Springhill Group Home : Heating Systems Explained

Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs)

TRVs are found on radiators in rooms other than where the room thermostat (see below) is placed. The TRV senses the air temperature in the room and can be set higher in the rooms you use most and lower in rooms used least such as bedrooms. They usually have a fat valve at one end, marked with a * and numbers from 1 to 5. The * setting is to protect against frost; it will typically leave the radiator switched off unless the temperature falls below about 6°C. For a normal living room, the setting of 3 or 4 is likely to be about right; for a bedroom a cooler temperature will normally be enough. Turning the dial up when the radiator is already on will not increase the room temperature! They can also be used to turn an individual radiator on or off. Generally, one radiator should be left without a TRV and left permanently switched on, this radiator may be a bathroom towel rail (where the heat is always likely to be useful), or in the same room as the room thermostat where a TRV is not needed.

Room Thermostat

This is usually found in the living room or hallway and is recommended to be set at 21°C. The room thermostat will respond to the temperature in the room where it is situated. When the room is warm enough it sends a signal to the central heating pump to stop heating the radiators until the temperature drops below the set level. At this point they will come back on again.

Programmer or Timer

The programmer or timer is set to control the times when the central heating and hot water are switched on and off. The average household needs heat for about 8 hours each day. But this depends on your own personal circumstances. The majority of time clocks allow you to set two 'on' and 'off' periods during the day i.e. 8am - 10am and 4pm - 10pm.

So that the house is warm when you wake up, set the heating to come on approximately 30 minutes before you get up and then in the evening set the heating to turn off about 1 hour before you go to bed. This will allow the house to warm up in the morning and cool down slightly at night.

There is a variety of programmers for operating central heating (CH) and hot water (HW). The majority have the following controls:-

ON/CONSTANT -HW/CH is on 24 hours each day.
OFF - the HW/CH is completely off.
ONCE - the HW/CH comes on at the first "ON" time selected and turns off at the second "OFF" time selected.
TWICE/AUTO - the HW/CH comes on for the 2 selected time periods.
HOT WATER ONLY - the heating system will not operate. » Springhill Group Home : Heating Systems Explained