Our new house has no thermostat for the central heating, it only has a timer.

[MadamAnt]

The radiators can be turned up and down, and the boiler also has a heat setting.

I've tried having it on for e.g. an hour early morning, late morning, early afternoon, late afternoon and a couple of hours in the evening, but it gets really cold inbetween times! Also, it's on permanently for those hours, regardless of how warm the house is.

I just can't work out what's the most efficient way to use it!

[ChristmasFairySantAsSLut]

We have the same problems, so, will be following this thread with interest

[MadamAnt]

yeah yeah I know it's boring, but pleeease?

[BuckwheatPillow]

Can you get one fitted? I am not sure how to not use one

[JackieNoCribForABed]

When you say the radiators can be turned up and down, do you mean they have thermostatic valves on them? If not, maybe consider getting them fitted. But not really sure what you can do about the boiler being on all the time.

[MadamAnt]

We can't really fit anything, as we're renting.

Jackie - I;m not sure. They have a twisty thing with numbers. [not very technical emoticon]

Does anyone knw how much it might cost to get a thermostat fitted if we get permission from the landlord?

[kingprawntikka]

We have just had thermostatic valves fitted to our radiators. They look like the twisty things with numbers on you describe. We do have a thermostat but the plumber who fitted the valves said that if radiators with thermostatic valves had been fitted originally then we would not have had a thermostat.He told us that we now leave the thermostat on max which is 27 on ours and never touch it. The numbers on the valves are used to keep the temperature how you want it. Our boiler is set to come on at 6.30 am and go off at 8 pm . The leaflet that came with the new valves says
position 1 = 8 degrees
position 2 = 16
position 3 = 20
position 4 = 22
position 5 = 24
The radiator should stop heating up once the rrom is at the desired temperature. So at the moment the one in my dining room has gone off because the room is warmer than the 16 degrees i have it set to , but the living room is set higher and so is still on. If i needed the dining room warmer i could turn it up and it would come back on.
If i go out and know i will be a long time and don't want to waste money i turn the boiler off totally or turn all the rads to position 1.

[TisTheSeasonToBeSolo]

Get individual thermostats put on each radiator. My old boiler had no thermostat and I lived with it. When my new boiler was put in, they put individual ones on all my open(not covered with cabinets)rads.
And I've just seen that someone has already said this...

[TisTheSeasonToBeSolo]

If they have numbers on them, then they are the valves being spoken about. They work in the same way as a thermostat on the wall, but individually in each room.

[AMumInScotland]

The twisty things with numbers on each radiator are thermostats, though you will probably find there is one radiator without one. You should be able to adjust these to get a reasonable level of warmth in each room, but when the boiler is off the rooms will get colder if you aren't terribly well insulated.

It is possible to get rid of those and have a room thermostat instead, and you can get very fancy room thermostats these days which let you set a different temperature for different times of day so it doesn't drop too badly. I don't know what it would cost to have fitted though.

[NotActuallyAMum]

Is it a combination boiler, i.e. do you not have a hot water tank? We've got one and at this time of year we leave it on all the time. The heat setting on the boiler stays on number 1 even though it goes up to 3.5 and only the radiator in the bathroom is on the highest setting of number 5, the rest are on number 3. Our house is permanently lovely and warm

[maretta]

We have the twisty things on the radiators. I don't rate them. I's much rather have a thermostat.

[pgwithnumber3]

Ahh, you ladies have answered a lot of questions for me today. We renovated our house last year and let the plumber get on with fitting the central heating. When he had finished I realised we had no wall thermostat but he said you don't need them if you have thermostatic valves.

So you are saying if I turn my radiator valves down to around number 3 and (if I am in all day) keep my heating on all day it should say at an even temp of around 20 degrees? I tend to turn my actual heating off fully when it gets too warm.

[pgwithnumber3]

In our last house we had a thermostat on the wall but it was pointless, the plumber had fitted it above a radiator so as soon as the radiator heated up, the heating went off before it could heat the whole house. We had to have it set at the very highest setting just to heat the house to a decent temp. So in hindsight, valves on individual radiators do work better?

