Room Thermostat

Look for programmable thermostats, there are quite a few available.

Richard

Yup, many different types of these are available. They are generally referred to a "programmable room stats" or "programmable thermostats".

The simplest ones have a set temperature and a "set back" temp. Others add more time slots and the ability to have different temps for each slot. Some are "7 day" and let you program different things for each day / weekends.

I quite liked the Horstmann Centaurstat (Screwfix etc). That let you have several on/off periods a day and specify the desired temp for each. So you could have it warm for getting up in the morning, a bit cooler for the bulk of the day, warmer in the evening, and the set a minimum temp for overnight. It also has nudge up and down buttons to allow you to override the program - making it warmer or cooler on demand, but not affecting the actual programmed temperatures.

They are available - usually listed as 7 day or 5+2 day programmable room thermostats. They usually have more than two programmable periods per day but in your case you would set the same two temperatures. Probably a lot more flexible than you want but often/allways they have shortcuts to set the same settings for all 7 days in the week or the same settings for the weekdays and different settings for the weekends. This will be a one time programming operation and most of this type I have seen will have a button so that you can nudge up/down the temperature occasionally with this manual override being automatically cancelled when one of your preset times is reached.

Google programmable thermostats

Possibly/probably* weed out the ones that say wireless. Then google the make/model for the operating and installation manual.

Anything that calls itself a programmable thermostat

I don't want tot talk to it, set the

relay contacts wired back to boiler or wireless back to a receiver near boiler?

I've used Heatmisers, they include optimised start (i.e. you tell it to reach the required temperature at a certain time, and it comes on earlier/later as necessary) they have models to suit all the above situations, sounds like the various "slimline" models are all you need.

I've had one of these for around 30 years. Mind you, daytime can be divided into 4 sections It's made by Honeywell.

On 30/01/2022 09:49, alan_m wrote: <snip>

or if you want a portable thermostat/programmer so e.g. you can turn the heating up earlier without getting out of bed if you wake up early

With this kind of solution do you need zone valves as well?

I am used to a (wireless) programmable controller which is placed in one room and drives the boiler based on the temperature of that room (or hall, or whatever) with individual rooms controlled by TRVs on the radiators. The programmer also has set time periods, and the more comprehensive ones can set different profiles for different days.

Working through this, it isn't clear to me if the OP wants a programmer and thermostat in one room, or thermostats in a number of rooms any of which can turn the heating on.

Cheers

Dave R

Yes. A programmable stat will usually control one zone. I don't think the OP told us what system he has. My guess is that it's probably an S-Plan or Y-Plan system, with a mechanical stat controlling the heating zone in conjunction with a programmer.

In this case, the usual solution is to keep the existing programmer for timing the hot water, but set the heating to 'constant'. You then replace the mechanical room stat with a programmable stat which provides both timing and temperature control for the heating zone - probably assisted by TRVs on all radiators except the one nearest to the stat.

OP here.

Firstly many thanks for all the replies :-)

I am looking at a Honeywell programmable (not radio or WiFi) that will just turn the heating on or off and also set different temperatures for different times.

Plan is to use it exactly as Roger Mills sets out, at the moment the heating is on permanently and I manually set it to 21 in the day and 16 at night. I want something that will switch it to 21 degrees so I can get up to a warmer house and that will mean I don't have to get up in the middle of the night to turn it down because I forgot!

This is the first time I have had central heating (and gas cooking) for 12 years so I'm spoiling myself a bit!

Thanks again.

In which case, pretty much any prog stat will do what you want.

You may find some posher ones described as "optimising" - these learn the heating characteristics of the house and adjust the "on" times automatically to meet your goal.

So say you set your stat for 21 degrees at 7am. A conventional stat will simply turn the heating on 7am (if required). It will actually reach 21 until some time later.

Optimising ones turn the heating on earlier, so as to have it at 21 for

Whether you find this useful or desirable is another matter, but beware it may not be your expected behaviour if you have not had an optimising stat before.

Well its not only "spoiling" but also more fuel efficient :-)

Try the HeatMiser. Touch screen, simple and good to look at,

What make and model of boiler do you have?

Just to wrap this I fitted a Honeywell TR3 (no frills) today. Just needed two wires (I had permanent live/neutral behind the old one but not needed), straightforward, dropped the temp to 16 during the day and kicked it up to 21 at spot on 6 p.m. Will drop to 16 again at 10:30 then up to 21 at 06:30, may do some fine tuning.

Exactly what I needed, many thanks again :-)