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Where to keep heating thermostat?

(26 Posts)
Teacheranne Sat 17-Dec-22 13:10:38

I now know why the advice is not to leave it in the hall if that is the coldest room. My heating comes on at 7am and going off at 10am, set at 19°, and recently I noticed that it was running at full all the time, never getting up to 19° but put it down to the cold weather.

Yesterday my sister arrived for Christmas and took her suitcase up to the dormer bedroom and discovered that the velum window was slightly open and it was blowing a freezing gale down the stairs into the hall! I have restricted mobility and rarely go up there so I think my son opened the window when he visited at the end of November!

I dread to think what my heating bill will be! I now plan to move the thermostat around the house with me so that hopefully once my room is warm enough, the heating will switch off in the rest of the house.

Teacheranne Sat 17-Dec-22 13:11:30

Sorry, timing of my heating is 7 am to 10 pm

BlueBalou Sat 17-Dec-22 13:22:21

I asked my lovely heating engineer about where to put the thermostat. I had it in the living room after reading online that it should be in the most used room. Our upstairs was so cold, none of the radiators or the heated rail in the bathroom came on.
He said put it on the landing, not by opened windows obviously, but that was the optimal place.
Not the hall because obviously the front door and other doors get opened regularly.
How infuriating Teacherann 🤬

Shel69 Sat 17-Dec-22 19:48:02

I suppose the room you use most, though taking it round with you if thats an option sounds like a really good idea, never thought of that

Whitewavemark2 Sat 17-Dec-22 19:58:05

Just thought I’d drop this in here

“Average energy prices

£2,585 - UK

€650 - France
€650 - Belgium
€620 - Spain
€558 - Germany
€558 - Denmark
€546 - Holland
€545 - Austria
€543 - Norway
€476 - Finland
€174 - Poland

We pay 5x more as the Conservative party refuse to tax excess energy profits.”

Jaxjacky Sat 17-Dec-22 20:28:19

Where are this figures please Whitewave? because they don’t fit with friends we have in France. Are they electric, town gas, bottled gas, wood?

Callistemon21 Sat 17-Dec-22 20:31:39

Teacheranne

We had thermostats fitted on all the radiators.
Bedrooms are kept cooler than the sitting room.

Teacheranne Sun 18-Dec-22 01:05:19

Callistemon21

Teacheranne

We had thermostats fitted on all the radiators.
Bedrooms are kept cooler than the sitting room.

I must look into fitting radiator thermostats. I do have adjustable valves which I have set at different numbers, ie 5 in lounge, 3 in my bedroom but have not really noticed much difference - I think they are rather old.

My bungalow is built on what used to be marshy farm land so is prone to damp problems so I tend to keep most rooms the same temperature, relying on the overall heating thermostat to control when heating is on - just does not work effectively when windows are open in this cold weather!

V3ra Sun 18-Dec-22 01:37:17

Shel69

I suppose the room you use most, though taking it round with you if thats an option sounds like a really good idea, never thought of that

That's what I've been doing.
I take the thermostat upstairs at night, put it on my bedside table and turn the bedroom radiator up while I get ready for bed.
Then I turn the thermostat low so the heating goes off overnight.
In the morning as soon as I wake I turn the thermostat up again and in a few minutes the radiator's warm.
When I'm showered and dressed I turn the bedroom radiator down and take the thermostat downstairs for the day.

It sounds a bit convoluted, but it's basically just following the "heat the room you're in" guidance and it's keeping me comfortable 😊

NotSpaghetti Sun 18-Dec-22 07:35:44

My thermostat only works in the part of the kitchen where the boiler is situated.

I have had multiple engineers out and 3 different thermostats (courtesy Worcester bosch) as no-one has been able to get consistent reception from even the "far side" if the kirchen - let alone the hallway or sitting room.

I get round it now by just assuming that if it's hot in the kitchen I turn it up, and vice-versa.

The boiler is technically "outside" the main house as it used to be the coalshed when the house was built. It may be to do with this... who knows🤔

I have no phone signal in most of the house either.

ParlorGames Sun 18-Dec-22 08:00:19

Ours stays in the dining room where it 'talks' to the other part which is upstairs by the boiler. The unit has an auto setting where the temperature, on/off times etc are all pre-set 24/7. The manual setting allows us to override the pre-sets if it is really cold. The 'off' setting simply turns the heating off but has a minimum temperature set which would override and allow the heating to come on to protect the system.
I don't recall how much it cost us but it wasn't expensive and is a great deal easier than having to adjust the boiler every time.

veejay Sun 18-Dec-22 08:02:29

My thermostat is fixed to the wall in the hall.never heard of one you could move around .My heating comes on for an hour at 7 am and goes off at 8 am, but since this freezing weather have it on for longer .and once settled for the evening try to leave it off and use a hot water bottle and heated over blanket.then an hour before I go to bed to warm my bedroom.
I never have it on overnight.My electric blanket is enough .to keep me warm enough .
Dreading the bills

NotSpaghetti Sun 18-Dec-22 08:04:41

Veejay I think you may find you can unhook or unscrew the thermostat and take it wherever you want.

boheminan Sun 18-Dec-22 08:05:53

Ah, the wonders of the digital thermostat!

