Where to put room thermostat - upstairs masionette

[Irie]

Hi, I have finally joined up after using this forum for some great info over the last 12 months!

To give you some background we bought our first home last may. It is the top floor of a house now converted into 2 maisonettes - one upstairs and one downstairs. We have recently had loft and cavity wall insulation fitted and it got me thinking about getting a proper thermostat installed as the heating was a nightmare over the winter.

We have a Potterton Performa 24 Combi boiler which from what I can gather is compatible with external controls. My big question is where should we put the thermostat? You enter our flat from the front door downstairs, and immediately head straight up a flight of stairs to our hallway. The hallway has no radiator and gets so does get a bit chilly, is this still the best location to put the thermostat and fit TRVs to all radiators in rooms? The boiler is located in a large cupboard at the end of the hallway, would this be a good place to put a thermostat as it doesn't really keep the heat in and so is hopefully fairly representative of the rest of the hallway. I like the idea of a wireless programmable thermostat, but if a wired one in the cupboard is suitable I would rather save a few pennies to put towards my next project.

Thanks!

 

[D_Hailsham]

You enter our flat from the front door downstairs, and immediately head straight up a flight of stairs to our hallway. The hallway has no radiator and gets so does get a bit chilly, is this still the best location to put the thermostat and fit TRVs to all radiators in rooms?

The thermostat needs to be in the same room as a radiator so it can turn the boiler off when the room reaches temperature. If you put it in the hallway where there is no rad this will only happen if you leave the room doors open.

Placing the stat near the boiler will not work as the boiler will not give off enough heat to make the thermostat work properly.

Placing the stat in the hallway will mean that the boiler will probably continuously in a vain attempt to get the hallway up to temperature.

Located the thermostat in your living room and put TRVs on all rads except living room. This is where a wireless stat (get a programmable one such as the Honeywell CM927) is invaluable.

 

[Irie]

Thanks, that makes perfect sense. With this in mind I guess the best place is going to be the living room as that is where we spend most of our time and generally would be the place we want warmest, so can use the TRVs in the other rooms to keep the temp down.

 

[Irie]

Am I right in thinking this a job I am legally allowed to do myself as it involves the Boiler, but not fiddling with gas?

 

[stem]

Yes you can do this yourself as long as you are competent to do it safely. If you couldn't someone would have told you by now

The lounge sounds the best place in your case, unless you have a fire or other heatsource in there. If you do, when that is on and the lounge is warm, it will turn off the heating everywhere else too.

 

[Irie]

Thanks I'm thinking the spare room as we have a tortoise, so he needs the temp to bit a more regulated, so it might be the best place to have the Thermostat. It will be wireless so I may try both and see what suits us best.

 

[stem]

For the thermostat to work properly, there shouldn't be any TRV's fitted to the radiator(s) located in same room as the thermostat.

OK, in theory you can fit them, and leave them on the 'max' setting, but it's not good practice, because no doubt someone will turn them down at some point.

 

[Irie]

Yes, I was thinking of just the Thermostat in the the spare room and TRVs in all the other rooms - if the Tortoise needs to the temp slightly highter than the rest of the house, we can use the TRVs to limit the temp elsewhere.

 

[Irie]

Bought a CM927 at the weekend and after getting confused with the wiring, got some help from my Dad and got it all fitted. Really happy with it so far, next step is TRVs, new rad in the bedroom and then sit back and be toasty for winter.