Your home thermostat temperature poll

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

Had a few surprises when chatting with people so let's see what a poll shows 

What is your most common temp setting? Round up if you are 0.5 something 

Edited December 12, 2022 by Bedfordshire Bronco

[JohnM]

No global thermostat. Each radiator has a thermostatic valve. I turn them up and down according to which rooms are occupied. Might go and measure the room temperatures later.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 hour ago, JohnM said:

No global thermostat. Each radiator has a thermostatic valve. I turn them up and down according to which rooms are occupied. Might go and measure the room temperatures later.

Yes do and let me know 

I have been amazed at anecdotally what some people have told me (completely different to what we do)

Won't give away my temp until some results are in 

[hw88]

In this cold weather I've put mine up to 20 (normally it's 18) - but it is only on for 3 hours per day.

Last year it was 22 and 6 hours per day!

Edited December 12, 2022 by hw88

[silverback]

16 during the day, but the snowflake setting during the night as kicked in a lot, wont be next year as am going solar blown air heating for winter 2023.

[Guest]

Apparently in Leigh there is no need - due to the amount of hot air.

(I'm here all week).

[moorside roughyed]

Our central heating is old school,our thermostat is in the living room. It's set at 20oc. The house is toasty warm and my gas bill isn't through the roof (yet).

[David Dockhouse Host]

4 hours ago, JohnM said:

No global thermostat. Each radiator has a thermostatic valve. I turn them up and down according to which rooms are occupied. Might go and measure the room temperatures later.

Issue there is they don't turn off the boiler, called boiler interlock.

You may know this already but not very efficient

[Old Frightful]

3 hours ago, hw88 said:

In this cold weather I've put mine up to 20 (normally it's 18) - but it is only on for 3 hours per day.

Last year it was 22 and 6 hours per day!

The only reason you'd increase the room stat setting in cold weather is to have your house warmer inside than you usually do. If you're happy with how warm your house is normally, why would you want it warmer?, the outside temperature is irrelevant. If it's colder outside, your boiler will have to stay on longer to keep the house temperature as you want it. Turning the room stat up means you'll use a lot more gas and the house will be hotter than is probably necessary.

57 minutes ago, David Dockhouse Host said:

Issue there is they don't turn off the boiler, called boiler interlock.

You may know this already but not very efficient

The boiler will turn off almost as often as with a standard room stat as it will have a thermostat built in that checks the temperature of the water flowing through the radiators. If it gets to temperature, the boiler shuts off regardless of what external controls demand.

[David Dockhouse Host]

28 minutes ago, Old Frightful said:

The only reason you'd increase the room stat setting in cold weather is to have your house warmer inside than you usually do. If you're happy with how warm your house is normally, why would you want it warmer?, the outside temperature is irrelevant. If it's colder outside, your boiler will have to stay on longer to keep the house temperature as you want it. Turning the room stat up means you'll use a lot more gas and the house will be hotter than is probably necessary.

The boiler will turn off almost as often as with a standard room stat as it will have a thermostat built in that checks the temperature of the water flowing through the radiators. If it gets to temperature, the boiler shuts off regardless of what external controls demand.

That only works on the temperature of the water in the system.

Without a room stay nothing will shut down the boiler when the house reaches the desired temperature. 

This is my trade, if I could recommend anything to help with comfort settings and efficiency it would be to add a programmable room stay. 

Plumbers often advise against fitting one as it's less work but it doesn't meet building regs and won't be as efficient as it could be.

 

TRVs are not as accurate as a room stay.

TRVs are usually just numbered 1-6 rather than have set temps, they are next to the rad so not a good measure of the room temp and your boiler stat is usually around 70 degrees so will continue to run sometime after the rooms have reached temperature.

Edited December 12, 2022 by David Dockhouse Host

[hw88]

28 minutes ago, Old Frightful said:

The only reason you'd increase the room stat setting in cold weather is to have your house warmer inside than you usually do. If you're happy with how warm your house is normally, why would you want it warmer?, the outside temperature is irrelevant. If it's colder outside, your boiler will have to stay on longer to keep the house temperature as you want it. Turning the room stat up means you'll use a lot more gas and the house will be hotter than is probably necessary.

The boiler will turn off almost as often as with a standard room stat as it will have a thermostat built in that checks the temperature of the water flowing through the radiators. If it gets to temperature, the boiler shuts off regardless of what external controls demand.

