H
hodged
I have a Worcestor Danesmoor 15/19 oil fired boiler, which fires a wet underfloor heating system in 3 rooms downstairs (extension - living, utility/entrance and kitchen) and wet radiators in the rest of the house (original house - dining, hallway, 2nd reception spare room downstairs, and 4 bedrooms and an office upstairs). In the stairwell there is a Newlec dial thermostat (not sure on the model and don't think I can post a picture here? - I can't get it open yet as I don't want to break it meantime) that serves all of the original house. The living room, utility/entrance and kitchen each have a Honeywell T6360 dial thermostat that are wired with 4 wires. With the weather/temperatures at the moment (I am in the Shetland Islands) I have the boiler dial turned up to between 4 and 5 (5 being maximum).
At the moment I use the boiler on the "Twice" timer for both hot water and central heating (programmable separately) to come on in the morning and again in the afternoon/evening. At the moment I have water on for 40 minutes each morning and evening, which is working fine. The heating I have coming on at 6-10am and 4-8pm, which is generally working for upstairs. But for the underfloor heating I'm wondering if I am wasting oil twice a day by heating up the concrete underfloor slab for 4 hours (usually takes at least 2-3 hours to get it up to temp), only to let it cool down for 6 hours, to then be heated up again, and again cool down for a further 10 hours, and so on.
I was wondering if instead I'd be better to install four of these Salus RT500 programmable thermostats (not RF model as the house has thick stone walls and it wouldn't work I don't think, and don't want to chance it). I'd then be able to program the three underfloor heated zones downstairs to be on all the time, but at a reduced temperature for the majority of the day - i.e. not letting the slab cool down dramatically after each heat cycle as it does at the moment. And for the last thermostat I'd be able to have the heating set as desired fort the rest of the house, without having to have it on all the time to keep the underfloor heating ticking over, like I do at the moment.
Can't seem to post a link to the Salus RT500?
Also worth noting that I'm not looking to spend a fortune on this - Hence why these seemed fairly attractive to me.
I'd love to know anyone's thoughts on this. Namely:
1) Do you think having the underfloor heating operating with the proposed thermostats would be better/more efficient than the current set up? I seem to imagine that having the boiler fire every so often to keep the underfloor heating ticking over would be far cheaper and more efficient than it firing almost continuously for 8 hours a day.
2) Does anyone know if the wiring of the Newlec thermostat it likely to be the same as the Honeywell (i.e. 4 wires) - I'm not sure without getting into it to check for sure and I just don't want to break it accidentally until I know I'm definitely going to replace it. I'm guessing older/manual thermostats would usually have 4 wires?
3) Does anyone know how I would go about wiring the Salus RT500 with the 4 wires? I've read that they are wired with only 2 wires - So what do I do with the other 2? Would any wiring need to be changed on the boiler, or purely just a case of replacing the thermostats on the wall? If just a case of replacing thermostats on the wall - Is this relatively straight forward? I.e. could I do it myself, or would an electrician be needed? I've wired a pendant light, cooker, etc. before, but I'm no expert.
4) Anything else I may have missed!
Any help much appreciated.
Thanks.
At the moment I use the boiler on the "Twice" timer for both hot water and central heating (programmable separately) to come on in the morning and again in the afternoon/evening. At the moment I have water on for 40 minutes each morning and evening, which is working fine. The heating I have coming on at 6-10am and 4-8pm, which is generally working for upstairs. But for the underfloor heating I'm wondering if I am wasting oil twice a day by heating up the concrete underfloor slab for 4 hours (usually takes at least 2-3 hours to get it up to temp), only to let it cool down for 6 hours, to then be heated up again, and again cool down for a further 10 hours, and so on.
I was wondering if instead I'd be better to install four of these Salus RT500 programmable thermostats (not RF model as the house has thick stone walls and it wouldn't work I don't think, and don't want to chance it). I'd then be able to program the three underfloor heated zones downstairs to be on all the time, but at a reduced temperature for the majority of the day - i.e. not letting the slab cool down dramatically after each heat cycle as it does at the moment. And for the last thermostat I'd be able to have the heating set as desired fort the rest of the house, without having to have it on all the time to keep the underfloor heating ticking over, like I do at the moment.
Can't seem to post a link to the Salus RT500?
Also worth noting that I'm not looking to spend a fortune on this - Hence why these seemed fairly attractive to me.
I'd love to know anyone's thoughts on this. Namely:
1) Do you think having the underfloor heating operating with the proposed thermostats would be better/more efficient than the current set up? I seem to imagine that having the boiler fire every so often to keep the underfloor heating ticking over would be far cheaper and more efficient than it firing almost continuously for 8 hours a day.
2) Does anyone know if the wiring of the Newlec thermostat it likely to be the same as the Honeywell (i.e. 4 wires) - I'm not sure without getting into it to check for sure and I just don't want to break it accidentally until I know I'm definitely going to replace it. I'm guessing older/manual thermostats would usually have 4 wires?
3) Does anyone know how I would go about wiring the Salus RT500 with the 4 wires? I've read that they are wired with only 2 wires - So what do I do with the other 2? Would any wiring need to be changed on the boiler, or purely just a case of replacing the thermostats on the wall? If just a case of replacing thermostats on the wall - Is this relatively straight forward? I.e. could I do it myself, or would an electrician be needed? I've wired a pendant light, cooker, etc. before, but I'm no expert.
4) Anything else I may have missed!
Any help much appreciated.
Thanks.
