New rental property - Boiler in Garage, no indoor controls?

[EdajOvor]

Hi,

We moved into a new rented property yesterday. We were told by the letting agents that the controls were in the house (upon moving in we realised they were confusing the British Gas Smart meter unit with controls).

The boiler is in the garage (not connected directly to house, you have to leave house, unlock the garage to enter). The heating / hot water controls are on the boiler.

Apart from a Siemens thermostat indoors, there appears to be no way whatsoever of controlling the heating / hot water from the house (turning it on off / timer etc)

It seems bizarre and completely impractical to me that every time we want to put the heating or hot water on we will have to go outside and open up the garage and do it from there?

Am I missing something? Should I bring this up to the letting agent?

I know we can use timers, but we are very strict with our Gas Usage. We only usually turn our water / heating on when actually using it. As me and my partner are on completely different work schedules we can't really set timers for when we are home.

[EmmaC78]

Could you set up the system where it is controlled by your phone. A colleague did this recently and it was less than £200. Maybe say to the agent you are unhappy and see if they would contribute.

[longearedbat]

Sorry, but that sounds a really odd way to use central heating. If you are only going to turn it on when you come in, it will have to work really hard to warm the house up, and meanwhile you will be hanging around in your coat waiting for it to get warm. You might just as well dispense with the central heating and use space heaters. Assuming your hot water is separate (I.e. not a combi), you only need to have it on for an hour or two each day (if there are just the two of you) to keep your tank full of hot water. Our hot water is on for a hour am and pm only, and we always have plenty. Also, in exceptionally cold weather it may not be sensible to leave your house unheated for long periods because of the chance of frozen/burst pipes. You will need background heating on if we have a 'beast from the east' for example.
Alternatively get one of those hive systems, so you can turn it on remotely. I can't see any need to keep going outside to turn it on and off, and probably neither did the engineer who put the controls out there.
I would agree though that I like to have the controls where I can see them, so that at least I can check that it's on when it's supposed to be.

[HappyHammy]

Can it be set to be permanently on for water and heating but you turn heating on with the thermostat.

[ImTheCaddy]

Sounds pretty normal. You obviously have a wireless thermostat.

[Troels]

You don't need to turn the hot water on and off. Leave it alone. Just put the heat on and off with the thermostat in the house.