How do you have heating/TRV set?

Shefwedfan

Ok, was talking to a few guys earlier and it came up about heating set up. Everyone seemed to have different ideas. Just wondering what people recommend?

So I have my heating set up come on 4-6 in evening, then another 30 mins around 8. Then in middle of night it kicks on for 30-60 mins depending on how cold it is. Then every morning from 6-7.30.

Now I will up it a bit at different days, I have Climote so handy to do on phone but it would be at that most days.

Then I have TRV's. So for the rooms I don't use I have it set to "*". Then in most rooms it sits between 3-4. Then the large rooms I will have it set to 5.

Thermostat in hall set to 20

A few things I noticed wondering if correct

• No TRV should be set to 5
• Recommendation is to leave heat on longer
• Control heat using the thermostats/TRV correctly
• Don't control heat by on/off

I never seen it as issue the way I do it but just wondering what other people do?

Pete67

I have two heating zones with programmable thermostats for each, one in the living room and one in the master bedroom. The bedrooms are programmed to maintain 18 degrees from 9pm to midnight and from 6 am to 8 am, and 10 degrees at all other times. So they are never actually switched off, but don't come on unless the temp in the master bedroom drops below those temps at the set times.

Similarly for the downstairs zone, set at 21 degrees 7am to 9am, and again from 5pm to 11pm, and set at 10 degrees all other times. There are TRVs in all rooms except the master bedroom and living room, the bedroom ones are set at 3 and the living rooms at 4. We vary the times slightly at weekends as we don't get up so early but there the house needs heating during the day.

This works very well and we almost never need to adjust anything unless someone comes home early on a weekday and then we manually increase the setpoint to 21 to bring the heat on if needed.

There is a third zone for hot water which is timer controlled, along with a cylinder thermostat set at 60 to prevent overheating the cylinder. All zones are interlocked to the boiler so it is in permanent standby waiting for one of the zones to call for heat, which switches it on until that zone is satisfied. Hope that makes sense!

Sleeper12

Heating on timer 6am to 8am. In the evening we're using the boost as required. Colder weather we just leave it on till an hour before bed time. All TRVs set individually. I ignore the numbers on them as every room is different. I never have TRVs on fully as the rooms get too hot. Christmas holidays heating is on morning till bed time if it's cold

Skatedude

Pete67 wrote: »

I have two heating zones with programmable thermostats for each, one in the living room and one in the master bedroom. The bedrooms are programmed to maintain 18 degrees from 9pm to midnight and from 6 am to 8 am, and 10 degrees at all other times. So they are never actually switched off, but don't come on unless the temp in the master bedroom drops below those temps at the set times.

Similarly for the downstairs zone, set at 21 degrees 7am to 9am, and again from 5pm to 11pm, and set at 10 degrees all other times. There are TRVs in all rooms except the master bedroom and living room, the bedroom ones are set at 3 and the living rooms at 4. We vary the times slightly at weekends as we don't get up so early but there the house needs heating during the day.

This works very well and we almost never need to adjust anything unless someone comes home early on a weekday and then we manually increase the setpoint to 21 to bring the heat on if needed.

There is a third zone for hot water which is timer controlled, along with a cylinder thermostat set at 60 to prevent overheating the cylinder. All zones are interlocked to the boiler so it is in permanent standby waiting for one of the zones to call for heat, which switches it on until that zone is satisfied. Hope that makes sense!

Do you mind telling me who you got to do your heating? I've been trying for ages to get someone to set ours up like that as we currently only have a timer and it's costing a fortune

Pete67

Skatedude wrote:

Do you mind telling me who you got to do your heating? I've been trying for ages to get someone to set ours up like that as we currently only have a timer and it's costing a fortune

I got the trv's and zone valves installed by the plumber when the house was built, and the builders electrician ran all the cables where I wanted them, then I did the controls wiring myself. This was 15 years ago and as far as I remember I've only had to replace 1 zone valve actuator so far. I used Heatmiser programmable thermostats at the time, and they still work fine but I will shortly be changing over to Hive to get online control of the heating system.

Wearb

Heatmiser also has smart thermostats.

Dardania

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Ok, was talking to a few guys earlier and it came up about heating set up. Everyone seemed to have different ideas. Just wondering what people recommend?

So I have my heating set up come on 4-6 in evening, then another 30 mins around 8. Then in middle of night it kicks on for 30-60 mins depending on how cold it is. Then every morning from 6-7.30.

