Turn Central Heating on in One Room Only

[LianneB1]

Hi,

I would like to know if there is a way to turn the central heating on in one room only? I have a condensing boiler with a wireless controller and TRV's on all radiators (bar one). I would love to be able to turn the heating on in a single room, it seems so wasteful to have all the radiators running when I only want to heat a single room. If I am in my (home) office during the day I only want to heat that room as I don't venture into the rest of the house; currently, I have to go round and turn down all TRV's which is a bit of a pain. In today's society where we need to be more considerate about carbon emissions and with fuel bills spiralling, I would love to heat only the room I am using whilst working. Is there an easy way to do this? Or some sort of controller that can be used to facilitate this?

Thanks, Lianne

 

[kevplumb]

it can be done

but not easily

 

[LianneB1]

Thanks for the response, by what method?

 

[kevplumb]

you would have to zone the system

 

[D_Hailsham]

it seems so wasteful to have all the radiators running when I only want to heat a single room.

Your intentions are to be applauded but, unfortunately, trying to heat just one room may not save any money.

The problem is that each room is not completely isolated from the other rooms; there are walls between the rooms which heat can escape through. And it will! The problem is worse if you keep the doors open.

So the radiator in the room you are using will actually be working harder as it tries to make up for the heat lost to adjacent rooms as well as for the heat lost through the windows and external walls. The result is that the rad in the room you are using is working its socks off trying to heat the whole flat.

If the wireless stat is in the room you use, and there are no TRVs in that room, shut the doors to all rooms, set the TRVs in the unused rooms to say 3 (assuming 4 is the "comfortable" setting) and set the wireless stat to the temperature you prefer.

 

[LianneB1]

Thanks for all the info. Looks like I will be either spending my hols zoning the system or carry on turning the TRVs up/down. Thanks again.

Lianne

 

[namsag]

Or buy a fan heater less hassle

 

[robsant]

One way of controlling the temperature in individual rooms is using something like they sell here http://www.heatmiser.co.uk/

 

[spudkey]

look at honeywell cm controls, trv,s can be controlled via stats with boiler interlock

http://www.cm-zone.com/application.php?language=en

 

[LianneB1]

Superb info - I have certainly got plenty to look at. Many thanks for all your comments, it certainly looks like the Heatmiser or Honeywell products will do exactly what I require. Thanks again.

Lianne

 

[simond]

The Heatmiser is nothing clever and requires separate zone valves. You could do this with any controller.

Honeywell CM Zone only offers 2 zones and is rather clumsy, you have to add separate controllers for every 2 extra zones.

Honeywell Hometronic may be what you want, it can divide your house into up to 16 zones without significant plumbing alterations.

I have this system in my own property, and we have fitted it in a number of larger houses across Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It's not cheap but represents the state of the art in domestic heating management and conservation.

 

[LianneB1]

Hi Simon,

Sounds ideal. What are the approximate costs for such a system? I have a five bed bungalow and probably require 4 zones.

1. Living area
2. Bedrooms
3. Games room
4. Study / office

Lianne

 

[Agile]

Using a small electric heater, ideally a convector heater with thermostat should be a lot cheaper than modifying your gas system.

Furthermore its unlikely your boiler will operate comfortable on such a small heat load. Most have a minimum heat output of about 7 kW which is a lot higher than your single room will need.

Tony

 

[LianneB1]

Hi Tony,

I always thought electric heaters were worse for the environment and were as costly both in terms of money and carbon footprint as having a kettle turned on all day. I could be totally wrong about that. Thanks

Lianne

 

[simond]

An electric heater is an expensive solution, and as for the comments about it not being worth zoning rooms because walls do not provide insulation....... is everybody mad today?

Hometronic costs around £3K; it compares very favourably as an alternative to solar because it represents a similar capital investment but can save a significant amount of energy and improves comfort.