Getting the most out of your heating

Sparkpea

following on from hijacking the TRV thread I'm interested on what peoples views are on how to get the most heat for the money you spend.

I remember a client asking a heat engineer once what was the cheapest way to run their oil fired system and he simply replied turn the timeclock off Good answer but doesn't help in the winter hehe.

ntpm made good points in the trv thread

Totall agree with leaving temp around 65C. Perfect for hot water and ifyou have TRV's the rads will use this loweer temp more efficiently. The return temp to the boiler will be lower and if it is a condensing boiler it will make it run in condensing mode ( more efficient).
During the colder weather you may need to turn the boiler stat up
to 70-85C to give more of a boost to rads.

when we moved into this house the builder had showed my mrs around and explained a few things to her, when he showed her the boiler he said leave the temp controls etc alone you shouldnt need to touch anything. now the stat was up full (its a worchester greenstar ri) and theres no reading as such to tell me what temp full is. even though our stat on the HW is set to 65 degrees the stored water felt alot hotter and the rads where untouchable, with a child being around them I was concerned of being getting burnt. I also thought the higher the temp the more gas being used.

but on the other hand if the temp is higher the house will heat quicker/reach its temp and cut off quicker? true? whats your views?

I tend to take the approach that a house that is already warm only takes a little heat to maintain it, instead of switching on and off and allowing the rooms to get cold.
As long as there is a roomstat acting as a master control ( and boiler interlock) you can leave the timeclock/programmer on for longer periods.

I moved from an oil fired system in a chalet bungalow with crap window seals and insulation so I had asked a few friends before moving into a house with a gas system what way they ran it. One guy said his is on 24/7 and what he was told to do was run it full wack for 3 days for the house to heat up to its max then control the stats, that way the house will hold on the heat and use less gas, he says he only spends about £250 a year on gas. Personally I dont know whether to believe that or not. So again.. is it more efficient to run 24/7? whats your view?


I'm not into gas, I do oil installs but not servicing or commissioning etc. but customers always ask me these sorts of questions too and ive got my own answers but its good to hear others. I would always have told my customer to keep their boiler about 60 in the summer for HW and 65-70 in winter as they need it, if they need it higher then turn it up - it depends on what heat u like and everyones different. however 20mins or so after telling a customer that a service engineer arriving and the same question being asked to him, he told the customer to keep the boiler stat at 82.5 degrees or something as thats the setting it runs most efficiently at. true? I dont know but again the higher temp the more oil used imo.

Like everyone I want to get the best out of my system so tips are welcomed. It is a new build house so pipes are lagged, good cavity wall and loft insulation, trvs on all rads except hall and landing where the room stat controls the heating valve. boiler is in the kitchen and pipes rise into the bathroom above, under the bath and into the hot press where the motorised valves is. HW tank is 36x18 lagged with a stat set to 65 degrees on it.

I've got the boiler stat set to roughly 60% of full, ive no idea what temp this is but when i turn it down a bit i notice a drop in the HW. anyone know what these boilers range from? how can I tell what temp its running at? infra red thermometer?

good topic for the weekend

Sparkpea

no replies? disappointing

ntpm

Sparkpea wrote: »

no replies? disappointing

It's Friday.... weekend starts now..hence no replies.....LOL.


If you're not too sure about temperature setpoint just get a temperature probe and measure the discharge temp and return temp from boiler. Boiler stats usually run from 60-85C.

Re: comment about rads too hot ( with child in house). i would turn temp down on safety and compfort ground. As earlier post stated it may take a bit longer to warm up a room but you will get a more steady room temperature. I don't believe in blasting hot water round rads with TRV's as the TRV's may close down too soon because the heat (air) won't get a chance circulate away from rad properly. IMO!!

The hot water stat is set to 65C should not let the water get too hot and require you to mix cold water to cool it back down to a usable temperature. Wasting heat/energy.
Just check the location of the the stat on the cylinder. If it is fairly low then the top of the cylinder could be 5-10C warmer due to convection. Hence the water is getting too hot at the takeoff.

JohnnieK

The max setting on a greenstar Ri is 85oC and the lowest is around 55oC. A condensing boiler (no matter how hard you try) will never always be in condensing mode. If it's self modulating and has a modulating pump inside it will train it self to keep the flow and return temps as far a part as possible but there will be a stage when they will come close to each other and it wont condense.

The recommended set point of a hot water cylinder is 55oC to 60oC so the set point on it at the moment is too much. As the last poster has said it will be around 5 to 10 degree more at the top compared to where the sensor is.

Sparkpea

thanks, i'll knock the water temp down a bit