Thermostat abuse!

[DerbyBorn]

Is a thermostat the most misunderstood and abused device ever made available to the wider population?

I wonder what proportion of TRVs are always set at "5"? How many room thermostats are only ever at 16 - or 28?

At work, people would go into a conference room, turn on the air conditioninng. In winter they would turn it to 28. In winter they would turn it to 16. When the room got uncomfortable the setting would be moved to the opposite setting.

I am proud I have got my wife out of the habit of putting the oven thermostat on 215 to get the oven warm.

[Scott M]

It was only when I bought a few to install[1] and read the packaging that I found what temperatures the numbers relate to. I think 6 is about

30C. Having always fiddled with other peoples by turning them down from full belt to 4 or 5 assuming that to be "normal" for a UK room, I now dislike them ever more than before. [1] I don't believe in them so only bothered putting them in

a) rooms with oversized rads b) south facing lounge with huge window

[ss]

My wife puts the electric blanket on at least an hour before going to bed, she just doesnt comprehend how the thermostat works. It heats up in ten minutes so she has it switching on and off for over an hour.

[John Rumm]

No, they definitely exist, I have seen them as well! ;-))

any rooms with independent heat sources as well would be good.

[jgharston]

It annoys me every year around this time when weather forecasters say: it's getting cold, time to turn your heating up. Why? If it's comfortable to have the house at 25deg in the summer why on earth do you want it at 30deg in winter just because it happens to be winter.

JGH

[Sam Plusnet]

Because someone has mislaid the handcart?

[ARW]

30deg:-)? It was nearer 35deg at my late Grandmothers house in winter and when I called in to see her and I was wearing a T shirt she used to ask "Aren't you cold?". If I called in wearing a jumper she used to say "You had better take the jumper off or you will not feel the benefit when you leave".

[bert]

In message , DerbyBorn writes

Bloody hell How did you mange that? You ought to patent it.

[ARW]

Two black eyes?

[The Other Mike]

yep, and OAP's routinely heat soup to 0.1 degrees below the temperature of the core of the sun and slurp it like cold tea.

[js.b1]

Worse with a microwave... much of the soup outer shell acts as an insulator to the core which with red dwarf discolouration ejected a bubble of steam in a "gloop", threatened any second to collapse spontaneously into a black hole.

Thermostat control & understanding of feedback? You wonder why we have the energy policy we have, how we got from the CEGB to Muppets?

[Jonathan]

I cannot get my wife to understand that the sauce around baked beans can be boiling but the beans are still luke warm.

Jonathan

[docholliday93]

I don't change my main thermostat settings at all, under normal circumstances. What I do change is the water temperature setting on the boiler - during the spring and autumn I tend to have the temperature set lower than in the winter.

[Owain]

Shortened the chain attaching her to the kitchen sink?

Owain

[DerbyBorn]

[e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I don't touch my programmable stat either. In the summer it doesn't turn on. The boiler does a little run every day to circulate the water to avoid the pump seizing and sediment settling. If it gets cool in the evening then it comes on - that why I have heating!

[charles]

the same here, but our boiler also provides hot water, so the pump gets run everyday anyway.

[Lobster]

the core which with red dwarf discolouration ejected a bubble of steam in a "gloop", threatened any second to collapse spontaneously into a black hole.

energy policy we have, how we got from the CEGB to Muppets?

On a related note, on hearing a screaming match in the kitchen just now, I've discovered my teenaged son has developed a new habit this week when making his breakfast coffee, on the run while getting ready to leave for school. As the kettle comes to the boil, and before he pours it into the cup, he flips off the lid, this morning rightly prompted a rant from SWMBO about the danger involved. Turns out he does it because he's running late and wants the coffee to cool down to give him a few more seconds to drink it before dashing out of the house.

We had words - to the effect of on how many levels is this wrong/stupid/dangerous/flawed etc. Response - "Obvious innit - you let the steam out and it gives the water more surface area to cool down"

This from a lad who got A* in Physics GCSE this year. Who says they're dumbing down exams...

David

[Jules Richardson]

I found a mug full of frozen hot chocolate in the freezer a few weeks ago because one of the kids decided that they couldn't wait for it to cool on the counter-top; of course as soon as they'd bunged it in the freezer they promptly forgot all about it :-)

[Frank Erskine]

? :-)

[bert]

1. Don't fill the cup
2. Add a dash of cold water.
3. Drink coffee without scalding gob Simples