Because of the warm weather I only turned the heating on during the last week in November. I initially set it for 18 but found that a bit chilly hence I turned it up. I have a smart meter and noticed that I used about £3.50 worth of gas per day at 18 - today after turning it up it has gone to about £4.50. As my electricity is only about £1.75 per day the total energy useage is well within my parameters.

Before I turned the heating on my gas was about 50-60p per day.

[gazza77]

We have a honeywell evohome system, each individual radiator is controlled seperately (or paired, such as bedroom + ensuite). Each room is set differently, and changed according to the conditions. I've recently started heating a couple of unoccupied rooms to 14c each evening to prevent them getting too damp for example. Both times and temperatures can now be set by room. 

The principle of the system works well, however the accuracy isn't. The thermostats were all calibrated against a thermometer before the heating was turned on in late autumn, however they tend to think its far warmer than it is once the heating kicks in. By way of example, my home office temperature was 13c when the heating came on a few days ago and by the time the thermometer thought it was 16c, the radiator thought it was 20c and had knocked off. 

 

This isn't an insurmountable problem, it just means that you end up setting room temperatures at times higher than you think they need to be. Directly answering the question therefore, the rooms I want to be warm are generally set to 22c, which means in reality they reach 18-19c.

 

As we heat using oil in the main, it's difficult to assess the direct impact of changes as I have no way of seeing how much is used each day. Over the first winter (last year) however, our daily usage peaked at 10 litres per day in the depths of winter, whereas previously we varied between 12-14 per day across the entire winter period, and one of us is now WFH most days whereas we were both previously in the office most of the week. 

Edited December 12, 2022 by gazza77

[gazza77]

1 hour ago, Old Frightful said:

The only reason you'd increase the room stat setting in cold weather is to have your house warmer inside than you usually do. If you're happy with how warm your house is normally, why would you want it warmer?, the outside temperature is irrelevant. 

I'd beg to differ on that, based on personal experience. It may be psychological that on sunny days its not as cold, irrespective of the external temperature or it may be because a large, old, draughty house that's badly insulated just feels cold due to all the exposed stonework. Either way, I regulalry fettle the internal temperature as I feel is needed as external temperature changes. 

[JohnM]

Our system is on a programmer, on at present, (around zero Celsius all day) 6 hours a day total in three periods. If needed  I turn it on for an hour. Being retired we're in most of the day. Being old, we feel the cold more than you young ones. The thermostatic valves work well for us (boiler turns on and off based on water temp) . We're only half-way through a long-term fixed price contract with Shell, prices set before the current spike. We have loft insulation and cavity wall insulation. The payback period on a new system looks to be longer than our life expectancy, too.

If something goes wrong, we might have a new boiler and controls fitted, though.

Bedroom night time temps 15c. Office and hobby rooms   18c daytime.

Lounge 20c, kitchen about 14 c overnight, 18 c daytime but warmer if cooking for evening meal. 

Conservatory unheated, zero at present, 35:c or more in summer.

garage unheated.

[Old Frightful]

1 hour ago, David Dockhouse Host said:

That only works on the temperature of the water in the system.

Without a room stay nothing will shut down the boiler when the house reaches the desired temperature. This is my trade

Of course it only works on the temperature of the water in the system. 

Let's have an example :

A boiler with no room stat is pumping hot water round a house. The house is cold so the water returns to the boiler considerably cooler than when it left. The boiler thermostat on the heating side detects the cooler return and continues to pump hot water through the radiators. After a while, the house reaches a reasonable temperature and the water returning to the boiler is only a few degrees less than that which it pumped out. The boiler thermostat on the heating side detects this and shuts down. After a while, the boiler thermostat on the heating side detects that it's cooled down and fires up again until such time that the house is warm again. 

[Old Frightful]

34 minutes ago, gazza77 said:

I'd beg to differ on that, based on personal experience. It may be psychological that on sunny days its not as cold, irrespective of the external temperature or it may be because a large, old, draughty house that's badly insulated just feels cold due to all the exposed stonework. Either way, I regulalry fettle the internal temperature as I feel is needed as external temperature changes. 

That's fine, based on your personal experience.

But your room stat has no idea how cold it is outside. It's sole purpose is to keep your house's internal temperature at that which you set it. If you set it at 20 degrees, it will keep your house temperature at 20 degrees, irrespective of what the outside temperature is. Your boiler will have to work harder if the external temperature is cooler but the room stat doesn't know this. And setting the room stat higher simply makes the house temperature warmer.

