Is there any merit in having your thermostatic radiator valves all turned
down to minimum on a gas fired central heating system?

Reason I ask is that for some reason my father is obsessed with going round
his house and turning down all the radiator TRV's in rooms no-one is
presently using.

He seems to think its saving energy, but I can't see the sense in this, as
being on the minimum setting, the radiators never warm the rooms properly
and my mother and sister end up using electric heaters to warm the room when
they come to use them.

I've tried pointing this out to him, but the only answer I get is that he
can't see the point in wasting energy heating rooms no-one is using.

Is this logic or madness?


--
Best Wishes
Simon (aka Dark Angel)
"Dark Angel's Realm of Horror" - http://www.realmofhorror.co.uk

"Dark Angel" wrote in message
...
Is there any merit in having your thermostatic radiator valves all turned
down to minimum on a gas fired central heating system?

Reason I ask is that for some reason my father is obsessed with going
round his house and turning down all the radiator TRV's in rooms no-one is
presently using.

He seems to think its saving energy, but I can't see the sense in this,
as being on the minimum setting, the radiators never warm the rooms
properly and my mother and sister end up using electric heaters to warm
the room when they come to use them.

I've tried pointing this out to him, but the only answer I get is that he
can't see the point in wasting energy heating rooms no-one is using.

Is this logic or madness?


--
Best Wishes
Simon (aka Dark Angel)
"Dark Angel's Realm of Horror" - http://www.realmofhorror.co.uk



He is right if the rooms are not being used and the doors are shut - but not
if you need to use electricity to make them usable. The best scenario IMO
is to turn them down so that the room is about 15degs when not being used,
but will quickly come up to 21deg if you turn the valve up a bit.

Peter

"Peter Andrews" wrote in message
o.uk...

"Dark Angel" wrote in message
...
Is there any merit in having your thermostatic radiator valves all turned
down to minimum on a gas fired central heating system?

Reason I ask is that for some reason my father is obsessed with going
round his house and turning down all the radiator TRV's in rooms no-one
is presently using.

He seems to think its saving energy, but I can't see the sense in this,
as being on the minimum setting, the radiators never warm the rooms
properly and my mother and sister end up using electric heaters to warm
the room when they come to use them.

I've tried pointing this out to him, but the only answer I get is that he
can't see the point in wasting energy heating rooms no-one is using.

Is this logic or madness?


--
Best Wishes
Simon (aka Dark Angel)
"Dark Angel's Realm of Horror" - http://www.realmofhorror.co.uk



He is right if the rooms are not being used and the doors are shut - but
not if you need to use electricity to make them usable. The best scenario
IMO is to turn them down so that the room is about 15degs when not being
used, but will quickly come up to 21deg if you turn the valve up a bit.

Peter

best thing he could do then is go round with a thermometer and set them all
till they are balanced with the doors ajar
at about 16 deg upstairs

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Dark Angel wrote:

Is there any merit in having your thermostatic radiator valves all
turned down to minimum on a gas fired central heating system?

Reason I ask is that for some reason my father is obsessed with going
round his house and turning down all the radiator TRV's in rooms
no-one is presently using.

He seems to think its saving energy, but I can't see the sense in
this, as being on the minimum setting, the radiators never warm the
rooms properly and my mother and sister end up using electric heaters
to warm the room when they come to use them.

I've tried pointing this out to him, but the only answer I get is
that he can't see the point in wasting energy heating rooms no-one is
using.

Is this logic or madness?

Both! It makes some sense to save energy when rooms are not being used - but
it's total madness then to use electric heaters. What's wrong with turning
the TRVs up again?
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

He seems to think its saving energy, but I can't see the sense in this,
as
being on the minimum setting, the radiators never warm the rooms properly
and my mother and sister end up using electric heaters to warm the room
when they come to use them.

I've tried pointing this out to him, but the only answer I get is that he
can't see the point in wasting energy heating rooms no-one is using.

Is this logic or madness?

Turning the TRV's down is perfectly logical, and yes it will save energy.

The madness is that your mother and sister are using electric heaters, why
not turn the TRV's up when they are using a room, then turn them back down
when they have finished?

Set Square wrote:
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Dark Angel wrote:

Is there any merit in having your thermostatic radiator valves all
turned down to minimum on a gas fired central heating system?

Reason I ask is that for some reason my father is obsessed with going
round his house and turning down all the radiator TRV's in rooms
no-one is presently using.

He seems to think its saving energy, but I can't see the sense in
this, as being on the minimum setting, the radiators never warm the
rooms properly and my mother and sister end up using electric heaters
to warm the room when they come to use them.

I've tried pointing this out to him, but the only answer I get is
that he can't see the point in wasting energy heating rooms no-one is
using.

