On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 20:04:58 +0100, "Mungo \"two sheds\" Toadfoot"
wrote:


"Brian Reay" wrote in message
...

If the thermostat is in the living room and you have a gas fire- even for
'looks' - then the living room can be as warm as toast and the rest of the
house freezing.


The thinking was along those lines actually!

We didn't want the rest of the house "freezing", as such, but bits of it
could do with being a lot cooler than they are, the way things work at the
moment - the bedrooms and kitchen get too hot so we were thinking of ways to
a) lower the temps in those rooms which are not used a lot in the daytime
and b) lower the running costs a bit.

I assume TRVs would help? Are they as easy to fit as they look?

Yes they are. It used to be that you had to be sure to fit them so
that the flow went in a specific direction. Nowadays most are
reversible.

Otherwise, it's a fairly straightforward replacement exercise. One of
the biggest pains tends to be removing the olive from the existing
fitting to be able to put on the new nut and olive. From
experience, I do think it's worth buying decent TRVs like Drayton,
Invensys, Honeywell etc. A few pounds more but they do tend to last
more than proportionately longer IME. Generally the expanding
capsule in the head fails after a typical life of 7-10 years. You
can buy spare heads and change them if the body is still sound.



Another option if the plumbing is appropriate could be to fit a zone
valve with a timer/thermostat for the areas not wanted during the day.
You could then use a setback thermostat to just drop the temperature a
little.

I mentioned electronic thermostats in my other post. Another feature
of these is setback where you can drop the temperature at certain
times rather than off completely. Once adjusted suitably, you will
get greater comfort. Also it can be less expensive to run if you just
drop the temperature by 6 degrees or so overnight rather than
completely off. The reason is that you then don't need the massive
surge of heat in the morning to bring the building up to temperature
and the overshoot and waste that that can bring.
You do need to play around a little to set these effectively.



Opening the front door etc will cause a 'burst' of the heating but that
inrush of could air will need warming or it can give cold draughts in the
other rooms.


That's a good point.

On balance, I favour the thermostat in the hall.

Also, do a good job of draught excluding- that does wonders for the warm
'feel' of the house.


We've recently had double-glazing fitted, that should help a lot.

Yes it should, but you don't need to completely hermetically seal the
place or you will get other problems.




Thanks for the reply,

Si


..andy

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