Room temp (oil radiator) help!

[Mcousin99]

Hi all

I'm having a nightmare trying to keep my 8 month olds room a suitable temperature in this cold snap. we cant afford to keep the central heating on all night so I've got an oil filled radiator which has two switches (low and medium) and a dial going from min to max) Ideally I just wanted this radiator to be on one low setting all night to maintain the temp but it seems it has to be on a thermostat so it keeps turning itself on and off. Let's say her room starts off at 15.5 in the evening before I've switched it on and I want it to go up to and stay about 19 all night. (She wears a short sleeve vest, sleepsuit and 2.5 tog sleepsack) . I can't seem to be able to just turn it on low setting and it stays. The only instruction in manual is to turn it to max until I've reached the required room temp, then turn it down til it clicks and up til it clicks again, which will then ensure the room keeps the temperature. But is this the only way these radiators work?? I can't just turn it on low so a little heat is coming out all night so her room doesn't get too cold? And it seems from when ive tried the thermostat setting that her room is still getting hotter creeping up to 21+ when I close the door. So I end up turning it all off completely once it's about 20 in there, then keeping an eye and having to go in to turn it back on when the temp drops again. I don't know if I'm completely missing something! Is anyone else using these??

Mine works as you are wanting yours to, there is a low - high dial and an on/off switch.
I have the dial set mid-way and it goes on and off in the same way as a thermostatic radiator valve on a central heating radiator would.
It means the temperature varies as it clicks on and off, but only about 0.5°c either way of the required temperature.

19°c seems high though?

You dont need it at 19⁰C all night
Ideal sleeping temperature is 16-20⁰C. Our heating was/is always off overnight. Adjust clothing to keep baby warmer.

Thanks -
I say 19 as according to what she wears the room should be 16-20 by what I've seen on those sleep temp charts

If she doesn't have any heat going in there at all all night the temp was dropping to 15 and I found she was waking a couple of times more

That's why I said adjust clothing if required.
You get 3.5tog sleeping bags too

Ours work same as yours. It’s still a bit of a guessing game and sometimes I have to go in when I head up to bed if the temp is too warm or too cold and adjust the dial a bit then it settles on the temp I want. Generally works well though. I have it at about 17/18.

It's the dial that confuses me as I'll have it set but then want to turn it down a tad but it clicks again which just seems to turn it off completely! So when you have it set for 17/18 and you turn it down a little, it just lowers the amount of heat coming out? I'm probably really overthinking the whole thing

No it doesn’t it lower the amount of heat coming out when you turn the dial down, it turns the thermostat down so it’s set at a lower temperature. So it only turns on and gives out heat when it gets to the lower temperature. I turn it on a bit before bedtime and when it’s got to the temperature that I want (which I check on the monitor) I turn the dial until it clicks. So it will keep it at that temperature and turn on if it drops below it.

If it clicks that usually means the room is at that temperature already which is why it stops heating. The thermostat will then monitor the room temperature and then start heating again once the temperature in the room drops below the temperature you have set

It's the same way central heating works. It doesn't pile out heat all the time. It comes up to temperature and the stops heating until the temperature drops and then it kicks in again.

Ideally I just wanted this radiator to be on one low setting all night to maintain the temp but it seems it has to be on a thermostat so it keeps turning itself on and off. Let's say her room starts off at 15.5 in the evening before I've switched it on and I want it to go up to and stay about 19 all night. (She wears a short sleeve vest, sleepsuit and 2.5 tog sleepsack) . I can't seem to be able to just turn it on low setting and it stays.

I think it's doing what it should do. Why do you want the radiator to stay at a constant temperature? Isn't it the room that should be at a constant temperature? That's what the thermostat does by turning the radiator on and off as required.