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  • Heating query. We changed from oil heating to gas about a year ago. We had two new rads installed as part of the change. The issue is that our house now feels cold. More so upstairs than down. The gas works on a mobile thermostat and we have tried putting it in the coldest room but that doesn’t seem to matter much.
    Questions -

    1. Why is this happening?
    2. I am considering trying to get someone to do some form of heat loss survey etc - has anyone done this and who would do it?
    3. The gas chap said that gas warms a house quicker but it also cools quicker as once the temperature is reached the pump stops. With oil heating the pump continues to run. Is this accurate?
    4. We had an extension built last year and it seems much warmer than the rest of the house. It is insulated much better than the rest of the house. It is also closer to the boiler so is that why it’s warmer?
      Any input very welcome.
  • Why is this happening?

    Something to do with the set-up isn't right. Could be a lot of different reasons - individual radiator set up, radiator sizes, badly calibrated thermostat, timer settings or the system as a whole could be underpowered.

    Good place to start would be setting the thermostat to something unrealistic, i.e. 30 degrees, setting the boiler to 'always on' if it has a timer, then see if the place becomes uncomfortably hot. If it does, this will tell you the issue is with either your thermostat on your boiler, or your timer - both have to be in agreement to call for heat for the boiler to fire. This is what you want, sorting a thermostat or a timer is easy.

    If the place remains disappointingly tepid it means there is some issue with the system. Check the the control valves on the radiators and open them fully if they are not fully open. If all the radiators are really hot and continue to be really hot but the place is still uncomfortably cold it's possible that the system is underpowered - the radiators are not big enough.

    If the radiators are not really hot - i.e. you wouldn't mind hugging them for a bit - then it's the boiler - either not powerful enough or simply not on a high enough power setting. Or it's fucked. Check for error codes.

    if some of the radiators are really hot but some are cooler, the control valves might be buggered or they need balancing, i.e. the flow rate needs to be changed to stop other radiators from pinching all the hot water before it gets to them.

    If bits of the radiators are cold and other bits hot there's a load of air in them and it needs bleeding and refilling.

    The likelihood of the system being underpowered is fairly low I reckon - it's probably a combination of weird timer and thermostat settings and some air that has found its way in.

  • Thanks for that. I will follow the instructions and see what happens.

  • Good place to start would be setting the thermostat to something unrealistic, i.e. 30 degrees, setting the boiler to 'always on' if it has a timer, then see if the place becomes uncomfortably hot.

    I see that you spent time at my mother-in-law's

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