Heating on all day?

[HootersGsy]

TTmonkey said:

PDP76 said:

hyphen said:

hotchy said:

I love these threads, one thing that confuses me. You can actually have your house set to certain temps. I have an on off button. On, too warm and I hit off. Think itll be great to have a house set to not only stay warm, just not too warm.

Someone introduce this poster to thermostats and how they work.

My dad (RIP Dad) had a thermostat that was set to 14 when the house was too hot and 34 when it was too cold. Yes he used the 'stat as an on/off switch.

Wouldn't be told.

Sounds like how a few people at work operate the a/c...

[Pan Pan Pan]

The best heating pattern to use depends on the type of dwelling construction / insulation levels.
In a modern well insulated dwelling with a modern boiler, it is usual to have the heating off during the day, night time, and the latter part of an evening, as heat generated when the boiler is running will tend to remain in the dwelling, and modern boilers heat up the house / systems fairly quickly.
In an older dwelling with solid walls keeping the heating on at a lower level during the mid day and night, only turning it up when the dwelling is occupied may be the better option.
Older dwelling have a higher thermal mass, since the walls absorb heat from inside the building, and turning off the heat, means the boiler / heating system is going to have to work much harder to bring the internal temperature up to a reasonable level, if the boiler is turned off during middle of the day and night.
This is different to timber frame dwellings which are sort of between the two, because they have low thermal mass, which allows them to heat up quickly when the heating is on, but equally they cool as quickly once the heating is turned off.
Of course in households which are occupied all day, it is probably normal to keep the heating on all day, albeit it a lower temp, to maintain comfort conditions for the occupants.

[carreauchompeur]

TTmonkey said:

My dad (RIP Dad) had a thermostat that was set to 14 when the house was too hot and 34 when it was too cold. Yes he used the 'stat as an on/off switch.

Wouldn't be told.

It's the same ilk as people I used to work with who would turn off the ac in the car because it was 'too cold'. Wouldn't be told. Car steams up, greasy fingers all over the screen... you can't tell them.

[iambigred]

Dave_ST220 said:

24kw sounds about right. What size rads have you got? I'm slightly drunk awaiting the ashes restart but I'd say it's down to rad size and boiler flow temp. Where's the stat? Should be in the coldest part of the house. Your situation sounds like ours prior to all of the work. In our case it was down to undersized boiler, air leakage and lack of insulation. In theory you should have no such worries.

I'll dig out the tape measure and have a look at the size of the rads. The thermostat is in a central location in the hallway which is generally the coldest part of the house. I assume my insulation is up to scratch given that it's a relatively modern house (2005).

[Rickyy]

iambigred said:

Dave_ST220 said:

24kw sounds about right. What size rads have you got? I'm slightly drunk awaiting the ashes restart but I'd say it's down to rad size and boiler flow temp. Where's the stat? Should be in the coldest part of the house. Your situation sounds like ours prior to all of the work. In our case it was down to undersized boiler, air leakage and lack of insulation. In theory you should have no such worries.

I'll dig out the tape measure and have a look at the size of the rads. The thermostat is in a central location in the hallway which is generally the coldest part of the house. I assume my insulation is up to scratch given that it's a relatively modern house (2005).

I remember being told that heat loss calculations for new builds are done differently to traditional methods.

They are calculated to raise room temperature over a much longer period of time, hence why the rads are undersized.

[PF62]

TTmonkey said:

My dad (RIP Dad) had a thermostat that was set to 14 when the house was too hot and 34 when it was too cold. Yes he used the 'stat as an on/off switch.

My dad is exactly the same.

TTmonkey said:

Wouldn't be told.

Again, exactly the same.

[Sheepshanks]

Rickyy said:

I remember being told that heat loss calculations for new builds are done differently to traditional methods.

They are calculated to raise room temperature over a much longer period of time, hence why the rads are undersized.

I think it's just that they take account of cavity wall insulation, double glazing etc so the heat loss expectation for the OPs pretty new house would be very low. Certainly for my daughters 1970 house the calculator the fitters used produced radiators that were way smaller that the old ones. I got them to upsize them all.

[Ted2]

iambigred said:

Stuff & graph

5.5 hours(!) to raise the temp 4 degrees indicates that your boiler is broken or there's a big piece of your jigsaw missing. Maybe try running it again with all the doors and windows closed this time?

My large 2 bed ground floor flat of a similar vintage to your own place would have no problem increasing the temp by 4 degrees throughout the entire property within 15 mins (and I'm not exaggerating!).

I've just had my boiler and CH fixed following some issues and have taken advice from several different "experts" (boiler and GCH techies) on what the best way is to run the boiler for best toasty warmth throughout and all except 1 have said to set the CH boiler thermo dial around the 65% mark and then use TRVs to control the room temps (my thermostat is wall mounted in the hallway). I responded saying that another expert had said to run the CH boiler thermo dial at max as that was best for efficiency but the problem with doing this is you get pockets of 'blast furnace' heat localised within about a 6ft radius of the rads but the rest of the room is chilly. Also running it like that means your heat comes and goes in spikes as it's on at full chat for 10 mins, then off for 30-40 mins, then on at full chat for 10 mins, so you're always on the verge of sweating one minute then shivvering 20 mins later.

I've since tried both methods and it's absolutely right what they all (but 1) said about the blast furnace heat when running the boiler thermo on max. It's not pleasant at all. I'm now running it at around 65% and the temp throughout is MUCH more consistent and comfortable with no cold spots. The pump is running nearly constantly but the burner is only coming on for short bursts of 30 seconds or so. Preliminary analysis from my smart meter readings shows no discernable difference in the costs, perhaps a few fence more running it like this but that could be down to the outside temperature being 5 degrees lower now than it was at the start of the week.