Is £2,200 for zone valve plumbing worth it? Will it do the job?

[megandraper]

We have a large-ish 4-storey house. Each floor has quite specific usage, and gets used for particular times of day (top floor is kids bedrooms, 1st floor is adult bedrooms and office (I work from home), ground floor is living rooms and kitchen, basement is utility and playroom). Kids are small and are looked after at home by my mum while I work, so house nearly always occupied, plus we live in the frozen north (of the UK) so heat essential.

At the moment our heating bills are large (£200pm) and the heating system is quite wasteful, because there's only one thermostat, on the ground floor. So we have to either allow that to switch the heating on and off for the whole house, or else to run around switching radiators on and off all the time, which is impractical.

I'd really like to be able to set each floor on its own thermostat. We have really regular patterns, and I know exactly when each floor should come on/go off. But there's not separate pipework going to each floor, so I thought that would be impossible.

However, our plumber says that this can be achieved by fitting zone valves in the pipework to provide separate control for each floor. He says the valves will be wired via the local ring main and be controlled by wireless room thermostats. The work will cost £2,200 incl VAT.

Does anyone know anything about zone valves? Do you think it will work - i.e. let us control each floor on separate heating temperatures and times?

Thanks for anyone who replies.

I don't know how it works but is there a way you can work out how much money it would save off your bill?
I guess if you're heating half the house half the time then it might even half your bills which over a year or two would make the investment worth it.

The only other thing I would consider is how well blocked off are the areas? Are you going to get drafts/heat escaping because of the parts that aren't heated?

I think you can get timers on individual radiators? Might have dreamt that though

Jazz - yes, even on a more conservative estimate it would definitely be financially worthwhile if the zone thingies work - I've just never heard of them before so wanted to know if anyone has used them.

Polter - very interesting I will have a look