Central Heating Advice

Hi Folks,

Quick central heating related question for you experts

We have a conventional (non combi) boiler (baxter) and hot tank set up powering seven radiators throughout the house. The boiler is controlled by a basic digital timer with no internal thermostat.

All the radiators in the house seem to be either on or off, i.e. no differentiation between 5 & 0 on the scale. I have had the thermostatic valves off and checked the pins and they all move up and down fine.

Now whilst I am not complaining about being warm so sort of control would be nice!

If I was to remove the thermostatic valve bit off of the radiator valves should I be able to replace them with newer thermostat bits without actually any plumbing nonsense.

E.g. below is a picture of what we have (but slightly newer). If I was to buy one and remove the plastic thermostat cap should it work in theory on the metal body of what I have in place?



Or is another option to replace the electronic heating control with one that has a central thermostat and not worry about the radiators?

Like this:



I don't have the money at the moment to go too crazy!

Any help/advice is all good.

Thanks in advance

Mark

There will be a temp dial/gauge on the boiler itself,try adjusting that to a set temp,you might find if its turned up full then it doesnt matter what the thermo valve is at,the minimum can be as hot as the maximum

That's how CH works. The boiler heats water & pumps it round the system until the returning water reaches a temp that will trip the boiler over-heat stat. The boiler then stops heating but the pump continues for a while.

The big valves you show in your pic are thermostatic radiator valves. They sense the room temp & turn off the rad when the set temp level (your settings 1-5) is reached. So rad is either On (when room is below temp) or off (when room reaches set temp).

I trust that makes sense. CH is very generally low tech, most of the concepts have been around for over 100 years. Your system does not need a seperate temp control because it has individual sensors on each rad. Turn them down to number 1 & wait a day or so for the temp to stabilise. The rads will be just as hot when on, but will be on a lot less & rooms will be cooler.

They shouldn't all go off at once, unless your pipes are a bit wrong, i.e. not plumbed to bypass the radiator (or they are in serial rather than in parallel) so not designed to work with Thermostatic Valves. :s


Good luck.

EDIT:... assuming the TRV are turning it off

dyna-ti":1k0cjgrr said:

There will be a temp dial/gauge on the boiler itself,try adjusting that to a set temp,you might fint if its turned up full then it doesnt matter what the thermo valve is at

Click to expand...

The only dial I can see on the boiler is just the one that goes from 0 - 5.

It says on the printed instructions bit that for winter use the thermostat should be set to a minimum of 3 :? Plus this seems to control the temperature of the water in the tank.

:? :?

Wish I had done something like plumbing after school.......

Yes to the thermostat bit, I'd remove one and take it into plumb centre, see of they carry them without the valve. Are all the thermostats kaput?

Hmmm.

Seems I may have been a little confusing above.

Each radiator has a room thermostat. These are the bits I believe are not working as the room gets very warm even on the 0.5 setting. Its control within the rooms I am looking for as they are either full pelt hot or off, no middle ground. The bathroom is like a sauna :shock:

As the radiators are not shutting off as they reach temperature the boiler is on for prolonged periods of time. I would like it to be a little greener and easier on the wallet!

Eek.

kaiser":2uasjfq0 said:

Yes to the thermostat bit, I'd remove one and take it into plumb centre, see of they carry them without the valve. Are all the thermostats kaput?

Click to expand...

Think so :roll:

TBH have not had all the radiators on as the downstairs ones are so hot they heat the entire house

letmetalktomark":n2zb3frq said:

Hmmm.

Seems I may have been a little confusing above.

Each radiator has a room thermostat. These are the bits I believe are not working as the room gets very warm even on the 0.5 setting. Its control within the rooms I am looking for as they are either full pelt hot or off, no middle ground. The bathroom is like a sauna :shock:

As the radiators are not shutting off as they reach temperature the boiler is on for prolonged periods of time. I would like it to be a little greener and easier on the wallet!

Eek.

Click to expand...

As I said, rads are either on or off, there is no middle ground, although if the valves are part closed, the flow will be restricted slightly. The stat on the boiler sets the max water temp in the system (ie radiator temp & hot water temp). The stats on the rads detect room temp & will stop the watr=er flow on that rad when the room reaches the set valve temp.

If you reduce the valve stat settings it may take the room several hours to cool down.

Back2Bikes":3764nasv said:

As I said, rads are either on or off, there is no middle ground, although if the valves are part closed, the flow will be restricted slightly. The stat on the boiler sets the max water temp in the system (ie radiator temp & hot water temp). The stats on the rads detect room temp & will stop the watr=er flow on that rad when the room reaches the set valve temp.

If you reduce the valve stat settings it may take the room several hours to cool down.

Click to expand...

Ahh.

So the whole shebang will be controlled by the dial on the boiler :? I know this appears to be a stupid question but.....