Heating Controls

 

Program your heat needs efficiently: 24 hours a day - 7 days a week

Heating controls let you take charge of when, where and at which temperature your heating is operating. It’s a good way of managing your heating costs, as you can ensure that your heating is only on in the rooms and at the times you want it to be.

Advantages of using heating controls:

• • Automatic control of space heating on the basis of room temperature
• • Automatic control of heat input to stored hot water on the basis of stored water temperature
• • Separate and independent automatic time control of space heating and hot water
• • Shut down of boiler or other heat source when there is no demand for either space or water heating from that source.

There are four main types:

1. Timer – turns your boiler on or off at set times
2. Room thermostat – measures how warm your room is and adjusts the boiler operation accordingly Wireless thermostats are now available, which makes the location of your thermostat more flexible
3. Programmer – a more sophisticated version of a timer, you can set different heating patterns for different days of the week and sometimes alter the pattern e.g. for a party or holidays
4. Thermostatic radiator valves – these allow you to easily adjust the temperature of individual radiators and turn radiators off or on according to whether you're using a room or not

Heating controls also allow you to set a room temperature of your choice.  A temperature of 18°C for your bedroom and 21°C for your living room should suffice, unless you have a small baby or an elderly or sick person in your home.

Set the temperature on your hot water cylinder to 60˚C to avoid overheating your hot water supply.

Use a programmer

Heating programmers save you the hassle of having to manually switch the heating on and off and will help you to minimise unnecessary use. You can predetermine the times your heating is on in advance, set different programmes for different days of the week and set your heating system before you go away.

Positioning your thermostat
Installing a programmable room thermostat in your home allows you to easily and accurately manage the temperature of your home.

Programmable thermostats, room thermostats and thermostatic radiator valves all need a free flow of air to sense the temperature accurately. They must not be covered by curtains or blocked by furniture. Nearby electric fires, televisions or lamps could also stop them from working properly.

Turning down the thermostat on your heating could slash up to 10% off your heating costs.