Wireless Thermostat - best thing to go for?

[mbarnett.uk]

Hi Everyone

I live in a 3 storey townhouse where the builders decided to site the thermostat for the entire house on the ground floor (where it can get bitterly cold). This means that the heating constantly flicks on and makes the upper two floors of the house (where the lounge is) boiling.

I'd like to move the thermostat to the first floor and it seems to me that a wireless thermostat would seem to be the best option.

Our heating system is a bit odd. We have a huge boiler system (by Gledhill) on the ground floor which provides hot water to the taps etc on demand at any time of day. The heating is controlled by a thermostat on the wall in the hallway which tells the boiler to pump hot water to a sealed radiator system when the appropriate temp is reached, however, there is also a timer dial on the front of the boiler which only allows the radiators to come on when it says so. There is no other kind of control panel at all in the system.

I've been looking at the honeywell cm67 wireless thermoostat. Does anyone know whether I could simply replace the thermostat on the hallway wall with the receiver unit and place the wireless thermostat in the lounge? (my current wall mounted thermostat is a Potterton PRT2

Hope someone clever can help

Matt

[BigWallop]

Why not turn the existing thermostat down a bit? It is only "flicking on" because it is set at a higher temperature than you want for the rest of the house. Or, turn the thermostat all the way up and the 'stat on the boiler itself right down.

It's a lot cheaper, and a lot less hassle, than another thermostat. And you don't have to keep changing batteries.

[mbarnett.uk]

Thanks for the reply

Generally we've been keeping the wall mounted thermostat on a low setting but the downstairs is so cold that we find the heating still wants to turn on a lot more often than we'd like (we can't set it too low because otherwise the heating won't come on at all). I can't find a thermostat on the boiler itself - it may be inside but I can't get in there (its a bit of a beast but there aren't many controls available to the consumer).

The current thermostat is a dial based one and we'll be replacing it with a programmable one anyway so that we can set different thresholds for night and day etc. We thought we might as well go the whole hog if we're replacing it anyway.

I'm not very experienced with this sort of thing and wondered if anyone familiar with this type of system knew whether I could just swap my thermostat with a receiver and add a wireless thermostat etc.

Matt

[Cicero]

=============================== Before you consider changing the location of the thermostat check that the heating system is properly balanced. Do a 'google' search for 'system balancing' but also try this quick start.

Check that both valves on each of the downstairs radiators are fully open. One of the valves ('lockshield valve') will need a small spanner to adjust it. Then check the state of the radiator valves upstairs. One valve (on each radiator) should be fully open and the other should be partly closed. Partly closing one valve will restrict the flow of water to that particular radiator thus limiting the heating effect.

The overall effect of this operation will be to restrict the flow of hot water ( and consequently the amount of heat) reaching the upper storey whilst allowing the lower storey to get warm enough before operating the thermostat.

p.s. Your system sounds quite normal from your description.

Cic.

[Antony]

I'm not sure this will solve your problem. First, if you do move it, remember to take off the TRV head from the rad in the space where the CM67 is located.

The rads upstairs will have TRVs (I assume). If these are working correctly, they should stop the upstairs rooms being overheated by the rads in those rooms, so try turning them down.

But the rads upstairs aren't the only source of heat to those rooms. Heat rises. The main reason for the ground floor being cold is that all the heat goes straight up the stairs. You might find that closing all the doors (especially from the lounge to the hall/stairs) gives the simplest solution. Also check the lockshields on the downstairs rads are open as another poster pointed out.

I have a CM67RF in my lounge. I find it works well, though some others complain about the Optimum Start feature (which you can turn off). BTW, the CM67 has now been superceded by the CM907.

-Antony.