[David Dockhouse Host]

16 minutes ago, Old Frightful said:

Of course it only works on the temperature of the water in the system. 

Let's have an example :

A boiler with no room stat is pumping hot water round a house. The house is cold so the water returns to the boiler considerably cooler than when it left. The boiler thermostat on the heating side detects the cooler return and continues to pump hot water through the radiators. After a while, the house reaches a reasonable temperature and the water returning to the boiler is only a few degrees less than that which it pumped out. The boiler thermostat on the heating side detects this and shuts down. After a while, the boiler thermostat on the heating side detects that it's cooled down and fires up again until such time that the house is warm again. 

Yes but the boiler will kick back in once the water in the system has cooled, often the room temp hasn't yet fallen, you end up with the boiler using gas when there's no call for heat. The system starts cycling on and off without you barely noticing.

Also worth noting you will have a bi pass to stop all TRVs shutting all circuits down and affecting the pump, so if using the boiler to control the temp it will remain on much longer than desired due to the bi pass circuit 

It's simple to fit a room stay, the Samer ones are great and will definitely save money.

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by David Dockhouse Host

[Old Frightful]

1 minute ago, David Dockhouse Host said:

Yes but the boiler will kick back once the water in the system has cooled, often the room temp hasn't yet fallen, you end up with the boiler using gas when there's no call for heat. The system starts to cycling on and off without you barely noticing.

Also worth noting you will have a bi pass to stop all TRVs shutting all circuits down and affecting the pump, so if using the boiler to co trol the temp it will remain on much longer than desired due to the bi pass circuit 

 

It's simple to fit a room stay, the Samer ones are great and will definitely save money.

Having a room stat is obviously better but I'm simply pointing out that you initially stated that TRVs don't turn off the boiler, I just pointed out that they don't need to as the boiler thermostat will do that once the house is warm.

And if the boiler stat kicks back in before the house has cooled, it wont be for long as the return water temperature will be sufficient to shut it off in a short time, thus not wasting too much gas.

[JohnM]

The bathroom towel rail is the bypass.

[David Dockhouse Host]

17 minutes ago, Old Frightful said:

Having a room stat is obviously better but I'm simply pointing out that you initially stated that TRVs don't turn off the boiler, I just pointed out that they don't need to as the boiler thermostat will do that once the house is warm.

And if the boiler stat kicks back in before the house has cooled, it wont be for long as the return water temperature will be sufficient to shut it off in a short time, thus not wasting too much gas.

I did say TRVs don't turn the boiler off but I disagree that they don't need too, as the boiler stat is only to control flow temp, not temp if rooms line room stats and to an extent TRVs.

Incidentally I'm not a huge fan of TRVs, they are better than a standard valve but are usually just set on high.

There are better versions with remote sensors as opposed being right next to the heat source 

Regs state you need a boiler interlock, which is a fancy name for a series of controls that turn off the boiler when there's no demand for heat. Using TRVs and a boiler stat doesn't do this, maybe in an inaccurate and convoluted way but with huge disadvantages, hence the refs stating the requirement for a boiler interlock.

Anyone installing boilers without an interlock won't be able to notify the installation

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

I'm completely with Old Frightful on this and we seem to be in esteemed company.  Martin Lewis, the 'Money Saving Expert' has said that he hears of many people who react to cold outdoor temperatures by turning up the thermostat.

He, is right about the illogical way in which some people sometimes react (sorry, gazza77!).  I know, as, potentially, Mrs WWD is one of them, but I always say I won't turn the thermostat up.  

It stays at 19C and there are two spells when the boiler is timed to kick in - for about two hours in the morning and about five in the late afternoon and evening.  On cold days, such as just now, it it seems too cold round about 2pm, we press the 1-hour booster button on the boiler.  If it still seems a bit cold the solution is simple - put on another layer of clothing.

We never switch the central heating off in summer.  We just let the thermostat do its job, so the heating almost never comes on.

 

[JohnM]

1 hour ago, David Dockhouse Host said:

I did say TRVs don't turn the boiler off but I disagree that they don't need too, as the boiler stat is only to control flow temp, not temp if rooms line room stats and to an extent TRVs.

Incidentally I'm not a huge fan of TRVs, they are better than a standard valve but are usually just set on high.

