Room Thermostat: Would I Benefit From Optimum Start/Stop?

[AfxTwn]

Hi, I just moved into a new house and it has a Glow Worm Compact 24c combi boiler and a ESI ESRTP4RF+ programmable room thermostat and I am wondering if it's worth turning on the optimum start and stop features? There is also something called TPI (chronoproportional control) but I'm not sure how or if it's worth setting that.

I live in a small 2 bedroom, mid-terraced house with 6 radiators total, 5 have TRV valves and the main big one in the lounge doesn't but there is also a small one with a TRV valve near it on another wall. My lounge is somewhat open plan as the stairs to the first floor are in the living room and aren't closed off or have a door to get to them (if that makes sense) so I assume any heat produced in the living room just goes upstairs to some extent.

I normally set the room thermostat to 18 degrees and generally have it on for an hour in the morning between 7 and 8am and then if needed I may put it on for an hour or so later in the evening or late afternoon around 4pm (trying to keep costs down). All the radiator TRV's are set to number 3.

It still feels a little chilly, especially in the living room but I'm not sure if that's because all the heat is escaping up the stairs or I don't have the thermostat set to a high enough temperature or I just don't have it on for long enough. After the heating goes off after an hour, then the temperature may reach around 16-17 degrees according to the thermostat (weather dependent). The thermostat itself is on a little stand on my coffee table roughly in the middle of the room.

Anyway, getting back to my original question, are any of the optimum start/stop features beneficial and worth using? Would I need to have my heating on a lot longer in general or a higher temperature?

Thanks for any suggestions, sorry for the long post.

 

[cjg]

When you put the heating on the first (1/2hr) is the most expensive as it heats all the water,
then your boiler mods down to what ever, its your choise what you do. mine runs for about 3hrs but is set low temp.with large rads. its hard to tell you just what to do .

 

[AfxTwn]

When you put the heating on the first (1/2hr) is the most expensive as it heats all the water,
then your boiler mods down to what ever, its your choise what you do. mine runs for about 3hrs but is set low temp.with large rads. its hard to tell you just what to do .

Thanks for letting me know. I think for the time being I will leave it set as it is and not bother with the optimum settings. I did try the optimum start and set the thermostat to 18. Normally the heating would come on at 7am as per the program but with optimum start, it came on around 5am, to reach the desired temperature of 18 degrees, so was on much longer so I assume this will cost more.

My radiators aren't that big and it's a small house overall so I will leave the settings as they are and if it's not warm enough, I can always manually override and leave the heating on longer.

 

[Zippymark]

I'd say it's a worthwile feature, but not so much in the way that you're using the heating. All optimum start does, is bring the heating on when the thermostat calculates it needs to, in order for you to be warm when you programme it to. I.e. if you set it to be 18 degrees at 7am, it'll bring the heating on when it needs to be at 18 degrees at 7am. This will mean it'll come on earlier in the depths of winter, later when it's mild. It's worth noting that there will be a 'learning' period with this, as it needs to become familiar with how quickly your house heats up. It's only going to be effective if you set up a programme and leave it to do its job. What i'd suggest, is rather than having it on for an hour then hoping that 'sees you through' until bedtime etc, set it to be on the whole time you're home, at as low a temperature as you find comfortable.

 

[AfxTwn]

I'd say it's a worthwile feature, but not so much in the way that you're using the heating. All optimum start does, is bring the heating on when the thermostat calculates it needs to, in order for you to be warm when you programme it to. I.e. if you set it to be 18 degrees at 7am, it'll bring the heating on when it needs to be at 18 degrees at 7am. This will mean it'll come on earlier in the depths of winter, later when it's mild. It's worth noting that there will be a 'learning' period with this, as it needs to become familiar with how quickly your house heats up. It's only going to be effective if you set up a programme and leave it to do its job. What i'd suggest, is rather than having it on for an hour then hoping that 'sees you through' until bedtime etc, set it to be on the whole time you're home, at as low a temperature as you find comfortable.

Wouldn't that cost a lot of money though to keep the heating on, even at a low temperature? I would say around 16 degrees is probably the lowest I would feel comfortable at but from what I've read, the ideal temperature range is between 18 and 21 degrees, or is that just for the few hours you need the heating on?

 

[Zippymark]

It's very hard to calculate, if you've got a smart stat you can maybe experiment. Will it cost more than heating the house to 16 then sitting there cold after that? Yes. Will it cost more than heating the house to 18/19 say, then coasting down to 16 or less by the time you go to bed etc? Maybe not

 

[AfxTwn]

It's very hard to calculate, if you've got a smart stat you can maybe experiment. Will it cost more than heating the house to 16 then sitting there cold after that? Yes. Will it cost more than heating the house to 18/19 say, then coasting down to 16 or less by the time you go to bed etc? Maybe not

I will have to experiment like you said and maybe trial it over a few weeks.