Is this logic or madness?

Both! It makes some sense to save energy when rooms are not being used - but
it's total madness then to use electric heaters. What's wrong with turning
the TRVs up again?

Probably because the system thinks the rest of the house is up to
temperature and so there's no flow through the rads.

Heat loss from the heated rooms will be slightly greater depending on
the temp of the unheated ones and the U value of the walls.

MBQ

wrote in message
oups.com...

Set Square wrote:
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Dark Angel wrote:

Is there any merit in having your thermostatic radiator valves all
turned down to minimum on a gas fired central heating system?

Reason I ask is that for some reason my father is obsessed with going
round his house and turning down all the radiator TRV's in rooms
no-one is presently using.

He seems to think its saving energy, but I can't see the sense in
this, as being on the minimum setting, the radiators never warm the
rooms properly and my mother and sister end up using electric heaters
to warm the room when they come to use them.

I've tried pointing this out to him, but the only answer I get is
that he can't see the point in wasting energy heating rooms no-one is
using.

Is this logic or madness?

Both! It makes some sense to save energy when rooms are not being used -
but
it's total madness then to use electric heaters. What's wrong with
turning
the TRVs up again?

Probably because the system thinks the rest of the house is up to
temperature and so there's no flow through the rads.

Heat loss from the heated rooms will be slightly greater depending on
the temp of the unheated ones and the U value of the walls.

MBQ


This reminds me of when -decades ago- I installed central
heating into my house during a week off work. Having satisfied
myself that everything was fully functional - I returned to work
on a very cold day. Returning home, I found my wife and children
sitting in front of the gas fire on full belt! 'The radiators are cold"
my wife complained "The central heating isn't working' ! ...
Yep, she'd 'automatically' turned on the gas-fire and the
thermostat told the boiler not to bother firing up!

--

Brian

In article ,
Dark Angel wrote:
Is there any merit in having your thermostatic radiator valves all
turned down to minimum on a gas fired central heating system?

No - it ceases being a heating system then.

Reason I ask is that for some reason my father is obsessed with going
round his house and turning down all the radiator TRV's in rooms no-one
is presently using.

Ah - only in unused rooms?

He seems to think its saving energy, but I can't see the sense in this,
as being on the minimum setting, the radiators never warm the rooms
properly and my mother and sister end up using electric heaters to warm
the room when they come to use them.

Why don't they simply turn up the TRVs sometime before they occupy the
rooms?

I've tried pointing this out to him, but the only answer I get is that
he can't see the point in wasting energy heating rooms no-one is using.

Is this logic or madness?

Seems fair enough to me - provided they're left on the frost setting.

--
*Someday, we'll look back on this, laugh nervously and change the subject

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article , Brian Sharrock
writes

This reminds me of when -decades ago- I installed central
heating into my house during a week off work. Having satisfied
myself that everything was fully functional - I returned to work
on a very cold day. Returning home, I found my wife and children
sitting in front of the gas fire on full belt! 'The radiators are cold"
my wife complained "The central heating isn't working' ! ...
Yep, she'd 'automatically' turned on the gas-fire and the
thermostat told the boiler not to bother firing up!

Sorry mate, that is your fault* for having the thermostat in a room with a
supplementary heat source.

* Both your fault and "your fault" {TM} - as spoken by t'missus.
--
fred
Plusnet - I hope you like vanilla

"Brian Sharrock" wrote in message...
This reminds me of when -decades ago- I installed central
heating into my house during a week off work. Having satisfied
myself that everything was fully functional - I returned to work
on a very cold day. Returning home, I found my wife and children
sitting in front of the gas fire on full belt! 'The radiators are cold"
my wife complained "The central heating isn't working' ! ...
Yep, she'd 'automatically' turned on the gas-fire and the
thermostat told the boiler not to bother firing up!

As a side issue, that was a problem with the heating installed in my
grandmothers house.


--
Best Wishes
Simon (aka Dark Angel)
"Dark Angel's Realm of Horror" - http://www.realmofhorror.co.uk

"SimonJ" wrote in message ...
Turning the TRV's down is perfectly logical, and yes it will save energy.

The madness is that your mother and sister are using electric heaters, why
not turn the TRV's up when they are using a room, then turn them back down
when they have finished?

There are a number of problems, firstly that the radiators in a couple of
the rooms don't appear to be quite up to the job so it takes a long while
for the rooms to heat up. Secondly, if the room with the room stat is up to
temperature the heating won't be on and the radiators won't warm up when
turned on.


--
Best Wishes
Simon (aka Dark Angel)
"Dark Angel's Realm of Horror" - http://www.realmofhorror.co.uk

"Dark Angel" wrote in message
...

