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- 21 Feb 2021
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Hoping that someone might have some ideas what is causing the slow heat-up of my house.
Boiler is a Vaillant EcoTech Pro28 combi and is controlled by a Hive system, thermostat in a bedroom. Rad temp set on boiler to 75C
If I switch the heating on at 3.00/4.00 when the house is at perhaps 16C, then it will be on constantly and might just about reach temperature of 19.5C by the time I go to bed at 10.00. Overnight (8 hours) with the heating off, the temperature might drop 3 degrees or so, but will then take hours to get back to temperature the next day. External temps at the moment, are maybe 1-4C ovenight, 3-7C during the day. Getting from 16C to 18C might only take a couple of hours, then gets slower and slower (so 18C to 19C will be 2 hours+)
I have bled the radiators and they all feel hot to the touch whilst heating is on. I have put that reflective padding behind the ones on exterior walls. Loft is reasonably well insulated. House is a conventional 1950s, brick 3 bed detatched, relatively modern windows/doors, no obvious draughts. Cavity is not insulated (looked into that - first company told me cavity was damp and should not be insulated, second told me no issues and they could insulate. Whilst we have no obvious damp issues, I guess the former had less of a reason to lie!) It has an attached garage and a single story kitchen extension on the side. It does have a reasonably large conservatory on the back - 10-15 years old. This was orignally built as a separate room and then the wall was taken out later, opening it up to the rest of the house, so would technically not meet building regs.
I have only had the house a year, so unsure if it has always been so slow to heat. I guess the obvious answer is that the central heating struggles to compensate for the heat loss through the conservatory. But I would have expected greater heat loss overnight when the system is off if that was the case. Every time I submit my meter readings, I expect to get a horrific bill through where the heating has ben on for so many hours a day. However, so far the gas usage is not excessive - I guess that might mean the water is being returned to the boiler relatively hot, so it is not having to work too hard to get it back to temp?
So, my questions are is this heat up time very unusual (I had only lived in much smaller, easier to heat places prior to this, so not completely sure what is normal)? And is there anything else I can try to improve the performance? Long-term plan is to replace the conservatory with a brick structure, but that will be a few years away. Baby on the way later this year, so would like to make sure things are nice and warm before next winter!
Boiler is a Vaillant EcoTech Pro28 combi and is controlled by a Hive system, thermostat in a bedroom. Rad temp set on boiler to 75C
If I switch the heating on at 3.00/4.00 when the house is at perhaps 16C, then it will be on constantly and might just about reach temperature of 19.5C by the time I go to bed at 10.00. Overnight (8 hours) with the heating off, the temperature might drop 3 degrees or so, but will then take hours to get back to temperature the next day. External temps at the moment, are maybe 1-4C ovenight, 3-7C during the day. Getting from 16C to 18C might only take a couple of hours, then gets slower and slower (so 18C to 19C will be 2 hours+)
I have bled the radiators and they all feel hot to the touch whilst heating is on. I have put that reflective padding behind the ones on exterior walls. Loft is reasonably well insulated. House is a conventional 1950s, brick 3 bed detatched, relatively modern windows/doors, no obvious draughts. Cavity is not insulated (looked into that - first company told me cavity was damp and should not be insulated, second told me no issues and they could insulate. Whilst we have no obvious damp issues, I guess the former had less of a reason to lie!) It has an attached garage and a single story kitchen extension on the side. It does have a reasonably large conservatory on the back - 10-15 years old. This was orignally built as a separate room and then the wall was taken out later, opening it up to the rest of the house, so would technically not meet building regs.
I have only had the house a year, so unsure if it has always been so slow to heat. I guess the obvious answer is that the central heating struggles to compensate for the heat loss through the conservatory. But I would have expected greater heat loss overnight when the system is off if that was the case. Every time I submit my meter readings, I expect to get a horrific bill through where the heating has ben on for so many hours a day. However, so far the gas usage is not excessive - I guess that might mean the water is being returned to the boiler relatively hot, so it is not having to work too hard to get it back to temp?
So, my questions are is this heat up time very unusual (I had only lived in much smaller, easier to heat places prior to this, so not completely sure what is normal)? And is there anything else I can try to improve the performance? Long-term plan is to replace the conservatory with a brick structure, but that will be a few years away. Baby on the way later this year, so would like to make sure things are nice and warm before next winter!
