How long to heat house.

Joined
8 Dec 2008
Messages
88
Reaction score
8
Location
Kent
Country
United Kingdom
Hi this is my first winter in my new house and I'm trying to work out why it takes so long for the house to get warm. When I put the heating on going by the nest thermostat in the hall the tempreture increases by 1c per hour, It's taking 4/5 hrs plus to get from 14c to 18c.
is this normal ? The boiler is a BG 330+

Thanks for any advice :)
 
Sponsored Links
4/5 hours is far too long.

Are all the radiators hot?
Is the boiler on all the time, or switching on/off regularly?
What insulation is installed in the walls / loft / floor?
Windows single/double glazed?
 
Sponsored Links
The radiators take about an hour to get hot but I need to double check that, no idea what insulation is in the walls, loft has plenty and I've just had new windows fitted, the house is a 3 bed detached.
from turning the heating on the boiler is running, part of the problem might be that the hall radiator could be under sized as its cooler than the rest of the house. Heating has been on since 4pm and we are at 17.5c 1c off target temp.
 
That hallway radiator - have you tried bleeding it? Does it have a trv on it?
 
Hall radiator is the only rad without a trv and gets hot, all rads have been bled. Hall is still at 17.5c so not getting any warmer, other rooms are at a comfortable tempreture, boiler still running.
 
What temp is the boiler set at? Not the thermostat temp, but, the temp to heat the rads to?
Mine lets you set a temp via a digital dial.
New windows come next week, and with the recent cold weather I had to turn this up to get decent response times. Existint windows single glazed and leaky...

Could be yours is set low?
 
It's taking 4/5 hrs plus to get from 14c to 18c.
is this normal ? The boiler is a BG 330+

You are seriously loosing a lot of heat somewhere. Is it double glazed, are the outer doors modern sealing ones, has it cavity wall insulation, is it a dormer style???

For comparison - I have all of the above, but standard 3 bed semi rather than dormer style. Heater went from 20.5C at 11pm last night, to its set back of 16C for the night. The boiler never fired all night, but the temperature was still 18.5C when we got up at 9am and turned the stat back to 20.5C - which it had satisfied by 9:30am. Outdoors was sub- zero much of the night.
 
I have turned up the tempreture on the boiler to 63c earlier this have made the display show 3 flames.
 
my thoughts here??
have you been in the house for a few weeks and using the heating normally
or infrequent heating over ages ??
also is next door heated normally ??
 
Last edited:
Hall radiator is the only rad without a trv and gets hot, all rads have been bled. Hall is still at 17.5c so not getting any warmer, other rooms are at a comfortable tempreture, boiler still running.

If the other rooms are all comfortable but the hall is cool, it’s possible that the hall radiator is intentionally small or its lockshield valve is intentionally turned down.

Are you happy with the heating in the other rooms?
 
This is a guess, I will guess the lock shield valves are not set correctly and as a result the the boiler is modulating. The modern gas boiler has a variable output. It seems reading the manual your boiler has an output 10 kW to 30 kW, to get the 30 kW the return water must be cool.

I am electrician so not sure on valves, but I thing around 15°C temperature drop across the radiators, unless set you get room by room heating, so easiest room to heat the radiator gets hot, and then the TRV starts to close, as it closes it heats next radiator, and so on.

The mistake every one makes is to look at the cold radiators, where the error is more likely to be with the hot radiators. So most likely you need to turn down the lock shield valves on the hot radiators.

I now have a thermometer I could use, just aim it at in and out pipes, but before I had that tool I would turn off the Lock Shield closest to boiler, then 1/4 turn at a time back on until one pipe gets just warm, and then repeat with rest, once all done they may need further tweaking, but it should be a good start.

The other method if not due to poor lock shield settings is to use programmable TRV heads and actually design the system to heat room by room, but I suspect the lock shield valve setting is the fault.
 
If the other rooms are all comfortable but the hall is cool, it’s possible that the hall radiator is intentionally small or its lockshield valve is intentionally turned down.

Are you happy with the heating in the other rooms?

The lockshield on the hall radiator is fully open this is something I sorted before posting on here, The living room tempreture is not perfect
but again that could be down to the room needing a slightly larger rad, the room is 21ft x 11.9ft with a type 22 1700 x 600 plus under the window bay a 1000 x 300 dpsc.
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top