Heating queries in a 3 storey house

[Hoppy42]

Hi,

I live in a 3 storey home where the bottom level is always cold. At best we get 19 degrees but that takes effort. We have a downstairs kitchen so we spend a fair bit of time down there. We only have a single radiator in the hallway where the thermostat is. Is it worth changing that to a double? In the meantime, as the temperature drops to around 13 degrees overnight as of now, is it worth setting the thermostat to say, 16 degrees overnight so as to expend less fuel heating up again in the mornings?

 

[stem]

Ideally the room with the room thermostat in should be in the last room to heat up. 19 degrees would seem adequate for a hallway unless perhaps you spend time sat in there.

If the existing radiator is plumbed in properly and and it gets hot to the touch, then a bigger radiator will obviously provide more heat and raise the room temperature more quickly. The a note of caution though, when the hallway reaches the set temperature, the thermostat will turn all of the radiators off, which is fine if the other rooms are nice and toasty, but not if they are chilly as it will make the situation in the other rooms worse.

I had your problem in reverse, the hallway got warm quite quickly and turned off all of the radiators, when the rest of the house was still cool, so I fitted a smaller radiator in the hallway and we actually have the thermostat set to 19, the smaller radiator keeps the heating on long enough for the other rooms to heat up nicely before the thermostat turns all of the radiators off.

Regarding the overnight setting, it might improve things, you will have to try it and see. Whilst it may expend less fuel heating up again in the morning, it will of course be using fuel overnight.

Much will depend upon the setting on the boilers internal thermostat. This controls how hot the water going to the radiators gets, the higher the boiler thermostat, the more heat goes to the radiators and the quicker your house warms up.

 

[rbranco]

Setting temp higher will not change how much fuel you use as it will just use it over a longer timeframe vs in the morning.
What it will do is heat up quicker to the day temp.

Is your system Zoned?
If not it might be an idea to get it split into Basement and rest of house, or even 3 zones, then you can set temps per area.
If splitting it is too hard, you could look at a system like Evohome with wireless TRVs for some areas and general room stat for the rest.

Also have you done a radiator Kwh calculation and heat loss calc for the house?
What boiler do you have and current setup?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Hi,

I live in a 3 storey home where the bottom level is always cold. At best we get 19 degrees but that takes effort. We have a downstairs kitchen so we spend a fair bit of time down there. We only have a single radiator in the hallway where the thermostat is. Is it worth changing that to a double? In the meantime, as the temperature drops to around 13 degrees overnight as of now, is it worth setting the thermostat to say, 16 degrees overnight so as to expend less fuel heating up again in the mornings?

I fancy the answer will be to split the floors into heating zones, so that priority is given to the areas in use, at the times they are in use.