Motorised valves - looking to cut down on heating bill

[BuggBairn]

Hi all

We moved into an older property (1960's) last year, it is a bungalow which has had three extensions done as well as a full length dormer upstairs containing 3 rooms and a bathroom.

We've had the heating on pretty much 24/7 all winter due to my wife being pregnant and already having an 18 month old kid.

We received our quarterly statement which informed us we have underpaid to the sum of £870

I'm putting steps in place to try and get the heating bill down and manageable. I'll be upgrading the roof insulation upstairs room by room.

I have a question about my heating system that involves using motorised valves with a timer function.

The hot water to rads outlet on my boiler Tees off to two main zones, upstairs and downstairs.

Would it be possible to fit motorised valves to both offtakes which would allow both zones to be shut in or opened up independently ?

Is there a simple timer open/shut unit on the market that can be retrofitted to operate the valves ?

Would 1 three way valve be better than two separate valves ?

thanks in advance for having a look

 

[oldbuffer]

Want you want to do is OK in principle. I'd use two x 2 port valves, preferably Honeywell ones. You'd need a new 3 zone programmer (2 x CH and 1 x HW). Horstmann do one and no doubt other makers do. If Honeywell do I'd go for the Honeywell.

However, a simpler and probably quicker fix would be to fit thermostatic valves to each radiator, and set them to appropriate temperatures for each room.

Unless you're really sure of what you're doing you would be well advised to get someone in to plan and install. You need to consider installing a bypass to cater for the situation where all zones are off, but the boiler needs to continue circulating hot water to cool it.

 

[BuggBairn]

Thanks for the advice/info

The TRV fitting to each rad is being done as I work my way through renovating/decorating each room.

My concern/confusion would be that through the night I would like to set the entire ground floor to no heating but allow upstairs to stay heated. Unless I'm mistaken I'd need to go around shutting in each rad downstairs at night and reversing the process in the mornings, not practical as there are 11 radiators downstairs. It would also mean a cold start to the day downstairs waiting on the rooms heating up. I guess timed TRV's on each rad would fix that but at what cost v's the zone valve configuration?

Would this kit suffice ? http://www.screwfix.com/p/honeywell-smartfit-7-day-s-plan-heating-pack/81398#

 

[Whitespirit66]

I would use this, as it has the 3 zones you need (ch x 2 and hw) and 2 wireless room stats for upstairs and downstairs.

http://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/drayton-mitime-rf-pack-4-t740r/

or this one includes an RF cylinder stat

http://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/drayton-mitime-rf-pack-5-t740m/

Obviously you would need to add a couple of 2 port valves and the auto bypass. The Honeywell setup in your link only has one room stat, not sure if you can add a second, but doubt it.