frustrating arguments about thermostat for a boiler!

  • Thread starter mattthesparks
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mattthesparks

if you dont get bored reading this i thank you for your patience, its a serious question and a rant!!

my girlfriends mam has bought an old cottage with a combi boiler installed. it is fed simply on a plug top. no programmer or thermostat any where.

Their heating system in their house has a stat that is broken so they have never used it to control the temperature of the house they permanantly live in, they just use the programmer in the garage.

i am arguing saying that if it did work they would not have to keep going out to the garage and it would automaticallly monitor the temperature of the house for them etc. but they argue that if the hall way got too warm where the stat is it would click off and the other rooms would be governed by this also and they would be cold. i argued that if they would balance their radiators properly then that might bloody help as well.

I'm an electrician and am rewiring said cottage. i am wiring a dedicated feed to the boiler and would like to wire a wall stat and programmer. am i just being stubborn.
 
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what both of you are saying is right. why not fit a wireless stat and programmer that way they could just move it from room to room
 
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A Programmable Room Stat would be Ideal, if you use wire free, they can take it around with them - (which is riddiculous) but should passify them

The Joys of Working for family hey!!! :rolleyes:
 
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Give them a stat (and presumably a programmer). If they want to control everything manually then they can leave the stat on a very high temperature. No harm done and at some point they might start using it.

Moving a wireless stat about the house is a recipe for all sorts of trouble. By all means give them one if that is easier for you, but leave it screwed to the holder and don't tell them it is wireless ;)
 
Give them a stat (and presumably a programmer). If they want to control everything manually then they can leave the stat on a very high temperature. No harm done and at some point they might start using it.

Moving a wireless stat about the house is a recipe for all sorts of trouble. By all means give them one if that is easier for you, but leave it screwed to the holder and don't tell them it is wireless ;)

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

You must be a troll?
 
Wikipedia on Trolls: "someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages". I fail to see how my reply qualifies.
 
ianniann, why can they not move it around room to room? We have installed tons of wireless roomstats for customers who do exactly this with no problems....... If there were any i'm sure i'd be the first to hear about it....... :D
 
The only things to be aware with a wireless stat I've found is that the customer will move it from room to room and put it over a TV or fireplace or at a height that makes it read oddly or in direct sunlight or leave it in a room where the radiator is fitted with a TRV which means the two stats are 'competing' with each other.

The other thing is it is not a mobile phone so you can't ring it up to find out where you last had it.

A novelty that often soon wears off and it goes back into the wall mount but useful sometimes.

Never had a technical issue.
 
ianniann, why can they not move it around room to room? We have installed tons of wireless roomstats for customers who do exactly this with no problems....... If there were any i'm sure i'd be the first to hear about it.......

Excuse me for covering the ground, I am sure you are already familiar with. Different rooms have different design temperatures. Heat loss for each of these rooms dictates what size of radiator is fitted in that room to attain the design temperature be it brass monkey weather or a chilly spring day.

Often the stat is fitted in a hall (I have one in the hall and another in the bedroom- two zones powered by Vaillant Ecotec 832). Hall is a good place to fit the stat as it is unlikely to be effected by gas fire in the living room, sunlight cooking the room through large double glazed window or her indoors getting busy with the oven cooking turkey all things nice to eat.

To have a stat set for 18 degree heat call and place it in a bathroom where desired temperature is 25, will I think lead to complaints.

I prefer to fit the wireless unit in a room that is normally cold. Stat calls for heat when that room needs heat. Meanwhile the TRVs in other rooms shut down when 'external' heat sources in conjunction with radiators have heated the rooms . When the 'cold' room reaches set temperature, boiler shuts down.

Incidently, when a client chooses to have a roaming wireless roomstat, I have noticed these customers usually just leave the stat in one place instead of taking the sensor for a walk.
 
Yup, issues are mostly "user error". People sit holding the device and wondering why the heating is off, or stick it in a sunny window, or in the bathroom, or in a room with the TRV turned down low, even on top of a TV will switch it off prematurely. You'll remember me when you get a call from your parents on the coldest snowiest day of the year that the house is freezing cold, then you find out they've got their lovely portable thermostat propped up on a radiator :LOL: Nail it to the wall and leave it there.
 
Of course good old Part L1 askes for radiators to have a TRV Except in the room with the Room Stat, so with a mobile room stat, how do you ensure compliance with building regs?? :confused:
 
To get back to the original question - any room thermostat is better than none. Just do it for them, and give them a bit of gentle advice, such as "only turn it up or down a bit at a time - it is not just a switch".
 
I'm an electrician and am rewiring said cottage. i am wiring a dedicated feed to the boiler and would like to wire a wall stat and programmer. am i just being stubborn.

You are not being stubborn, just wrong!

The customer is always right, so in that case you must be wrong because your duty is to satisfy your customer by whatever is required.

It sounds as if they are tight Yorkshire people who are really just not wanting to spend the money.

I would ask "If I fitted it free of charge for you then would you want it?
 

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