There are better versions with remote sensors as opposed being right next to the heat source 

Regs state you need a boiler interlock, which is a fancy name for a series of controls that turn off the boiler when there's no demand for heat. Using TRVs and a boiler stat doesn't do this, maybe in an inaccurate and convoluted way but with huge disadvantages, hence the refs stating the requirement for a boiler interlock.

Anyone installing boilers without an interlock won't be able to notify the installation

Britis Gas serviced the complete system for around five or six  years (until I got fed up of paying their extortionate charges) and only ever noted minor points where the system met the standards applicable to the year of installation but not the current standards but there was no requirement to meet those later standards .

[Old Frightful]

8 hours ago, David Dockhouse Host said:

I did say TRVs don't turn the boiler off but I disagree that they don't need too, as the boiler stat is only to control flow temp, not temp if rooms line room stats and to an extent TRVs.

Incidentally I'm not a huge fan of TRVs, they are better than a standard valve but are usually just set on high.

There are better versions with remote sensors as opposed being right next to the heat source 

Regs state you need a boiler interlock, which is a fancy name for a series of controls that turn off the boiler when there's no demand for heat. Using TRVs and a boiler stat doesn't do this, maybe in an inaccurate and convoluted way but with huge disadvantages, hence the refs stating the requirement for a boiler interlock.

Anyone installing boilers without an interlock won't be able to notify the installation

I think we're probably on the same page here but reading things slightly differently. I thought in your initial post you were inferring that just having TRVs would mean your boiler running constantly so I pointed out that it wouldn't as the built in stat would shut it down periodically. And of course having a room stat is the best way to control the temperature inside a house, providing it's installed in one of the cooler locations otherwise it would be near to useless.

In my experience, TRVs are prone to sticking and becoming redundant over time, but of course this may depend on the quality of them. Like a lot of inventions, they're a great idea provided they work as designed.

But a room stat is easily installed and by far the best way to control your central heating. I have even installed wireless ones that seem to operate fine even though I hardly ever recommend wireless technology around the home as I feel it's too prone to external interferences and issues as well as problems caused by limited battery life.

Programmable room stats are just the bees knees and the beauty of them at the moment is that you can often buy them second hand very cheaply as folk obsessed with their mobile phones have them replaced with Hive stats or summat similar. Why would you want to control the temperature of your home from your phone when a programmable room stat will do it for you providing you set it up properly. 

[gazza77]

7 hours ago, Wiltshire Warrior Dragon said:

I'm completely with Old Frightful on this and we seem to be in esteemed company.  Martin Lewis, the 'Money Saving Expert' has said that he hears of many people who react to cold outdoor temperatures by turning up the thermostat.

He, is right about the illogical way in which some people sometimes react (sorry, gazza77!).  I know, as, potentially, Mrs WWD is one of them, but I always say I won't turn the thermostat up.  

It stays at 19C and there are two spells when the boiler is timed to kick in - for about two hours in the morning and about five in the late afternoon and evening.  On cold days, such as just now, it it seems too cold round about 2pm, we press the 1-hour booster button on the boiler.  If it still seems a bit cold the solution is simple - put on another layer of clothing.

We never switch the central heating off in summer.  We just let the thermostat do its job, so the heating almost never comes on.

 

I'll just note that our system does need to be changed dependent on the external temperature in order to maintain the same internal temperature. When our heating came on in late October, external daytime temperatures were generally around 10-11c. At that point, a setting of 21c in my office got the internal temperature to around 20c and fairly quickly. As it stands now, a setting of 21c would get the room to about 17c before knocking off, and it takes time to do that. The thermostatic valves are thinking its 21c in both cases. The reality is however it isnt, and that's why I change the settings dependent on external temperature. 

[Old Frightful]

31 minutes ago, gazza77 said:

I'll just note that our system does need to be changed dependent on the external temperature in order to maintain the same internal temperature. When our heating came on in late October, external daytime temperatures were generally around 10-11c. At that point, a setting of 21c in my office got the internal temperature to around 20c and fairly quickly. As it stands now, a setting of 21c would get the room to about 17c before knocking off, and it takes time to do that. The thermostatic valves are thinking its 21c in both cases. The reality is however it isnt, and that's why I change the settings dependent on external temperature. 

You need to find out what's turning your heating off before the temperature reaches 21c. If it can reach 21c on any given day of the year it should be able to reach 21c on any other given day as long as your property has reasonable insulation and your boiler is powerful enough to do the job. Obviously in colder months it will take longer to reach 21c but there is no reason for it to turn off at 17c if your room stat is calling for 21c.