Position of Thermostat

[phil1963]

I live in a Victorian terraced house which has 6 inch thick walls but which is not cavity walled. It has a 25x10 foot through lounge (2 radiators in it below the windows and high ceilings) and a 10x 7 kitchen dowstairs (1 radiator in it) and the hallway leads to the stairs and upstairs are one large bedroom (only 1 thin radiator blow the window), a bathroom (1 small radiator) and one small bedroom (1 decent size radiator fixed to an internal wall). The hallway then doubles back on itself and leads up to a converted loft area with a velux window, but no radiator in. Sadly there is no door between the hallway and the room in the loft so hot air goes up the stairs and presumably out through the roof, so heating any part of the hallway eith ground or first floor appears to be futile.
The previous owners put the thermostat at the top of the first stairs just outside the bathroom. As hot air rises .... should the thermostat have been put downstairs, perhaps in the through lounge? I have nearly given up trying to heat the wretched building .... apart from "Move" any ideas?

 

[muggles]

When the boiler goes off (when it seems to think the heating/house is up to temp) go to the stat and note it's position. Turn it up and see if it clicks (I'm assuming it's not a digital one for the moment...) If it does then it's not turning off the boiler, so this isn't the problem. If it doesn't, turn it down below the original position, if it clicks just below that position it's turned the boiler off. A simple fix for now is to simply turn it up, longer-term it might be worth getting it's position checked.

If it clicks when you turn it up, then it's not the stat turning the heating off and you have a bigger problem, namely that your heating is simply ineffective in your house. This may be due to undersized/insufficient rads, an undersized boiler, a boiler not working efficiently due to lack of proper maintenance, muck in the system, or any combination of the above. It would almost certainly help to add a rad in the hallway/loft conversion if possible, although this does require the boiler to be able to cope with the additional load

 

[phil1963]

Thanks for the above - most helpful. The thermostat is not a digital one and the boiler a new one which works very well.
My worry is that the hallway can never be acceptably hot as due to heat rising it just disappears into the loft and out through the roof. If I moved the thermostat to the downstairs room where the closed doors keep the hot air in, then when the right temperature was reached the thermostat would tell the boiler to turn off.
Is that correct?

 

[muggles]

If the loft has been converted correctly it should have been insulated to keep the heat in, but of course there's no guarantee of that. A radiator in the loft conversion may help things, otherwise if you are able to close a door to isolate the loft from the rest of the house then moving the stat may be all you need to do.

 

[bengasman]

The roomstat should be in the living room, or alternatively in the room where you spend most of your waking hours.
Apart from that, your main problem seems to be a poorly insulated house with no internal doors where they are needed most.