Thermostat/Radiator conundrum

[mobily]

Hi all

I live in a 2 storey semi detached upside down house. The thermostat is situated at the top of the stairs on the landing. The boiler is a 24kw combi.

When the thermostats reaches temperature the downstairs main bedroom remains a little chilly despite the radiator on 5 and also the kitchen/diner upstairs is cold with the radiator on 5. The bedroom is fairly small and has just had a new single convector radiator whilst the kitchen/diner has an old single panel radiator. Both radiators get hot but turn off before the room is warm enough, especially the kitchen/diner.

Would it be better for the thermostat to be placed in the downstairs hall due to hot air rising and then control the temperature with the TRV valves and the rooms may get warm enough?

Many thanks

 

[omega015]

That certainly should help, but if you get a wireless thermostat then you can experiment which room will work best (i.e. last room to get warm) and then you can play around with different room TRV settings to try and get a nice balance of temps throughout the house. There's plenty of basic wireless thermostats and a number of smart ones too with remote control etc... even ones (like evohome) where you can have individual room thermostats/temps.

 

[D_Hailsham]

Is there a rad in the downstairs hall?

 

[mobily]

Thanks for the replies. The thermostat is wireless so I just need to unscrew from the wall and experiment I guess.

There is a radiator in the hall with no TRV.

 

[omega015]

That radiator with no TRV might be your bypass so I wouldn't go turning that fully off. You might need to fully open/remove the TRV head wherever you place your thermostat so that the two are not conflicting in controlling the heating.

 

[mobily]

I'll most likely try moving the thermostat to the downstairs hall where the radiator is with no TRV. I'll make sure it's not on top of it or directly opposite the radiator.

Having never lived in an upside down house before I didn't realise how much heat went from downstairs to upstairs. I assume the thermostat is reaching temperature before the rooms have heated up enough. The easy answer is of course to change the radiators to doubles etc, however I think this idea might work.

 

[imiller9]

Of course you could just turn the thermostat up so the heating stays on long enough to heat the room to the temperature you want

 

[mobily]

I could, seems wrong to have the thermostat any higher than 21... although that would be the easier solution.

 

[imiller9]

I could, seems wrong to have the thermostat any higher than 21... although that would be the easier solution.

Normally yes, but if the room the thermostat is in regularly reaches 21+ quickly, then the stat will turn the boiler off early.
Set the stat to the right level for you house/comfort level. The stat will still control the system if at 23 but allow the rooms to reach temp and the TRV's to do their thing. I see it quite often when the stat is satisfied because the landing is hot and the rest of the house is cool

 

[mobily]

Yes, the thermostat is situated at the top of the stairs just outside the living room. The living room gets warm quite quickly and we never close the door so the heat from this room could be turning the thermostat off prematurely. I'll try turning the thermostat up and then controlling the rads with the TRVs. Although in the morning the kitchen is noticeably colder than other rooms. It could just be a double radiator would be needed in that room.