Need to move a thermostat - help?

[ListenLinda]

Hi,

So I have a query and I would like to know if someone can help and offer guidance etc.

In our house, the thermostat and heating control panel are on the middle floor.
When we discovered our downstairs radiators werent getting warm last year, we had a plumber come out who advised to turn the thermostat to 25 and leave it on longer.
so being energy conscious and the bills getting higher, we decided to turn it to 20 and leave it on constant.
but the downstairs radiators aren’t getting warm for long enough, it is freezing downstairs and it’s like only the unused rooms upstairs are getting warm.

We have looked at a smart thermostat and heating controls, where you replace the current heating control panel with the smart one and you can put the thermostat anywhere.

Is this right? And will this solve the problem of the radiators downstairs, meaning they should heat up first and allow the heat to rise upstairs?

or failing that, should I just turn all the upstairs radiators off?

Thanks!

Our smart thermostat is portable and you can move it wherever you want in the house.

But it doesn’t know where it is. It will tell the heating to come on when it senses the temperature - where the thermostat is sitting - has dropped below the required temp.

So you can get a smart thermostat and put it downstairs - and it will ensure the heating stays on long enough for the downstairs temp to come up to what you require. But the upstairs radiators will come on at exactly the same time as well. The downstairs ones won’t come on first. It sounds like your upstairs gets hot more easily than your downstairs. You should probably turn the individual radiator thermostats (0-5 dials) on your downstairs radiators up to max, and turn the upstairs ones down a bit, so you get a more even heat distribution throughout the house.

The other issue is that there might actually be some sort of problem with your downstairs radiators. If you put the heating temporarily up to really high to test them - eg 26 or something daft - do they come on and get really hot? If not then they might need cleaning / inspecting.

Yes, when the heating is on high, the downstairs radiators get hot. I’ve turned it up to 22, and can feel it downstairs now but it’s going to cost a fortune to have the heating on high all day surely?

I don't have central heating in my current place (sob!), but in our previous flat, the thermostat was a portable mini wireless console which just sat wherever you put it and used the temperature of that area as the trigger for firing the boiler.

This sort of thing: www.screwfix.com/p/honeywell-home-t3-1-channel-wireless-programmable-thermostat/543kt

I was looking at a Tado system, as it says you can self install. But I don’t want to fork out so much money if it won’t solve our issue.

fed up of my feet feeling like icicles and needing to hug my bedroom radiator to just feel some warmth!

Do your radiators have valves on them? Thermostatic or not?

If so, I'd turn the valves upstairs down a number/ shut a bit and do the opposite downstairs. Sounds like you need to balance the water flow a bit better to me.

I’ve turned all the ones on the middle floor to frost setting, left the ones in the attic bedroom for now. The downstairs ones are the hottest they can be currently.

it’s lovely and warm now the temp has been turned up so we will see if it helps with the downstairs rads!

Yup. Turn the radiator temp down in the “unused rooms”, so you don’t waste heat heating them up. Do you need it warm all across the house, or do you just want it warm downstairs during the day, for instance?
It does sound like the upstairs vs the downstairs needs rebalancing. Radiators slightly turned down upstairs, or off, and radiators at max downstairs.

I wfh home, when we are all home to two most used rooms are the kitchen and living room. Me & DH sleep and get dressed in our rooms, the kids may occasionally play in theirs on a weekend but generally they are only used for sleeping in.

Our room*

And its a three storey Victorian terrace, with a cellar, with no cavity wall insulation, so when it’s cold, it feels bloody cold!

Good plan - see how it does. But be aware that the thermostat will still be reading the temp on the first floor, so if it stays really cold there (now rads are off) your heating will effectively be on permanently, as your thermostat is telling it to stay on until it feels warm.

The other thing I like about the smart thermostat is you can see a temp readout of when heating comes on, for how long, and how quickly it affects the temperature in the house. I would recommend getting one if you can. Much easier to adjust it - I can just boost or turn down from the associated app on my phone too. It’s glorious compared to the fiddly impenetrable menus of the old thermostat!

@Talipesmum it is on most of the day at a lower temp usually, as we have found it doesnt cost as much as just putting it on twice a day. So upstairs until today was always usually warm. Whereas we need it to be the other way round and have the downstairs warm.

But if this helps, we can look at the smart thermostat once Christmas is out of the way.

I think you need tonlook at the radiators again either bleed them, flush them and re-balance. If they are getting hot but not on long enough to heat that's one thing but not getting hot at all I think suggests they need attention.

@HealingbyFeeling they are getting hot. When the heating is on high enough and long enough, they do get hot. But as it heats the upper two floors first then goes downstairs, when the middle floor reached the temp the thermostat is, it clicks off. This is usually before the downstairs rads reach up to temp.
the radiators have been bled and a full flush done before we moved in a year ago.

The issue is primarily where the thermostat is placed.

It’s weird if it’s heating the upper floor first? I can’t see why it would do that.
Hope your adjustments help!

"Is this right? And will this solve the problem of the radiators downstairs, meaning they should heat up first and allow the heat to rise upstairs?"

No. The easiest thing would be to turn off the upstairs radiators; the correct thing would be to balance the system (guide available)

Do your radiators have thermostatic radiator valves?

A sophisticated solution would be to replumb the heating into zones, so each floor has its own controls.

At the risk of starting a row, IMO your first plumber was a numbskull.

@PigletJohn 😂😂 you could be right.
the radiators have valves on that can be turned from frost setting to 6 I think.
the upstairs ones have been turned to the frost setting leaving the downstairs ones on high.

There was a noticeable difference yesterday, but it would be ideal to have the whole bloody house warm. And as PP said, it could be that we end up with the boiler firing up regularly as the upstairs temp won’t get up to the temperature the therm is set at at.

So i’m still not sure how to fix this problem
properly.

So now you’ve tested that, can you turn the ones on frost setting up to low, eg 2, and see if that slightly rebalances it?

Your radiators should all be heating up at the same time. If they're not then they probably need balancing. There's a DIY guide here job-prices.co.uk/radiator-balancing/ or ask a (different) plumber to do it.

@Talipesmum I can try that today.