Living room cold in the evenings

[jonnyw]

Our living room seems to be really cold in the evenings, with the radiator barely getting warm.

The radiator does get hot (top and bottom) in the mornings when the whole house is cold and the heating first comes on.

I suspect that the radiator might be the last (or one of the last) in the loop (but have no easy way to know).

The hallway (which is in the centre of the house, has it's own radiator, and is where the thermostat is), gets, and seems to stay warm easily. What I suspect is happening, is as the temperature drops in the evening, the thermostat click on, the boiler fires, but then the hallway quickly gets up to temperature, and turns off the heating again before much of that hot water makes it to the living room radiator.

Setting the thermostat higher isn't a solution, as that will make the rest of the house too hot. The TRV for the living room radiator is set to full.

Any thoughts on how I should proceed from here?

Should I try turning down the valve (not a TRV) for the hallway radiator, so it takes longer to get up to temperature? If so, how do I know which side to adjust, and by how much?

Is there an adjustment I can make to the valve at the other end of the radiator in the living room?

 

[lostinthelight]

On the two valves, is there one side you can grip to turn it like a tap and one thats smooth that you can't or spins loosely ?

 

[Mottie]

Why not put the room stat in the lounge where you want a constantly monitored temperature and balance the rest of the house to that?

 

[sxturbo]

where is the thermostat in the hallway, is it above the radiator?

mottie is right however, you need to put the thermostat in the room you will be in the most. if you currently have a fixed thermostat i would advise upgrading it to a wireless system, so you can move the thermostat around the house.

alternatively, turn the stat up in the hall, and allow the TRV's to control the temperature in the rest of the rooms, set the trvs around the house to 3.5 (around 21 degrees) and leave the one in the lounge fully open, doing this however will mean the heating is on for longer as the stat wont be seeing the temperature of the living room, and likely wont switch off as the temperature will be controlled by the trv in the hallway which will be lower than the thermostat set point.

 

[jonnyw]

To answer the questions

- I can't move the thermostat as it is a relatively new, hard wired smart thermostat (Tado)
- The thermostat is 1.7m from the radiator (on a different wall, other side of hallway)
- Valves:
- Hallway: Left valve is smooth, and has screw on top, right valve has grip
- Living room: Left valve is TRV, right valve is smooth, with screw on top

 

[Mottie]

The thermostat is 1.7m from the radiator (on a different wall, other side of hallway)

I’m no heating engineer but I wouldn’t have thought that would be an ideal place for a thermostat. Who sited it there?

 

[jonnyw]

I’m no heating engineer but I wouldn’t have thought that would be an ideal place for a thermostat. Who sited it there?

The house builder some 25 years ago!

 

[Mottie]

The house builder some 25 years ago!

Ours was the same too - 1960's house that we moved into in 1990. Thermostat in hall. Got fed up having the same problem as you plus every time the front door was opened the heating kicked in to get the hall back to temperature making the rest of the house too hot. Had to keep going out to the hall to turn the heating up or down. I moved the thermostat into the lounge, much better and well worth the minor inconvenience. Other side of the room to the rad, away from direct sunlight and other heat sources such as lamps and TV. You only have to do it once.

 

[sxturbo]

These will solve your problem,

They will allow you to zone the heating, unfortunately its an expensive way to do it, but likely still cheaper than moving the hard wired thermostat.

They will call for heat until the desired room temperature is reached. It will essentially make the hall thermostat redundant.


https://ao.com/product/v3p4srt01vtc...3P-4SRT01V-TC-ML&utm_content=pla-734864675176

 

[jonnyw]

So would one be enough? On the living room radiator?

 

[sxturbo]

You'll need a trv valve on the hallway rad aswell

 

[Madrab]

Firstly balance the system, that way you can get all the radiators to heat up at the same at the same time so the lounge rad gets as much hot water as the rest do.

If that doesn't sort it then do the other rads have TRV's? If so then just turn them down a tad, they will shut down earlier to avoid the rest of the house getting too hot and then turn the stat up so the lounge rad stays on longer.