Now I will up it a bit at different days, I have Climote so handy to do on phone but it would be at that most days.

Then I have TRV's. So for the rooms I don't use I have it set to "*". Then in most rooms it sits between 3-4. Then the large rooms I will have it set to 5.

Thermostat in hall set to 20

A few things I noticed wondering if correct

• No TRV should be set to 5
• Recommendation is to leave heat on longer
• Control heat using the thermostats/TRV correctly
• Don't control heat by on/off

I never seen it as issue the way I do it but just wondering what other people do?

Your bolded actions are mainly correct.
The other thing to note is that TRVs are about controlling the room temperature, not the radiator temperature. So you have noted that in large rooms you have a bigger number - this is not the correct way to look at it. You should set the TRV for whatever temperature you want the room to be, and let it control o that. The radiator should be large enough to match the size of the room. I made that mistake too: presuming that the TRV sets the surface temperature of the radiator - it doesn't - it operates depending on the air temperature of the room.
Suggest that you set the climote to be on whenever you are in each zone, and let the TRVs do their job.
Then in each room, set whatever temp feels comfortable e.g. in bedrooms & hallways you might want it cooler (so set it to 2), in living / sitting spaces you might want it a bit warmer so set it to 3, and in bathrooms where you want it quite warm to dry towels etc. set it to 4.

On your climote, can you set temperatures? if so, during the morning and evening I'd set it at a generous say 20C, and at night, let the temp fall to 18C or therabouts - that way it should let your TRVs do their job and nowhere will overheat

Dardania

Your bolded actions are mainly correct.

The other thing to note is that TRVs are about controlling the room temperature, not the radiator temperature. So you have noted that in large rooms you have a bigger number - this is not the correct way to look at it. You should set the TRV for whatever temperature you want the room to be, and let it control o that. The radiator should be large enough to match the size of the room. I made that mistake too: presuming that the TRV sets the surface temperature of the radiator - it doesn't - it operates depending on the air temperature of the room.
Suggest that you set the climote to be on whenever you are in each zone, and let the TRVs do their job.
Then in each room, set whatever temp feels comfortable e.g. in bedrooms & hallways you might want it cooler (so set it to 2), in living / sitting spaces you might want it a bit warmer so set it to 3, and in bathrooms where you want it quite warm to dry towels etc. set it to 4.

On your climote, can you set temperatures? if so, during the morning and evening I'd set it at a generous say 20C, and at night, let the temp fall to 18C or therabouts - that way it should let your TRVs do their job and nowhere will overheat

Shefwedfan

Dardania wrote: »

On your climote, can you set temperatures? if so, during the morning and evening I'd set it at a generous say 20C, and at night, let the temp fall to 18C or therabouts - that way it should let your TRVs do their job and nowhere will overheat

The Climote did come with a thermostat but when I retro fitted it the guys said not to use it and just use the thermostat that was already in place. So I just leave it at 20 degrees.

Dardania

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Dardania wrote: »

On your climote, can you set temperatures? if so, during the morning and evening I'd set it at a generous say 20C, and at night, let the temp fall to 18C or therabouts - that way it should let your TRVs do their job and nowhere will overheat

The Climote did come with a thermostat but when I retro fitted it the guys said not to use it and just use the thermostat that was already in place. So I just leave it at 20 degrees.

Not optimal, but effective. Is your climote is some small, corner area (e.g. under the boiler)? If so, they're probably right to not bother using the climote's built in temp sensor...
Where's the thermostat located - is it in a room with a TRV? In principle, you should have the thermostat set higher than the temp the TRV will achieve, or even better just rely on the thermostat compeltely, and set the TRV in that room to max

Shefwedfan

Dardania wrote: »

Not optimal, but effective. Is your climote is some small, corner area (e.g. under the boiler)? If so, they're probably right to not bother using the climote's built in temp sensor...
Where's the thermostat located - is it in a room with a TRV? In principle, you should have the thermostat set higher than the temp the TRV will achieve, or even better just rely on the thermostat compeltely, and set the TRV in that room to max

The climote unit itself is in hot press. So I pointless to use internal thermostat. It did come with thermostat which you could put onto the wall and move around house but because of the way current boiler is wired they said not to remove the installed thermostat

The thermostat is installed in hallway. I have put a second door inside front door to stop the loss of heat in hallway. It seems to have helped