Frost Guard function El.Heater

suitseir

As we will be away from our house for a few weeks at Christmas and will have the oil central heating coming on at various times (especially during the night - an hour at midnight and again at 3.00 am) we were also thinking of purchasing one of these frost guard function El. heater and place it in the landing so as this can come on if the temps dropped pretty low at night time.

Anybody got any recommendations? I know the CH will be clocked to come on but this heater would kick in at vulnerable times when the CH is off. We don't have frost watch on the CH. It is a Firebird and is a room sealed one which is in the utility and works very well. During the freeze up of 2009/2010 we were in situ and had no probs with burst pipes etc....in fact, the only house on the street that had no problem with water coming in from the road. Anyway, I digress just looking for thoughts or would this be a waste of money????

Dotsie~tmp

If you are really worried you should have a frost stat integrated into the boiler system which should be fairly easy. Turns heating on below certain temp automatically. Also an uninsulated attic is a danger when you get to those -10 temps. Here a simple plugin frostguard fan heater is your man. Comes on and heats attic in those rare times. An insulated attic shouldnt need one.

If you have an external oil boiler and are worried about pipes rupturing I suppose making the containing shed draught free and a frostguard would do here too. I dont see any point in one on the landing.

If you dont want to spend any money other than on fuel just have the heating come on and off a few times from 8pm to 8am by timer. That should maintain a safe temp but obviously wasteful.

suitseir

Dotsie~tmp wrote: »

If you are really worried you should have a frost stat integrated into the boiler system which should be fairly easy. Turns heating on below certain temp automatically. Also an uninsulated attic is a danger when you get to those -10 temps. Here a simple plugin frostguard fan heater is your man. Comes on and heats attic in those rare times. An insulated attic shouldnt need one.

If you have an external oil boiler and are worried about pipes rupturing I suppose making the containing shed draught free and a frostguard would do here too. I dont see any point in one on the landing.

If you dont want to spend any money other than on fuel just have the heating come on and off a few times from 8pm to 8am by timer. That should maintain a safe temp but obviously wasteful.

Thanks for that. My boiler is in the utility room and the attic is insulated pretty well. Yes, I am thinking that having the heating coming on during the period you suggested should do the trick.I am not too worried about it being wasteful as I would prefer that than facing a burst pipe!!
I also have a very good neighbour who will keep an eye every other day, after that, it is in the laps of the Gods.

Dardania

We have a similar situation in our home, and it is porrly insulated at the mo, which means when it gets properly cold, the plaster starts cracking....

What I did in my home was get a programmable thermostat with a fabric protection function, which will among other ways of programming the CH, ensure that the hating comes on when the house falls to a certain temp, say 8 degrees.

Might be more worthwhile in my opinion, as the other functionality such a programmer gives is excellent i.e. different heating setpoints during the day, and optimising function.

See the CMT927: http://www.honeywelluk.com/Documents/Literature/pdf/1097.pdf and can be got from: http://www.heatingcontrolsonline.co.uk/honeywell-cmt927-cm927-wireless-programmable-room-thermostat-p-68.html