What is the correct setting for a boiler? Years ago an architect told us that it was most efficient to run the boiler at 180 degrees F., letting the roomstat and rad. stats control the room temperatures, and at that time our boiler was marked in degrees. However, this boiler only has numbers and I don't know what temperatures they are supposed to represent.
The architect was right. Just set your boiler to the highest setting, which is 82C (about 180F) and leave the room stat to control everything.
We also have a gas fire which we turned on as soon as we got home. ... How much incoming air does a gas fire really need?
A gas fire uses more air than you realize. If you know what the output, it is possible to calculate the size of air vent is. Otherwise, leave well alone. If the fire does not get enough oxygen it produces carbon monoxide ... RIP!
I am tempted to leave the heating on all night. Does anyone know the comparative economics of doing so, as opposed to turning it off at bedtime and starting from a low temperature in the morning?
It all depends on how much heat is lost overnight and how quickly it heats up. All you can do is experiment. Do 24 hours set on continually then 24 hours with it off at night. Take gas meter readings at start and end of each period and compare.
Also, instead of turning right off at night, why not set it to a lower overnight temperature, e.g 15 degrees. Depending on how quickly the house cools down, the boiler will either stay off or come on. You could even experiment with this for 24 hours.
Having bedrooms at 20 or 21C is not a good idea.
It would certainly be more comfortable to do the former as some of the rads seem rather undersized. We have recently added another couple of radiator cabinets. Should one set the rad. stats. higher, e.g. at 5? The valves are not easily accessible for adjustment; it means lifting the cover right off. 4 would normally be an acceptable room temperature but there seemed to be little heat coming out today on that setting.
There is no point adding more radiators than the boiler can handle. If you have a 15kW boiler, all you can have is a total of 15kW radiators. If you add any more, each one will give off less heat, so the output still totals 15kW.
Setting the TRV to 5 instead of 4 should mean a warmer room. If you have to set it to 5 to give a temperature of about 20C, the radiator is either undersized or not giving off the correct amount of heat.
It would be a good idea to use the
EST online boiler calculator to find out what size boiler your house needs; and to use the info in the
Stelrad Elite Catalogue to find out the total KW output of your rads.
Which model Potterton Prima do you have?