All the rads have thermostatic valves with a frost setting. The 2 bedrooms I don't need heat in - 1 I just keep stuff in, and my orchids atm. The other bedroom is where I dry my washing, so I keep the fanlight quite open and the rad on 1 and the door ajar. It's quite chilly in both rooms.
I think I should improve the insulation in the loft. I do store 'treasured items' 😂 up there and I've just read that compressing modern insulation makes it almost worthless. Some areas are boarded with no insulation under them at all. I'd have to clear areas near the eaves out, before fitters came, so I may as well get some rolls and do it myself as best I can. It won't be up to regs - but it must be better than what's up there now. It's only since the massive hike in the cost of gas/leccy that I've bothered to try and reduce my usage as previously it was cheap enough not to worry about it too much.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
It can make quite a big difference - better loft insulation and better windows are the two things that usually achieve the most improvement in energy consumption and windows are definitely the more expensive of those options. It shouldn't cost more than £500 to get a loft done properly, even a complicated one. The Government grants assume £350 or thereabouts as typical.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
That's the average cost for loft insulation I had in mind @raisingirl, I rather think Pete's neighbour's been taken for a ride.
We have been lucky because OH took out a 4 year fix just over a year ago, expensive at the time but he thought it worth a punt. Means we don't have to worry too much about keeping the house warm.
I think insulation is the way forward for you @Pete.8. It definitely makes a huge difference. You'll just have to bite the bullet. You're a bit far away for me to come and give you a hand I'd love to dry washing outside @StephenSouthwest, but unfortunately, the weather plays a major role in that I'm trying to use the drier less, and it's been ok so far, but it's so mild that when I'm trying to dry clothes inside, I have to put the heating on instead, and it only needs to be on for half an hour at most once or twice a day. If I wasn't drying stuff, it would hardly be on at all, but damp clothing hanging around isn't great. As Pete said, when energy costs weren't at the horrific prices we're all seeing, you'd barely think twice about it being on, or using a drier. The downside of trying to be more energy efficient is that I seem to spend large amounts of time moving stuff around on the airers, and after the heating's off, putting certain things on the rads until they cool down etc. At least I'm retired, so that's feasible. The girls have uniforms for work, and they don't have enough of them that we can do a once a week wash, or similar, with those, so we do need to do more washing too.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Can rad stats be counter productive as well? If my main stat is in a hall set at 19, and my hall rad is set to switch off below that level can that lead to a heat race - ie my hall gets to circa 18 degrees and the rad goes cold, so never triggering the main stat? IE the boiler has no idea what the individual rads stats are set to, so it pumps out heat that you've told the rad to ignore. Is that how it works - so do you always want your 'prime' (ie the rad that creates the warmth closes to your main stat) rad stat to be at or above your main stat? (@raisingirl - can that occur?)
Generally, the boiler has no idea what the radiators are doing. It 'sees' the temperature of the water coming back from the system and modulates to respond to that, in order to maintain a constant temperature water leaving the boiler to go back to the system. Your main 'stat' (assuming it's connected - they aren't always) might be turning the boiler on and off or might turn your heating pump on and off. There's usually then 'gap' of a couple of degrees or more that the stat temp has to drop before it cuts back in again, to stop it rapidly cutting in and out when the temperature is close to the set point.
If your radiator valves all shut down, the water in the system doesn't lose much heat, so the boiler cuts back or switches off. When a radiator valve is open, the radiator loses heat at a rate which is purely a matter of temperature difference between the water inside the radiator and the air and surfaces in the room. If you turn your radiator valve down, you're throttling the flow of water in the radiator but it won't change the rate at which the heat transfers from the water - just the amount of water.
If your main stat is set to 19C, but that room never reaches that temp, the boiler will stay on and the pump will keep running, so all your radiators will keep heating unless they are actually turned off or until every room is warmer than the radiator set temps so the valves all shut and then the boiler will stop anyway because the system water temp will go up. If you set the stat to 19C and the room reaches that temp, it will turn all your radiators off in the whole house, so you want to set it so that that doesn't happen until the rooms you need to be heated are warm enough. Conventional wisdom is to put the stat in the coldest place in the house (which you probably have). If the living room radiator is on full, the room is well insulated and you shut the door, so it gets nice and toasty, the radiator won't be able to lose as much heat, the radiator valve may be reducing the water flow and the rad may go cold, but the rest of the house will still have heating on until the hallway gets warm.
