pass in the system so I always left one radiator (in the main bathroom) fully "on".

If you have kids, make sure you lock the TRVs, kids seem to think that by turning all the valves fully open the house heats up quicker, then you have to go round and set them all up again !!