Have you turned yours on yet?
Still keeping at 'frost protection' and the room temperatures seem to be holding up above 18C.
Probably due to mild weather, improved insulation, plus solar gain.
I have lit the wood burner a couple of times, but more for the flameiness than through desperate need.
Is this the global warming I've heard so much about?
;-)
Dave R
I don't get this 'turning on the CH'.
If it's cold in July I want the heating to come on. If it's warm in December I don't.
I never touch the controls - I'm thinking that's what they're for.
Is it just me?
Andy C
Tried mine a couple of times in last couple of weeks. Second time was to test if a new pure sine wave inverter I bought will keep it going when the lights go out, and it works very nicely, and without the buzzing that a stepped inverter I have used in the past was causing from the pump and gas solenoids.
I'll second that.
Mike
This sounds like just what I need. Do you mind saying what kit you use?
Well, East Sussex council are boasting of their new fleet of gritters they bought in time for the "big freeze".
That could go either way...
Probably not. But I turn the CH off in summer because I don't mind chilly mornings before the heat of the day, in fact I rather like them. It's not the same in winter.
Going back to the OP's question, so much depends on the location and type of house that simple comparisons are pointless.
Andy Cap put finger to keyboard:
As the weather gets colder I'll turn the stat up for the same level of comfort. Dunno if it's to do with humidity or the temperature of the fabric of the house or what. But 19 degrees in (say) September is fine whereas February usually demands 21 degrees.
This is the one I bought:
BTW, this inverter has no internal link between neutral and earth. You will need to bond these together (and to a reliable earth) for most boiler ignition circuits to work, or they will fail to detect when the flame lights, and continue trying to ignite it.
It will run for about 30 mins from a portable jumpstarter I have. I modified the jumpstarter to have a couple of terminal/binding posts with thick internal wire direct to the battery, and made up some short leads with a 35A fuse to connect the inverter to it (the inverter comes with a 35A blade fuse, but no holder). My jumpstarter did have terminals on it for the integral tyre pump, but they went through several internal connectors, and lost 1V of the 12V in the various contact resistances before being modified.
A couple of years ago, we lost power for half a day right in the coldest part of winter, starting just before most peoples' central heating had come on in the morning. When it became clear that this was going to be some time, and possibly more than a day, I set the (older) inverter up under the car bonnet, with an extension lead through to the boiler. One neighbour came in mid morning for a warm cup of tea, and to warm up.
The pump uses most of the power, so to conserve the battery, I turned the boiler up to max and ran it only until it had got the radiators to max and was starting to cycle on and off. Then turned off the heating until the radiators had cooled significantly.
Didn't really need it for half a day, but having already made some provision for it beforehand (such as changing the boiler to be connected via a plug and socket rather than an FCU), it was good to put the contingency plan into action. This also enabled me to use a plug-in power monitor to find out what the boiler and pump VA rating is (about 140VA in my case), to size the inverter required.
One thing I haven't ever got around to doing is putting similar binding posts in the car for connecting it up there. Car cig sockets are not suitable for the current it draws on a continuous basis, and I haven't come across any low voltage high current connectors which are. Last time, I just used large crock clips on the battery, but they never make good enough contact not to get hot and waste some of the power, and it would be better to be able to run it in the clean dry car interior. (It might make more sense to install the inverter permanently in the car so it gets a good low resistance 12V connection, with a 13A mains socket, except I have occasionally used it away from the car from the jumpstarter.)
Obviously not just you, but in spring/summer/autumn I like to be able to leave doors open without worrying if a short temperature drop will kick the thermostat in.
I can tolerate short periods of lowish temperatures (say down to 15C or lower) without wanting additional heating.
I can also tolerate low night time and early morning temperatures when I know that solar gain is going to knock the temperature back up again fairly soon.
There is gain from cooking during the day, as well.
When the internal temperature gets permanently down to 18C or below and the skies are grey and the days are short then I like the heating on.
So I turn the thermostat down to frost protect until I expect to have the radiators warmed up for a significant part of the day.
Not happened yet, and may not for another week or so.
Cheers
Dave R
We've noticed that too. Just today, the inside temp is no colder than it was yesterday - 18C. But yesterday I felt fine, today, distinctly cooler. So I fired the heating up 0.5C, and that did the trick.
I suspect a wind connection. We've very well (too well ?) draft proofed at doors and windows. But I imagine the wind going through the ventilation bricks, and cooling the space under the floorboards.
There's also a psychological angle - if it's bright and sunny outside 17C can seem warmer than 19c on a dull dark day ...
Anderson connector(s) perhaps?
Anderson PowerPole?
I was looking at doing something like that - glad to know it will actually work. I was concerned about the thd of my old RS inverter I move arround the garage from time to time. The claim made by the model you linked to seems as if it would not be a problem for the electroncs in the boiler. The 300W is ok loadwise then. I need to lookup our boiler power rating.
Thanks Nick and Huge - this is not one I've come across before.
Looks to be a nice compact unit. I wonder about combining it with a float charger and a suitable battery to make a boiler UPS. With a safety changeover relay naturally. What is the typical no load current of the inverter from 12v? It would be nice to avoid having to fit a high current DC switch/relay.
Bob
Just measured it on a bench PSU.
With the front panel switch off, < 10mA (probably nothing, but
10mA the limit of the resolution of the meter on my bench PSU).With the front panel switch on, it's < 400mA unless the input voltage drops below 12V, in which case it shoots up to 700mA.
About 1 second after switching on (which is when the soft-start operates), it momentarily takes a surge which exceeds the 3A current limit of my bench supply - probably initial charge of the high voltage storage capacitors.
The front panel switch is a low current type, and with a bit of simple modification, you could probably extend its operation by using a small low current relay.
Well, not *just* you :-)
I can't be doing with timer programming, except in the morning. Just too many variables. The only constant is the stat temperature - 19C. I switch it on/off according to that, and how I feel and where I am.
Solar gain. Especially if you have large South facing windows
Same here, programmable stat set up to be "correct" most of the time. OK ocassionally the boiler will run for 10 mins when the evening rise from 18.5 t 20 C happens but a few hours total of such running a year is insignificant. If it's cold and blowy the boiler will be running fo 10hrs+/day and that's with the wood burner contributing 7 kW or so.
Yep, hard ground frost this morning, not quite an air frost (min 0.8 C) and not the first ground frost in this half of the year. Normally get the first snow of the winter around now... Still a fair bit of solar gain to be had and today has been still and bright so haven't lit the stove tonight and the heating hasn't come on this evening, it did around lunchtime.
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