The unheated house temperature is too low (e.g. at night). One solution is to replace the basic thermostat with a programmable one. It has to be simple to use.
Somebody recommended the Horstmann AS1:
Does anyone have experience with it?
replace the basic thermostat with a programmable one. It has to be simple to use.
acceptable as a trade-off for simplicity.
Assuming there's no timer (or heating ON full-time) just turn down the normal 'stat at night.
Phil.
but then it stays cold until you get out of bed - a bad thing.
I fitted the Timeguard from tlc
I've had a Honeywell one at home for years, I have daytime setback, too. Very usefull
There's a conventional boiler control with variable timer.
Yes, that's a theoretical solution. In practice, it isn't acceptable in this case.
s to replace the basic thermostat with a programmable one. It has to be sim= ple to use.
acceptable as a trade-off for simplicity.
We have one or a similar model. It works well and when it failed within the 5 year warranty they replaced it without a murmur.
Jonathan
I wasn't aware of Timeguard. I found this one on their website:
This is a Honeywell (7 day) timer:
Do you find yourself wishing you had more than two temperatures?
Do you give it an 'off' period (presumably with the boiler timer) in addition to 'cool'?
replace the basic thermostat with a programmable one. It has to be simple to use.
acceptable as a trade-off for simplicity.
Not that model, but I liked my Centaurstat 7 which gives up to 6 time periods per day. Also very easy to use once setup. (flogging my last one on ebay as we speak if you want a cheap one!)
I picked up one of these when the contoller on my system failed, and I've been happy with it. You can also override the curent setting easily, and also lock the setting if you're away for a while and want to protect from frost.
Yes I have two AS1's, one for each heating circuit, plus a 3 channel ChannelPlus for timing of hot water/thermal store, and each circuit.
They've all completely lived up to my expectations.
The AS1's have a number of sensible pre-set thermostat profiles (5 I think), plus one that can be set to any pattern.
Within each time interval, you can specify the high set-point (21c) or the low set-point (15c).
The big round button allows the user to toggle to the opposite set-point at any time, which will be maintained until the end of the that set-point interval.
Additionally the plus/minus rocker can be used to trim the upper set-point by
+/- 2c.What they recommend for economy is whenever you feel warm toggle the set-point and vice-versa, as personal comfort offers better economy than automatically maintaining a set-point
Thanks for the replies. I presume I can replace the existing electromechanical thermostat with the AS1 and leave the existing boiler timer in place. Q1. Is that the case?
The HRT4-ZW also looks simple. But I can't tell if it allows more than one temperature to be preset. See:
and leave the existing boiler timer in place.
You may need extra wires as the AS1 needs permanent mains power - or use the battery-powered AS2 instead.
Ah. I didn't think about power. Thanks for pointing that out.
I found out the answer to my Q2. The HRT4 doesn't allow more than one preset temperature but I understand a new model that may do that is on the horizon. So I have the choice of waiting for the new model or installing and AS2.
Thanks everyone for the help here.
That looks like a nice unit, especially as I have a need for more than one, I'll def give it a go as my alternatives (Siemens and Honeywell) were around the £70-80 mark.
See below for comments about control methods.
think ahead and repeatedly cycle on an off with on periods proportional to the amount of boiler output they think you need to heat the house. I'll keep this one short but I am not a fan of this (google groups has my fuller comments) as IMV it results in excessive cycling of boiler and controls.
I think it's trying to be too clever and believe that an accurate modern electronic thermostat employing simple on-off (non-proportional) control can provide similar results without the control cycling.
The Timeguard appears to be a simple on-off (or bang-bang) controller which explains its reduced cost but time will only tell if it has the accuracy. Lack of accuracy and excessive hysteresis was one of the bugbears of some of the early low cost programmable stats. Best looking low cost unit I've seen in a long time and backlit, again good for a cheapie.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.