One room colder than others

[fraz101]

Have a 2 bedroom semi detached house which is 35 years old. One of the bedrooms is distinctly colder than the rest of the house.

We got a Worcester greenstar 34 cdi combi fitted 2 years ago, with a wireless room thermostat fitted in the living room.

There are 5 radiators in the house and a chrome towel radiator in the bathroom. The 5 radiators are all original,with no TRVs fitted,just a screw (on/off) valve on each.

Upsatairs and the hallway is generally much colder than the living/diner/kitchen where the room thermostat is currently set to 22 degrees. The coldest room, is 16-17degrees(bedroom) and the other bedroom 20ish degrees.

If i turn the thermostat up to say 26 degrees it increases the temp in the bedrooms so i know the rads aren't blocked on needing bled etc.

I have had extra loft insulation added and i am considering having cavity wall insulation installed too.

I realise i could shift the room thermostat into the hallway (where it is colder) to increase the temp in the bedrooms,but that would make the living room too warm?

I basically want to know how i can balance the temperature throughout the house better (especially upstairs)

 

[townfanjon]

probably a good idea to move the stat into the hall, and yes the living room would then get to hot, this is where TRV's come in, you need them fitting in every room apart from the bathroom. This is where I call it, fine - tuning comes in where you then adjust the temp in each individual room rather than the whole house.

 

[fraz101]

probably a good idea to move the stat into the hall, and yes the living room would then get to hot, this is where TRV's come in, you need them fitting in every room apart from the bathroom. This is where I call it, fine - tuning comes in where you then adjust the temp in each individual room rather than the whole house.

So if i renewed all 5 radiators amd fitted a TRV on every one,would i need a lockshield on every rad too?

 

[fraz101]

here are the rad sizes

600x1000
600x1600
600x700
600x900
600x900

What kind of price inc TRVs,fitting etc should i be looking at to get them renewed by a plumber?

The rads have 2 pipes at one end, not one pipe at either end,so i realise i need copper pipe to run to each end.

 

[jtsplumbing]

Could also be that the radiators are under-sized for that room, or a problem with pipe runs & size , But need to have better controls fitted, will save you money on your gas bills

 

[fraz101]

probably a good idea to move the stat into the hall, and yes the living room would then get to hot, this is where TRV's come in, you need them fitting in every room apart from the bathroom. This is where I call it, fine - tuning comes in where you then adjust the temp in each individual room rather than the whole house.

I've been reading that any room stat should be fitted in the main room and no TRV valve fitted in that room?

 

[jtsplumbing]

From what you describe you have a micro-bore system with twin entry valves, size of the boiler you have upgrade rads to double's up grade controls / TRV's -Room stat Not going to be a cheep thing to upgrade rads now quite expensive, get a least 3 quotes.

 

[Millsy 82]

You should of had trvs fitted when the boiler was installed 2 years ago.

 

[doitmyself]

So if i renewed all 5 radiators amd fitted a TRV on every one,would i need a lockshield on every rad too?

A lockshield valve is most definitely needed when you have TRVs. They are used to balance the system, i.e make sure each rad has the correct flow.

 

[fraz101]

We have twin entry rad valves fitted as pictured below.

Getting some conflicting info on what set up to go for, namely where the room stat should be situated and whether or not the rad in that room should have a TRV???

 

[fraz101]

anyone?

 

[tamz]

Nice old Carronrad :wink:

 

[Max Tout]

probably a good idea to move the stat into the hall, and yes the living room would then get to hot, this is where TRV's come in, you need them fitting in every room apart from the bathroom. This is where I call it, fine - tuning comes in where you then adjust the temp in each individual room rather than the whole house.

My bathroom has a TRV fitted.......is it not actually necessary?:confused5:

Just curious as to why the bathroom should be any different to other rooms.....is it because most people like the bathroom warmer than the rest of the house or something like that?

Cheers.

 

[jtsplumbing]

Get rid of these old radiators , pipe work if solid floor one pipe will need to run on skirting, if wood floor then can be altered under floor, looks like 8mm pipe going to valve

 

[fraz101]

Get rid of these old radiators , pipe work if solid floor one pipe will need to run on skirting, if wood floor then can be altered under floor, looks like 8mm pipe going to valve

Thanks for the reply.

Yes i realise the pipe will have to run along the skirting.

If i leave the room stat in the living room,should i not fit a TRV in that room?

 

[garnhamr]

you could fit a trv in there but it's kinda pointless as the roomstat will be controlling the temp anyway and if that trv got turned right down for some weird reason then the room wouldn't get hot enough to turn the boiler off, everywhere else would get baking hot if you see what i mean.

 

[Max Tout]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes i realise the pipe will have to run along the skirting.

If i leave the room stat in the living room,should i not fit a TRV in that room?

The room-stat should (ideally) be placed in a location that doesn’t get affected by extraneous heat.

Kitchen has heat from cooking; lounges usually have another form of heating i.e. gas/electric fire etc.

The best position for a room-stat is hall-way or landing.

The associated radiator in that (smaller?) area should NOT have a TRV fitted as it will conflict with the operation of the room-stat. Other rads should have a TRV fitted.

The room-stat will switch off the boiler completely (and the heat to the entire house) when the area in which it is sited gets up to temperature.

It’s an attempt to control the ‘average’ temperature throughout the entire dwelling....even though the room-stat is only sampling the temperature in one location i.e. the hall-way or landing! ........it’s not an exact science, but I guess it’s near enough.

I think a room-stat situated in a hallway is analogous to the story of the ‘aged’ piano player in a brothel.......

....likes the atmosphere downstairs, but isn’t really sure what’s going on upstairs!

 

[stevetheplumber]

probably a good idea to move the stat into the hall, and yes the living room would then get to hot, this is where TRV's come in, you need them fitting in every room apart from the bathroom. This is where I call it, fine - tuning comes in where you then adjust the temp in each individual room rather than the whole house.

ignore the info above they should be in every room except the room or space that the thermostat is fitted in this provides an interlock with the boiler
if your rads get hot enough when the stat is on full there is nothing wrong with the system and you dont need new pipes you need to run the system hotter and control room temps with the trvs

 

[fraz101]

Thanks for the replies.

Whats happening just now is the stat (in the living room) is switching off because of the heat from the cooker in the kitchen,making upstairs absolutely freezing at night time as boiler is off.

 

[antdad]

Why haven't you moved the room stat to the hall yet?

 

[garnhamr]

you could get a wireless roomstat installed and then try the stat in different places.

 

[antdad]

you could get a wireless roomstat installed and then try the stat in different places.

It is wireless.

 

[garnhamr]

oh right lol, try it out then.
by the way i'm not a heating engineer so listen to people like stevetheplumber over me.

 

[SAW]

Exactly what stevetheplumber said, really annoys me when installers and DIY put a TRV on the rad right next to the room stat

 

[Max Tout]

Exactly what stevetheplumber said, really annoys me when installers and DIY put a TRV on the rad right next to the room stat

Is it not prudent to install TRVs on ALL rads if you are planning to use a ‘wireless’ room-stat?;

........... that would give you a few options of the best place install to room-stat i.e. hallway, landing, study etc.

Once the optimum location was found that best suited the room-stat functionality of controlling the boiler then the ‘conflict’ of ‘room-stat versus TRV’ could be overcome by turning the TRV to its highest setting in that one location.