On Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:35:48 +0000, Roger Mills wrote:

On 07/02/2012 14:59, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:52:13 +0000, Roger Mills wrote:


If I go down the road of leaving the heating on, I can't see any point
in running it unless it is freezing outside. It seems to me that what
I need is an external thermostat - switching on at (say) 1 degC -
wired in series with the roomstat.

You could but then if the temp inside dropped below 13C your insurance
(if they found out) might reject your claim, slippery beggars that they
are. They could find out by simply of spotting the series frost stat
and override switch and asking awkward questions (unlikely though).
Remember if the place has frozen they will be looking to check the
heating was functioning...

Yes, I know. The object of the exercise though is to prevent it freezing
so that a burst pipe claim never arises, but to minimise the cost of
doing so.

Of course a lot depends on the location and aspect of the flat. Where
is it, Cornish Riviera or Scottish Highlands?

It's in the New Forest. It's in a Georgian house which has been
converted into flats - some of which are lived in all the time and
others used as holiday flats. Our flat is on the first floor, and has
north, east and south aspects.

Another thing to consider is damp. An unheated place will suffer damp
when surfaces/objects fall below the dewpoint, 13C should keep the
place above the dewpoint most of the time.


Well, we went through last winter with no heating at all when the flat
was unoccupied, and that doesn't appear to have been a problem.

I could do with some device for recording the internal temperature when
we're not there. A max/min thermometer would provide *some* information,
but wouldn't tell us *when* it was cold, and for how long. Something
which records the temperature every couple of hours - without costing an
arm and a leg - would be better. Any ideas, anyone?

Cheep weather station type thing?

Avpx