Do I really need a room thermostat?

[Glenbirnie]

At our previous house we used to leave the room thermostat on the max setting and then control each room temperature with the rad thermostat. The room thermostat was in the hall and we never put the rad on there anyway.

In our new house (which is old) we put in a new boiler about 18 months ago and my sparky said I didnt have to have a room thermostat if I didnt want one. He said he doesnt have one and I said well I didnt use mine at the last house anyway so we decided not to fit one. It didnt put him up or down as the wiring was there as the house is being renovated, he wasnt persuading me either way.

I have since spoken to another plumber who reckons I should have one.

I have a lot of the house ripped back to stone walls and am about to start insulating and sheeting so now is a good time to get this sorted.

Thanks

 

[JohnD]

yes

otherwise the boiler will keep running even when your house is warm, so you will waste gas.

 

[mickyg]

get one fitted in the correct place and learn to use it properly and you will save money. As part of building regs you should have one fitted when fitting a new boiler or system

 

[Glenbirnie]

I have noticed that my boiler seems to cycle a lot, will the room stat stop this?

Also I was thinking of putting the room stat in the living room/dining room as this is the main room used obviously as oppossed to the hall were it was in our last house. I would then allow the rad stats to control the other less used rooms. The thinking is if the lounge was up to temp and shut off the boiler when other rooms werent quite warm enough this wouldnt be such a big deal.

Would there be any issue having a room stat in the room where the two rads there also have rad stats?

We also have a solid fuel fire in the lounge which we use all the time.

Thanks

 

[JohnD]

you should turn the TRVs in that room to max, otherwise they may turn off the rads while the stat is still calling on the boiler.

turn down the lockshield valves in that room so that it heats up slower than all the other rooms.

 

[doitall]

Buy an RF stat and you can move it about to suit where your hiding.

Honeywell DT92E for example.

Set it at 18-19c and stand it on the bedside cabinet and thats what the room will be, in the more its set at say 21c so take it back to the lounge.

 

[Glenbirnie]

another thing to throw into the mix I had my system split into a dual system so upstairs and downstairs are on different circuits. Does this make any different to the comments made on this post?

 

[doitall]

How do you control the 2 zones without a stat

 

[CBF]

if you have two zones then both of them should have stats one up & one down, fix them to the wall & don't wander around with them which is a b1oody stupid idea (you may like it at 15 while you are in the bedroom while everyone else is freezing), use the stats to control the heating & trv's to control the indivual rooms

 

[Glenbirnie]

I have a three channel timer, downstairs, upstairs and hot water.

Hot water is on for an hour a day, we have electric showers so wouldnt use more than one tank a day, if were bathing the kids we'll boost the water for an hour.

upstairs is an hour in the morning to take the chill off and the same at night in time for the kids going to bed.

downstairs is on just two hours in the morning and then the wife will overide the heating during the day if she is in our out etc

 

[Dan Robinson]

Simply get your self two DT92e's as DIA suggested, or go up a level and get a pairs of CM927's.

Should take a decent chap less than an hour to set up subject to space and enough play on cables to get the receivers connected up.

 

[Glenbirnie]

if you have two zones then both of them should have stats one up & one down, fix them to the wall & don't wander around with them which is a b1oody stupid idea (you may like it at 15 while you are in the bedroom while everyone else is freezing), use the stats to control the heating & trv's to control the indivual rooms

If I have two zones can I use one room stat?

the reason the upstairs downstairs plit came about was in our last house every morning before we went downstairs we'd turn the rad stats down so we werent heating upstairs all day when the rooms were empty. We have always been careful with heating and have the house colder than most probably. We are also insulating the internal stud walls of the house during the renovation so heat isnt lost to rooms not being used.

 

[Dan Robinson]

If I have two zones can I use one room stat?

There is no point.

Unless you mean a thermosmtat that can sense two difference temperatures.

In which case you need either the Honeywell CMZone or Honeywell EvoHome system.

The latter would also need a DT92e (but without its receiver), or the rad valves to have HR80UK valve heads fitted (as required with CMZone.

The Evo system would work out cheaper and betterrer - in that it can also do hot water if you wanted.

 

[Glenbirnie]

The reason for the one thermostat would be to control downstairs in the day.

Upstairs is a compact 3 bedrooms and bathroom. Teenager likes his room cool for sleeping and so do we so our rad stats are never above 1-2. The kids room gets heated a bit in the morning and a bit at night. We would never have the upstairs on the timer for more than a coulple of hours morning and night and hence a room stat probably would never get to temp to shut off the boiler because by that time the timer has shut it off.

 

[doitall]

But something has to control zone valves, or does the timer just open and close them