At present I have my CH Wireless Thermostat situated in the Hall . I am about to replace the hall rad and am wondering if this is the best place for the thermostat. Is there an ideal place to fit it and what are the reasons for fitting it in one area as opposed to another ? I know about not having a TRV on the rad(s) in the room where the thermostat is .I have one rad in the hall,one in each of two bedrooms and two in the living room .One is in the kitchen but will soon be either moved or done away with altogether as it doesn't really get cold .
before TRVs I woudl have said that you put the thermostat at the place where you want the temperature to be most constant - in the living room for example.
But with TRVs doing the temperature control in each room why do people have thermostats any more? If it's to turn the heating system on in cold weather then perhaps it should actully be outside!
But with TRVs doing the temperature control in each room why do people have thermostats any more? If it's to turn the heating system on in cold weather then perhaps it should actully be outside!
Robert
Possibly because a thermostat 'tells' the boiler when it needs to fire up/down, a TRV closes the flow to the rad.
given the crude control systems on CH these days it wouldn't work very well. It would tell the boiler to fire and circulate the water even though it was warm inside but cool outside. The best place to fit it is in the warmest area. If it isn't in the warmest area the heating won't turn on even though the area you want warm has cooled below the desired temp.
On Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:15:48 -0800 (PST) someone who may be RobertL wrote this:-
Conflicts with my first point. If there is a coal/wood/gas/electric fire then the rest of the house may well be cold while the living room is at the right temperature.
Imagine a heating system with all TRVs and just a time clock, the pump could spend some considerable time pumping against a closed head. Fit a bypass to the system and the boiler is likely to short cycle when the house is near temperature. Add a thermostat in the place which cools down most rapidly and these problems are solved. There are more sophisticated ways of doing all this, but it adds cost.
That just about rules out anywhere in our house Living room, dining area and kitchen and hall/landing are essentially open plan. (no doors just arches) No windows (except a toilet) face north. Double aspect lounge section has large glass patio doors facing West and collecting a lot of sun after mid day.. Still can't complain as we are probably in one of the warmest places in the UK though sometimes fairly breezy. Oh! and it's upside down..The four bedrooms are downstairs. Michael in West Sussex
But you are barking up the wrong tree as well. Your heating problem stems from the room where the stat is heating up faster than the rest of the house. It matters very little that that is the room you want to be the warmest in the house ( but see below).
What you need to do is balance the heating system so every room warms up in approximately the same time. It is likely that the warmest room is also the room that will have the fastest temperature drop but if that is not the case then the system needs to be set up so the rest of the house actually warms up faster than the warmest room otherwise the rest of the house will gradually drift colder as the thermostat governs the temperature in the warmest room.
Putting the stat in the hall is the favourite trick of professional installers as it is generally the easiest place and, as one installer explained to me, it is conveniently placed to turn the heating down if you go out. However the hall may be the worst possible place to put the stat as the temperature drop in the hall is likely to be slower than that in the living room so the boiler may often not be firing when the living room actually needs heat except for the relatively rare times when there is constant traffic in and out of the house.
If you put the stat in the coldest place the temperature has to drop below the desired temp in the warmer areas before the heating will turn on. In fact the lounge could sit at a lower temperature for weeks at a time without the heating switching on if you put the stat in a cooler area.
The hall is a cr@p place unless you really want the hall to be as hot or hotter than the lounge.
I'm trying to understand what you say above . Surely if the stat is placed in the coldest place and the temp in that room drops below what the stat is set at the heating will come on ,thereby heating the lounge as well.
Suppose you put it in a bedroom and set it to 15C. The outside temp drops to 16C. The house will drop to 16C. The heating will not turn on, however long it sits at 16C. Putting an ordinary room stat in the coldest place is a sure way to save fuel as the heating doesn't come on as often, you will need thermal underwear though.
If you want to be warm you need to have the stat turn the heating on when the temperature drops below the warmest temperature you want, normally the lounge or bathroom. So it needs to be set to the warmest temperature and its no good putting it in a room where it never gets that warm as it will always be on.
Why not? Do you really want to make it more complicated than it is, you don't appear to understand the basics without adding in other heat sources.
Well just think for a change. If the stat is set to 20C and the TVR in the cooler room is set to 18C the stat will always be on.
That's the trouble with CH most people don't understand anything about it. Are you one of the people that think CH will heat up faster the higher you set the thermostat?
On Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:10:10 -0000 someone who may be "dennis@home" wrote this:-
Because most houses are not made out of a thin membrane, but rather are made out of things like bricks.
Even if houses were made out of thin membranes the temperature would only be the same inside and out in the absence of wind (assuming no internal heat gains). When there is wind the temperature inside is highly likely to be higher than the temperature outside [1].
Did you make a comment about understanding the basics?
[1] leaving aside the complex question of how one measures temperatures. While the air temperature is relatively easy that doesn't provide a particularly good measurement of conditions in the room. For example in a building which is not made of a thin membrane heat will at some times be radiating into the room from the walls.
The message from snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com contains these words:
Dennis lives in my kill file for obvious reasons so I only see the nonsense he spouts when it is re-posted.
Of course.
What you need to consider are the external factors effecting the heating and where you want the temperature control to be most consistent.
Put the stat in the living room and that room at least will be temperature controlled over close limits. Have the stat elsewhere and TRVs on the rads in the living room and the limits are likely to be somewhat larger and more variable even if heating system has been balanced properly.
As I suggested before if you have the stat in the hall you get the worst of both worlds - a closely controlled temperature in a place where such precision doesn't really matter and a step change in boiler response depending on whether or not the external door is opened.
Place the stat in a north facing bedroom (as suggested upthread as well) and you do at least get a room where external influences are a minimum but do you really want a bedroom to be at the same temperature all the time the heating is on? Separate heating zones for upstairs and downstairs are becoming commonplace these days which would rule that option out for controlling downstairs heat in any event.
The major problem with a stat in the living room is the presence of a supplementary heating source which could lead to the rest of the house cooling down if it puts out a meaningful amount of heat but even that can be worked round with a little bit of effort.
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