"Brian Sharrock" wrote in message...
This reminds me of when -decades ago- I installed central
heating into my house during a week off work. Having satisfied
myself that everything was fully functional - I returned to work
on a very cold day. Returning home, I found my wife and children
sitting in front of the gas fire on full belt! 'The radiators are cold"
my wife complained "The central heating isn't working' ! ...
Yep, she'd 'automatically' turned on the gas-fire and the
thermostat told the boiler not to bother firing up!

As a side issue, that was a problem with the heating installed in my
grandmothers house.


That is caused by fitting the room stat in the wrong place and/or not having
the correct controls.
A very common fault.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
Ah - only in unused rooms?

Well rooms that no-one is in at the time, obviously when you go upto bed and
the heating has been on you expect it to be warm. Not freezing cold.

Why don't they simply turn up the TRVs sometime before they occupy the
rooms?

They could, but there are also the problems mentioned elsewhere with rooms
taking a long time to heat up and the heating being off because the timer
isn't on when they come to use the room, or the heatings off because the
room with the room stat is upto temperature.

Seems fair enough to me - provided they're left on the frost setting.

It would make sense to me if the rooms weren't being used at all, the fact
of the matter is there are more rooms than people and whichever room they're
occupying at the time my father turns down/off the heating in the other and
because of the aformentioned other problems most of the rooms are never
warm, so they're having to resort to using the electric fires to get them up
to temperature.


--
Best Wishes
Simon (aka Dark Angel)
"Dark Angel's Realm of Horror" - http://www.realmofhorror.co.uk

In article ,
says...

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
Ah - only in unused rooms?

Well rooms that no-one is in at the time, obviously when you go upto bed and
the heating has been on you expect it to be warm. Not freezing cold.

Why don't they simply turn up the TRVs sometime before they occupy the
rooms?

They could, but there are also the problems mentioned elsewhere with rooms
taking a long time to heat up and the heating being off because the timer
isn't on when they come to use the room, or the heatings off because the
room with the room stat is upto temperature.

Seems fair enough to me - provided they're left on the frost setting.

It would make sense to me if the rooms weren't being used at all, the fact
of the matter is there are more rooms than people and whichever room they're
occupying at the time my father turns down/off the heating in the other and
because of the aformentioned other problems most of the rooms are never
warm, so they're having to resort to using the electric fires to get them up
to temperature.

Can't you get TRVs that can be locked so you can only turn them up or
down a certain amount?

"dennis@home" wrote in message
k...

"Dark Angel" wrote in message
...

"Brian Sharrock" wrote in message...
This reminds me of when -decades ago- I installed central
heating into my house during a week off work. Having satisfied
myself that everything was fully functional - I returned to work
on a very cold day. Returning home, I found my wife and children
sitting in front of the gas fire on full belt! 'The radiators are cold"
my wife complained "The central heating isn't working' ! ...
Yep, she'd 'automatically' turned on the gas-fire and the
thermostat told the boiler not to bother firing up!

As a side issue, that was a problem with the heating installed in my
grandmothers house.


That is caused by fitting the room stat in the wrong place and/or not
having the correct controls.
A very common fault.
But was actually caused by somebody turning on the gas fire
which heated the room before the central-heating system was enabled
by its time switch/controller... the whereabouts of the sensor was
irrelevant to the scenario. Some folks can't comprehend what is
written. They were taught in the wrong place. A very common fault.

--

Brian



was irrelevant

"Brian Sharrock" wrote in message
...

"dennis@home" wrote in message
k...

"Dark Angel" wrote in message
...

"Brian Sharrock" wrote in message...
This reminds me of when -decades ago- I installed central
heating into my house during a week off work. Having satisfied
myself that everything was fully functional - I returned to work
on a very cold day. Returning home, I found my wife and children
sitting in front of the gas fire on full belt! 'The radiators are cold"
my wife complained "The central heating isn't working' ! ...
Yep, she'd 'automatically' turned on the gas-fire and the
thermostat told the boiler not to bother firing up!

As a side issue, that was a problem with the heating installed in my
grandmothers house.


That is caused by fitting the room stat in the wrong place and/or not
having the correct controls.
A very common fault.
But was actually caused by somebody turning on the gas fire
which heated the room before the central-heating system was enabled
by its time switch/controller... the whereabouts of the sensor was
irrelevant to the scenario. Some folks can't comprehend what is
written. They were taught in the wrong place. A very common fault.

You are such a case.
If you fit the room stat in a room with another heat source then it is *not*
going to work properly and as such it is a error on the part of the
installer.
Anyone with any common sense would know this.
Have a look at single stat+compressor fridge freezers which suffer from the
same problem in reverse.
Its all down to bodging CH systems using TRVs which isn't the correct way to
do the job.