Another plumbing / heating question

[Hilary]

If any of you have had thermostatic radiator valves fitted after having just a room thermostat, can you tell if it saves on your energy bill?

I'd really like to have thermo valves fitted to have greater control over the room temps of the whole house, but the quote we had was for £300 and I'd feel happier spending that if I knew it would also save us some ££s in the long run.

What I can't quite get to grips with is that, although having valves fitted is touted as energy-saving, I would imagine the boiler will need to run more to ensure that the rads with the valves set highest will stay hot. Does the fact that some rads are set lower mean that the hot water running through the whole system doesn't cool as quickly, therefore firing the boiler less?

Our room thermostat is rubbish and has to be manually 'clicked' to get it to turn on/off most of the time (we're on our fifth replacement, so I've given up on trying to rectify that!), so I'd hope the thermo valves would give us much more control in getting the house at a comfortable temperature all the time - or am I hoping for too much?

Thanks for any advice

 

[Goofyish]

Thermostatic radiator valves are ok for regulating the temperature in individual rooms but all they do is cut te hot water flow to the radiators so your boiler would still be on if your main room thermostat is asking for heat. They do prevent unnecessary heat loss over the whole system though by not having little used rooms being heated for no reason.

I would look at a programmable thermostat to replace you existing one. They are easy to fit and would give you more control over your overall house temperature. You can set different temperatures for different days of the week and at different times of each day. So in the morning you can have it a little warmer when you get up and then have it cooler when you are more active and need less heat.
Although we have a 7 day programmer on our boiler we tend to use the programmable thermostat to control the heating.

The position of the thermostat makes a big difference too - if it's in your lounge then the rest of the house will probably be too cold.

 

[Hilary]

Thanks, Tim

I think I'll look into the room thermostat options too.