[kingprawntikka]

Yes that will work Pgwithnumber3, my dining room radiator is still of because the room is still warm, but it will come back on itself if i opened the door and it became colder than the level the thermostatic valvis set at.

[pgwithnumber3]

thanks kingprawn, I had NO idea that these valves actually turned themselves off when the room was the right temp, I thought the radiators just stayed on all day. Now I realise why sometimes I have touched them and thought they felt cooler. I thought we must have employed a shite plumber who forgot to put a wall thermostat on.

Mumsnet is brilliant! It is full of people who actually know stuff whereas I just pretend!

[pgwithnumber3]

Does anyone know what is the "perfect" heat setting for the boiler? I have my water quite hot but may turn it down a bit, what about the central heating side of things?

[FeelingLucky]

Just had my boiler serviced and had the same convo with the engineer. he said that thermostatic valves are much more efficient for reasons as kingprawntikka has said.
So, OP - don;t worry about not having a thermostat as you have thermostats on your rads.

[pgwithnumber3]

FeelingLucky, I am glad to hear that. Had we not been selling this house I was about to fork out for the plumber to put a wall thermostat in.

[georgiemum]

I tend to keep ours on a low level for most of the time, or it gets so bloody cold you would freeze to death in here!

The hallway radiators produce a nice warmth that seeps into our bedroom (I never turn on the heaters in there as I hate a hot bedroom) and bathroom (bloody builder told us we couldn't have a heated radiator in there). Little one's radiator is kept on low so it is cozy in there for him.

I think I have it just about right. Just as well, when we got covers from the radiators, no-one told me you could only alter their temperature by crawling on the floor and sticking your arm up inside the cover (hoping there are no spiders in there).

I have also been given some lovely draught excluders (can't remember the shop but it is a northern one called m&B or M&M or something like that and they were dirt cheap!)and pop on the small electric fan heater in the living room if it gets chilly.

[Lizum]

Unfortunately it seems that there are some ill-informed plumbers out there. A thermostat will save you money over TRVs (the twisty things with numbers on) alone but it is best installed in a room that has a radiator without a TRV (alternitivley put the radiator on 5). A hallway is a good place. Set it to 18 and if the heating goes off before the house is warm enough, turn it up a degree until the radiators turn off before the boiler does. It may take some trial and error but when it's right you can leave it alone and the boiler won't be firing un-necessarily and save you money.

Kingprawntikka - turn your thermostat down a degree a day until you find you're too cold then back up a degree and you'll save money. Your plumber is wrong.

I'm a chartered engineer and design commercial (and occasionally domestic) heating systems (amongst other things) as a living.

[kingprawntikka]

Hi Lizum thanks for that .. will it still work if the thermostat is no where near a radiator? Ours is on the landing and there is no radiator there.

[Lizum]

It will still work. You might find you'll end up having it quite low - 16 or 17 if there is no radiator close by, depending on whether you keep your room doors open - don't worry about the final temperature, it differs for every house and even how long the heating's on for. I've found that now my heating's on constant - it's too chilly to breastfeed at night with the heating off, that I can turn the thermostat down a degree compared to when it was on in the evenings only.

[kingprawntikka]

Hi Lizum can I just ask a couple of questions, will the level that I set the thermostat on the landing to , be the maximum temperature the radiators with TRV's on will reach? Or do they work totally independent of the main thermostat and it is only the one radiator without the TRV that the thermostat affects? Thank you!

[Lizum]

The trvs work independently. The level set on the trvs is the temperature that room will reach. The same goes for the room with the thermostat in. So for example, you can have your lounge at 20, your bathroom at 24, your spare room at 8 and the room the thermostat is in at 18. As long as the temperature on the thermostat is set so that it turns off the heating once the other rooms have reached their temperature, you should be comfy.

[kingprawntikka]

Thank you very much Lizum , I will go turn the thermostat down a bit more !!