Can I have a definitive answer to "what is the cheapest - time switch or leaving the boiler on all the time" please?

[WhizzBangCaligula]

Is there a definitive answer?

Everyone's horrified that I'm leaving my boiler on all the time (just turning it down at night and up again in the morning) but I keep reading/ hearing that that is the cheapest. Then people look horrified and I get uneasy.

Who knows?

Still hard at it then hub?

I can't stop till everybody is warm, sag.

clumsy - it's unfortunate you forgot to switch it off, but you'll start seeing savings from here forward at least.

Yes it's bled and it's on max and it is the furthest one from the boiler.

It is also too small as I told the f*king plumber who put it in, that it would be. He poo-poohed the idea - didn't want to put one in at all, said the room was too small and high up to need heating. I told him I most certainly did need heating and needed the biggest radiator he could find and a double please. He didn't listen, he's put a small inadequate one in, but it's too late now.

I have to put the convector heater on about 3 times in the day. Is that OK or should I just turn up the boiler?

Yes!!! More than 100 posts!!!!

It's in the loft, isn't it ?

We have a small loft conversion room. It's the hotest in the house in summer and the coldest in winter. . You need a double up there IMHO. That's what I specced and damn glad. Also, when I was balancing it I let that rad have full flow IYSWIM.

Replacing a single rad with a double (same size, SAME BRAND) is v. easy and I'd recommend you go for it, all you'll be on the convector all sodding winter for years to come.

I presume the insulation to that room is about as good as you can get ?

(re: "it's on max" - you mean the TRV, don't you ? You also need to open the lock valve on the other end (it has a plastic cover) to full flow (anti clockwise). )

Just one point here.

I'm trying to keep my bills down, I'm heating the house gently, setting the thermostat at 16 degrees, 18 in the evenings, off altogether overnight, timer switches on in the mornings before we get up.

BUT

When I went out the other night, the babysitter had switcvhed it up to 25 degrees !!!
And didn't tell me. fortunately I noticed as I got up next morning, but ..... wondering whether to dock her wages next time?

Hmm, I think I mean the TRV. That's that knob with an arrow on it and you turn it all the way round to make the radiator hotter?

LOL at docking the wages. No, I don't think you can expect your babysitter to sit shivering in your house. (It's one of my pet hates about English houses, how cold and uncomfortable they are.) But just mention to her that if she touches any settings on anything - videos, heating, computer - she should tell you!

what does the lock valve do and can I open it too much and flood the place?

Blimey WhizzBang, 18 degrees isn't shivering, not by any stretch.

She lives in a 3rd floor flat, I reckon she gets the benefit of the heating from the flats below her.

Sorry forgot to answer yes it's the loft room and the best insulation that you can get for a loft conversion (done 4 years ago so fairly up to date)

I would be shivering at 18 degrees in this weather. My office is 24 degrees at the mo, which is OK, but I get cold after a couple of hours if I haven't gone and done something else for a while. 25 doesn't sound at all unreasonable to me tbh. But I am pathologically hostile to feeling cold inside a building.

noddy - if the valve is intrinsically sound, you can open it up and it won't be a problem. You can't 'over open' it (unlike bleeding a rad; you can undo the plug and water will slowly start spewing out !).

HOWEVER - sometimes you move the valve and because they're never touched it'll weep. Sometimes the weeping stops and sometimes it doesn't. (A new valve probably costs a fiver).

Yes, Caligula, that's the TRV. You know, there's one thing you can do (which we did on ours) and that's to stick reflective insulative foil behind the rad. You can also do this on any rads mounted on outside walls. You will throw more of the heat forward into the room instead of the wall /eaves IYSWIM.

Re: specific temperatures and docking wages... all these instuments tend to be calibrated differently, so a 16 in your house might be a 21 in mine or a 24 in Caligula's, who knows ! clumsymum - I don't get involved in babysitter politics. I think rather you should just give her a good public thrashing.

Calig - one thing: check your boiler has sufficient head in its spec sheet to reach your loft (most do, but you should check), and the rad circuit is kept to at least 1 bar (if you have a combi it'll have a dial on the front).

What is the rad circuit, oh boilerwise one?

It's the (closed) circuit of water running in the pipes going to and from each radiator. As opposed to the hot water circuit you use for washing up / running baths etc.

You've not got a combi, have you Calig ? You'd know all about the little pressure guage thingy I just mentioned if you did have one...

Yes I have a combi.

I didn't really understand your post before that question.

Oooo I have another question - the pressure thingy - mines on 1 but is 'allowed' to be up to 2.5. Does that make a difference to how efficiently it's running?

Hey and I know how to top it up.

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OMG this is incessant. It just gets worse. LOL

Calig - a boiler pump will be rated for a certain number of ft / meter head. This is how high it can reliably circulate water. (Pushing water 'up hill' is a lot of work). Obviously a domestic pump wouldn't be suitable to pump water to the sixth floor of an office IYSWIM, but depending on how tall your house is, your boiler pump might not be adequate for your loft IYSWIM (but it probably is).

Now, re: pressure - On the front of your boiler should be a guage measured in bar or psi. It represents the pressure of the water in the radiator circuit. I have mentioned this is a CLOSED circuit. ie you don't keep adding fresh water to it (unlike the hot water for washing up where the mains people keep pumping it into your house and you keep flushing it down the drain). Anyway, with the passage of time and the imperfection of valves and joints etc. the pressure in the system drops a little, and from time to time (sometimes only once or twice a year on a really nice system) you will need to top up the rad circuit with a little bit of fresh water. (You'd also need to do this if you bleed the rads, or if you drain the system for whatever reason).

The dial should generally read about 1 bar. Some folk like to keep it lower (but some boilers refuse to turn on below about 1/2 a bar) and some like to keep it a little higher. I would try and keep it at 1.

hth

Saggar - you get brownie points for knowing how to top it up. But not many cos it's not that hard.

9 bar is rather worrying indeed, if it was 9 bar rather than just a random 0 - 10 type dial IYSWIM. Most emergency pressure relief valves blow (for safety) at around 3 or 4 bar IIRC (well, mine does anyway).

Mellow - erm.... probably a little. It depends on where the 'stat is (if you've got one you don't want it to be in one of those rooms LOL), and whether the cold rooms upstairs take a lot of heat rising from the ground floor ISYWIM (ie. you'd be losing more heat from the ground floor).

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Well, if you can turn them off and keep the comfort you desire in the house, then, in theory you might save a little money but in practice I think this would be really really really very little (you are removing maybe 20m of pipework out of the equation, I don't think you're gonna really derive the benefit you seek.