Radiator valves are pretty inaccurate and don't usually maintain a specific temperature reliably, they just turn on a bit or off a bit.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
The requirement in Scotland is 270mm, and we had to have that so we met the conditions for a grant towards our heat pump installation. So we needed to add about another 100mm. This involved unscrewing the boarding, screwing on plastic loft stilts, adding the extra insulation, and then screwing the boards back down. We did it in 2 halves so we didn't have to take too much stuff out. The job was complicated by having to shift the pipes etc for the whole house insulation system.
I made my OH wear his cycle helmet as he kept banging his head .... he is 6' 5"
Glad we did it but it was hard work at the time.
Heat pump is great .... if you've got the room they are well worth considering.
Bee x
Gardener and beekeeper in beautiful Scottish Borders
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
Posts
The 2 bedrooms I don't need heat in - 1 I just keep stuff in, and my orchids atm.
The other bedroom is where I dry my washing, so I keep the fanlight quite open and the rad on 1 and the door ajar. It's quite chilly in both rooms.
I think I should improve the insulation in the loft.
I do store 'treasured items' 😂 up there and I've just read that compressing modern insulation makes it almost worthless. Some areas are boarded with no insulation under them at all.
I'd have to clear areas near the eaves out, before fitters came, so I may as well get some rolls and do it myself as best I can.
It won't be up to regs - but it must be better than what's up there now.
It's only since the massive hike in the cost of gas/leccy that I've bothered to try and reduce my usage as previously it was cheap enough not to worry about it too much.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
We have been lucky because OH took out a 4 year fix just over a year ago, expensive at the time but he thought it worth a punt. Means we don't have to worry too much about keeping the house warm.
I'd love to dry washing outside @StephenSouthwest, but unfortunately, the weather plays a major role in that
I'm trying to use the drier less, and it's been ok so far, but it's so mild that when I'm trying to dry clothes inside, I have to put the heating on instead, and it only needs to be on for half an hour at most once or twice a day. If I wasn't drying stuff, it would hardly be on at all, but damp clothing hanging around isn't great.
As Pete said, when energy costs weren't at the horrific prices we're all seeing, you'd barely think twice about it being on, or using a drier. The downside of trying to be more energy efficient is that I seem to spend large amounts of time moving stuff around on the airers, and after the heating's off, putting certain things on the rads until they cool down etc. At least I'm retired, so that's feasible.
The girls have uniforms for work, and they don't have enough of them that we can do a once a week wash, or similar, with those, so we do need to do more washing too.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
If your radiator valves all shut down, the water in the system doesn't lose much heat, so the boiler cuts back or switches off. When a radiator valve is open, the radiator loses heat at a rate which is purely a matter of temperature difference between the water inside the radiator and the air and surfaces in the room. If you turn your radiator valve down, you're throttling the flow of water in the radiator but it won't change the rate at which the heat transfers from the water - just the amount of water.
If your main stat is set to 19C, but that room never reaches that temp, the boiler will stay on and the pump will keep running, so all your radiators will keep heating unless they are actually turned off or until every room is warmer than the radiator set temps so the valves all shut and then the boiler will stop anyway because the system water temp will go up. If you set the stat to 19C and the room reaches that temp, it will turn all your radiators off in the whole house, so you want to set it so that that doesn't happen until the rooms you need to be heated are warm enough. Conventional wisdom is to put the stat in the coldest place in the house (which you probably have). If the living room radiator is on full, the room is well insulated and you shut the door, so it gets nice and toasty, the radiator won't be able to lose as much heat, the radiator valve may be reducing the water flow and the rad may go cold, but the rest of the house will still have heating on until the hallway gets warm.
Radiator valves are pretty inaccurate and don't usually maintain a specific temperature reliably, they just turn on a bit or off a bit.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
The requirement in Scotland is 270mm, and we had to have that so we met the conditions for a grant towards our heat pump installation.
So we needed to add about another 100mm. This involved unscrewing the boarding, screwing on plastic loft stilts, adding the extra insulation, and then screwing the boards back down.
We did it in 2 halves so we didn't have to take too much stuff out.
The job was complicated by having to shift the pipes etc for the whole house insulation system.
I made my OH wear his cycle helmet as he kept banging his head .... he is 6' 5"
Glad we did it but it was hard work at the time.
Heat pump is great .... if you've got the room they are well worth considering.
Bee x
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime