What temperature do you usually have inside your houses, what is the thermostat at, or when does the heating go on for winter?

[Ootohere]

The gas price will do what is does but personally i intend keeping what i need to spend as low as possible,

but that is not going to be easy into the future now.

 

Normally by October i would have my Gas Central Heating on and set at 18*oC.  

 

The past week the temp has been between 16 & 17 *oC inside. 

Bearable for sitting without socks / slippers, or getting in and out the shower. 

 

I find 15*oC is as cold as i am prepared to have it in my house. 

 

So i have a fixed tariff for dual fuel until mid January and it is quite a low tariff and in credit so the heating will go on when needed but certainly just at the 18-19*oC as the winter gets colder and that means the price per day doubles and in the coldest can cost more than double it is if heating the house just now. 

 

...............

Electricity is a whole other kettle of fish.   

 Duel Fuel on the tariff i have is only about £2 a month for the gas and £2 for Electric for Daily Standing Charge. 

I know that will go to around £8 a month for each with a new tariff, so £16 just for having a provider before paying for what is used.

 

For EV charging i will use any free or cheap public charging i can, but that might well be changing with any providers very soon and finding electric charging for less than the House Tariff might be rare. 

[MATT0693]

Luckily I live in a new build so it is well insulated, has split zone heating and I have smart tech which helps. 

 

Upstairs is set to reach 23'c for when I wake up, around an hour later it is set to maintain 21'c until around 9pm, then it will maintain 18'c overnight.

Downstairs isn't used much during the day, so that is set at 18'c until the evening when it will maintain 23'c until around 8pm.

 

As I type it is currently 26'c upstairs and 23'c down, so the upstairs heating probably wont come on at all today now, downstairs might for a bit later.

The smart tech helps, if everyone is out the heating will turn off completely and resume when someone returns home.... same with the electric, lights will automatically go off if the room isn't used for a period of time.. as will selected devices.

 

 

 

[Gaz]

Our wall thermostat must be 40 years old.  What it says bears absolutely no resemblance to the actual temperature.  It gets clicked up if it's cold and down if it's warm.  When the colder weather arrives, we generally keep to 20C daytime and  16C ish overnight.  Sally (Wife) works from home and our third bedroom is now her office.  This room faces south, so if the Sun's on the window it's nice, but if not the window reveal gets quite chilly, so she's got a small ceramic fan heater to top it up if the temperature drops.  We've just changed from British Gas back to Octopus and are paying £110 a month for both (up from £79!).

 

It's currently 16c outside and 20c inside (downstairs) and I'm quite comfortable. Two windows open upstairs and we've not have the CH on yet.

 

Gaz

Edited 7 October, 2021 by Gaz

[Breezy_Pete]

Principally heated by woodburning stoves (no gas avail), so temperature is very variable depending on proximity, and whether one or both are lit. Nearby can be very toasty, furthest rooms (bedroom/kitchen) can get to low double figures. Average temp in rooms with burners on maybe 21°C measured well away from stove, bedroom and kitchen more like 15°C.

Generally don't get lit at all before about now. Secondary double glazing getting refitted bit by bit as required. 

 

If you have a 'proper' keyboard hold down Alt and type 0176 on the numeric keypad to get a degree symbol, or please feel free to copy/paste my ° symbols. 😁

 

 

 

 

[AnnoyingPentium]

Our boiler is close to 14 years old now and came with the house (new build in 2007, bought in 2009). We just turn the dial on it to control the temp accordingly depending on how cold/hot it is. Our thermostat is built into the boiler and as such gets annoyed when we have the back door open to let the crazy spaniel out as the boiler resides right at the door. The only other thing putting out similar heat is my Technics stereo system and the Samsung plasma television. 

Edited 7 October, 2021 by AnnoyingPentium

[Ttaskmaster]

With the windows shut and two PCs running, I get 21ºC, but that drops sharply after sunset. 15ºC is pretty common this time of year.

We only have storage heaters, as we don't get gas out this way, but those will go on once inside temperatures reach single digits, usually around the end of November.

[gadgetman]

Set at 18, gives 21c with the over carry. 

 

Kicks back in about 17.

 

The star is 20 years old as well 

[Lady Elanore]

I moved my HIVE thermostat around the room until I found the ideal spot for it. I then set a temp that makes me comfortable, but the thermostat bears no relationship to the actual temperature where I sit, except there is a constant offset. I've checked my thermostat position and my seated position with a separate thermometer, and the thermostat is set around 1-2 degrees warmer than where I actually sit (depends on whether I have been working outdoors and need a warming hug from the house). There is a nice inertia to the whole thing that doesn't hunt around much and so my seated position (mainly for telly and HIFI ) only varies by around 1/2 a degree, plus or minus  

[Phil-E]

Unused to have the heating set to 20c when I had a Nest thermostat. Paired with a modern Combi boiler and the Nest controlling said boiler via the Opentherm protocol where it can vary the heat output of the boiler etc.

 

These days we live in a new build with massive thick walls, triple glazing and shutters in the outside of the windows. All out heating is underfloor hot water driven (with a ground source heat pump).

 

It barely comes on apart from in the bathroom where we have the thermostat on full.

 

But according to my Zigbee motion sensors it's 21c inside.

 

And even when we had -18c back in February it stayed the same with the heating still seemingly barely coming on!

[@Lee]

We just let the outside air temp sensor to do the job of deciding how much to heat the inside though we can override that easily enough. Also underfloor heating downstairs and just three rads upstairs. Plus there's a log burner in the lounge for when it's really nippy or just fancy the cosiness of a flame flickering. Temp on the boiler shows inside is 22°C but outside was 17°C.  

 

 

Edited 7 October, 2021 by @Lee

[cheezemonkhai]

18 hours ago, Lady Elanore said:

I moved my HIVE thermostat around the room until I found the ideal spot for it. I then set a temp that makes me comfortable, but the thermostat bears no relationship to the actual temperature where I sit, except there is a constant offset. I've checked my thermostat position and my seated position with a separate thermometer, and the thermostat is set around 1-2 degrees warmer than where I actually sit (depends on whether I have been working outdoors and need a warming hug from the house). There is a nice inertia to the whole thing that doesn't hunt around much and so my seated position (mainly for telly and HIFI ) only varies by around 1/2 a degree, plus or minus  

The Evohome has been fantastic.

 

Each room set to its own temperature with ones we sit still in a lot at 20.5 (set) and ones we don’t use at 16 and the doors shut.  Everything else is set to 19.

Because every room has it’s own thermostat snd control valve we can change every room up/down based on when it’s occupied.

 

Our old system was a cm903 in the hall to control the whole house and the upgrade to evohome appears to have resulted in about 1/3rd off the gas use.

 

Even if it’s less than that I’m pleased with the saving and the comfort increase.

 

 

[Evil]

I need one of these setups that can set each room individually... need to save some cash and get someone in to tell me how much to sort it. And I want nicer rads too.

 

There's currently 2 thermostats. One in bedroom1 (that controls the rads in bedrooms 1 and 2) and one in the hallway that controls the rest of the rads (hallway, bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms 2 and 3 and lounge).

 

We've got thick ol insulation in the loft and some weird cladding on the outside that seems to be quite effective.

 

Stats are set at 17 and will not be rising this month. They're only at that because we were getting condensation on the windows at the front.

 

My bills have gone up from £90 a month to £150, I'm barely in credit, energy company wants another one-off payment of £300 (I've already given them a grand)..

 

Didn't help my daughter putting up a log cabin last summer to sleep in, heating it with a 1kw panel and not insulating it... the roof is insulated now.

[Lady Elanore]

I thought about putting Hive controlled thermostats in every room, but the only room I like nice and warm is the living room, so every other room has a mechanical thermostat. Works for me  

[cheezemonkhai]

10 hours ago, Evil said:

I need one of these setups that can set each room individually... need to save some cash and get someone in to tell me how much to sort it. And I want nicer rads too.

 

There's currently 2 thermostats. One in bedroom1 (that controls the rads in bedrooms 1 and 2) and one in the hallway that controls the rest of the rads (hallway, bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms 2 and 3 and lounge).

 

We've got thick ol insulation in the loft and some weird cladding on the outside that seems to be quite effective.

 

Stats are set at 17 and will not be rising this month. They're only at that because we were getting condensation on the windows at the front.

 

My bills have gone up from £90 a month to £150, I'm barely in credit, energy company wants another one-off payment of £300 (I've already given them a grand)..

 

Didn't help my daughter putting up a log cabin last summer to sleep in, heating it with a 1kw panel and not insulating it... the roof is insulated now.

 

Have a look at the Evohome shop. 
As you already have multiple zones you might see less if a saving than a single zone though.

 

[Evil]

24 minutes ago, cheezemonkhai said:

 

Have a look at the Evohome shop. 
As you already have multiple zones you might see less if a saving than a single zone though.

 

I'm more interested in control than savings to be honest. I find the current setup massively confusing and inadequate - which may be because I don't understand how to use it/set it up properly.

Probably get the rads changed and see what's what then - either get it explained or replaced.

[cheezemonkhai]

If you want to use Evohome in the future, make sure the new radiators TRV use standard screw threads.

 

There are a few types that don’t, which means changing /buying adapters to standard threads to use the room TRV 👍

[Lady Elanore]

I went with Hive because I could install the whole thing myself and as can be seen in my thread on my cistern problems, I'm certainly no plumber  

[cheezemonkhai]

I installed the Evohome myself bar wiring the relay into the boiler.

 

If your home has a Honeywell wireless thermostat and relay, then you’ll very likely be able to use that. My issue was the wired thermostat needed replacing with a wireless one. 

[Lady Elanore]

I wired the Hive switch in myself, it was really easy, especially if you have an old school Drayton or similar, thermostat. It is a mains voltage switch however (something that 'Nest' can't do) so you need to make sure you isolate the thermostat before the change over to the new Hive switch. It's almost just a simple changing over of the cover plate, with the only modification that you need to do, is to add a jump wire for the live switch carrier. The Thermostat is a battery powered wireless one that you can place anywhere in the home (the batteries last at least 2 years I can testify). 

[Aspman]

So in the new house now wer have underfloor heating downstairs and rads upstairs running of an ASHP.

 

Downstairs is set to 21, upstairs just has old fashioned radiator thermistats.

 

We had some teething issues (the ASHP set to ECO which = cold) but heating guy advised us to treat it like climate control in a car, set and forget. So we're just to leave it at 21/22 all year round.

 

Seems ok for now

[cheezemonkhai]

2 hours ago, Aspman said:

So in the new house now wer have underfloor heating downstairs and rads upstairs running of an ASHP.

 

Downstairs is set to 21, upstairs just has old fashioned radiator thermistats.

 

We had some teething issues (the ASHP set to ECO which = cold) but heating guy advised us to treat it like climate control in a car, set and forget. So we're just to leave it at 21/22 all year round.

 

Seems ok for now

 

We have air to air heat pumps, so I'll be really interested to see how your COP fares over the cooler winter months.
Did your upstairs get oversized radiators to compensate for the cooler water temperatures vs a boiler?

[Aspman]

On 11/10/2021 at 15:01, cheezemonkhai said:

 

We have air to air heat pumps, so I'll be really interested to see how your COP fares over the cooler winter months.
Did your upstairs get oversized radiators to compensate for the cooler water temperatures vs a boiler?

 

Yeah, we opted for vertical radiators because they are so big, we'd have lost so much wall space otherwise

[cheezemonkhai]

54 minutes ago, Aspman said:

 

Yeah, we opted for vertical radiators because they are so big, we'd have lost so much wall space otherwise

 

Makes sense.

Just how much bigger are they?

 

As our place is pretty well insulated nearly all the radiators are single panels, bar 2.

I was thinking double panels would do the job for the singles, but obviously not an option for those that are already doubles.

[gadgetman]

Is setting each room different to TRVs? 

 

Just done the annual WD40 to free mine off again 

[cheezemonkhai]

Yes… TRV you would manually change each room when you want to change. However the call for heat is from a central thermostat.

 

 

Here each room has a valve and a thermostat.

There are both in the TRV but you can add remote valves/stats if needed.

 

The difference is I can program the individual rooms temperatures to different set points at different times of day. When a room is below its set point there is a call for heat. With a central and TRV system there is only a call for heat when the hall (central stat was here) gets cold below it’s temperature.

 

When the lounge is hot from sun and it’s the only room above 20 there is no call to heat. When it’s cold I don’t have to heat the area where the central stat is, just the room(s) which is(are) calling for heat.