Like you NotSpaghetti my boiler's a Worcester and I've had many problems with the thermostat since having it installed a year ago. The engineers have been out twice and the problem's not resolved. Wherever the thermostat is in the house the temperature will not go above 17, even though it's set at 21.

I don't know what to do, only maybe see if I can get a dial thermostat installed - the last one I had worked unfailingly for around 10 years...

dragonfly46 Sun 18-Dec-22 08:21:06

Our thermostat sits on the stairs. I never think to take it around with me. I do like the fact that I can control the heating while we are away.

Georgesgran Sun 18-Dec-22 08:46:48

The gas central heating in this house is nearly 30 years old - the original system. The boiler is in the garage and serviced annually. The engineer jokes it’s big enough to heat a small village and is still going strong!
The thermostat is in the hall, definitely not movable as it's plastered to the wall. However, my hall is quite big and stairs lead up to an open galleried landing. Through trial and error over the years I’ve discovered that setting the thermostat at 15 fires up the boiler, but while the hall never gets to that temperature, the temperature in the lounge, my bedroom and bathroom gets far warmer than that - often in excess of 20 if I don’t open any doors.
Although I try and stick to the timer settings, I often override it, as I’m not prepared to freeze!

argymargy Sun 18-Dec-22 08:50:05

Mine’s in the coldest downstairs room and is not portable. I just set it at a lower temperature so other rooms don’t overheat. I also have valves on all radiators to help regulate individual rooms.

Georgesgran Sun 18-Dec-22 08:58:12

argy you’ve just said what I meant, but in half the words!
Thank you.

Shinamae Sun 18-Dec-22 11:37:47

Mine is fixed in the hall outside the utility room and obviously the front door opens and when the back door opens it surges. I keep it on 16.5 and make sure before I open the back door at least that the door to the kitchen is shut but my boiler is forever starting up shutting down starting up shutting down because of the thermostat being where it is. Does this cause extra expense with this starting up all the time ?🤷‍♀️

granfromafar Sun 18-Dec-22 11:47:59

I also didn't know that there were portable thermostats as ours is fixed on the wall on the landing. Is it a fairly new system, Teacheranne?

Pittcity Sun 18-Dec-22 12:51:31

Wireless thermostats have been around for ages granfromafar The latest ones can be controlled by phone apps and learn your habits to switch heating on and off.

It is cheaper to turn heating on and off than to leave it on low 24/7 .

As for the radiator controls these control the flow of hot water. I find this table useful:
" The numbers on the valve roughly correlate to the room temperatures below. When the room drops below these temperatures, the TRV will allow hot water to flow into the radiator:

0 = Off
* = 7°C
1 = 10°C
2 = 15°C
3 = 20°C
4 = 25°C
5 = 30°C
A fully functional TRV will detect the temperature of the room and automatically adjust the amount of hot water in the radiator accordingly.

During the winter, you should really set your TRV to 2 or 3 and leave it. If you go into a room that's cold and the radiator is burning hot, leave it alone and don't turn it up to 5. Let it do it's job and allow the TRV to heat the room accordingly."

Pittcity Sun 18-Dec-22 12:53:36

I got the above from www.traderadiators.com/blog/thermostatic-radiator-valve-numbers

Jaxjacky Sun 18-Dec-22 13:09:56

Ours is portable, relatively new, it generally lives in the kitchen unless I’m cooking in there. Next job is to get the app.

V3ra Sun 18-Dec-22 14:29:54

granfromafar

I also didn't know that there were portable thermostats as ours is fixed on the wall on the landing. Is it a fairly new system, Teacheranne?

Mine had been fixed to the wall at the bottom of the stairs, the coldest corner of the house, so it was never practical. It had also been fixed too high on the wall for me to read, so wasn't very easy to use.
I realised one day it was just hooked on a couple of screws so I took it down, then realised that it had batteries in it and would actually work anywhere in the house.
The heating system is five years old.

NotSpaghetti Sun 18-Dec-22 14:44:17

boheminan

Ah, the wonders of the digital thermostat!

Like you NotSpaghetti my boiler's a Worcester and I've had many problems with the thermostat since having it installed a year ago. The engineers have been out twice and the problem's not resolved. Wherever the thermostat is in the house the temperature will not go above 17, even though it's set at 21.

I don't know what to do, only maybe see if I can get a dial thermostat installed - the last one I had worked unfailingly for around 10 years...

They changed my "programmer" thing on the face with mine it's the "upgraded" version now. All under warranty - I would ask if they have a "better" one. Obviously it didn't resolve it in my house but worth asking. My mother-in-law has a Worcester Bosch just like mine and hers works like a dream.

One engineer said he went to a house where the boiler was constantly changing programmes until they realised it was next-door's doorbell causing the issue and changed frequency (or whatever)..
Mine is to do with the actual property. I have no WiFi up that end of my kitchen either. 🙄

Have you tried turning up your radiator temperature on the boiler?
Mine picks up temperature much quicker when I turn up the dial on the boiler. Then when I'm happy I turn it down again.
Just a thought.