Soft Southerner

[maximan]

Temperatures dropped to 10 degrees here in the south east today with non stop rain.
Hence the central heating was switched on for a couple of hours.
I can hear all the northerners on the board laughing about us soft southerners'.
Has anyone else done the same.

[Watis]

Yes!

But just to test it, you understand, before the winter weather arrives.

Watis

[bungeejumper]

Yep, ours went on yesterday evening after the outside temp dipped to 8 degrees. We left it on this morning (at lowest level), but now the sun's out in Wiltshire, a factor that doesn't often tend to complicate the issue in Manchester. So it'll be off again this evening.

Soft? Not as soft-headed as those who think that there's virtue in having chilblains. Central heating's there to serve. Use it intelligently. No problem.

BJ

[tjh290633]

I leave our system on all year round. If the thermostat thinks it's cold, then it comes on. Otherwise it stays off. The effect usually is to make the radiators feel slightly warm, but the big advantage is that it exercises the 3-way valve from time to time. If you turn the heating off for 6 months, there is a strong chance that it will malfunction when the heating is turned back on.

TJH

[scotia]

I leave our system on all year round. If the thermostat thinks it's cold, then it comes on. Otherwise it stays off. TJH

moi aussi

[Slarti]

I leave our system on all year round. If the thermostat thinks it's cold, then it comes on. Otherwise it stays off. The effect usually is to make the radiators feel slightly warm, but the big advantage is that it exercises the 3-way valve from time to time. If you turn the heating off for 6 months, there is a strong chance that it will malfunction when the heating is turned back on.

TJH

I've lived with central heating systems since about 1964 and have never known one malfunction when it is turned back on after the summer.
Christmas Eve, yes. On a snowy Saturday afternoon, certainly, but never in the 1st week after being turned on.

Slarti

[bungeejumper]

I've lived with central heating systems since about 1964 and have never known one malfunction when it is turned back on after the summer.

You've never had a stuck radiator pin? Or a dead motorised valve that's been quietly extinct for the last four months, but nobody's noticed?

Christmas Eve, yes. On a snowy Saturday afternoon, certainly, but never in the 1st week after being turned on.

Yep, got that T shirt too. Boiler down on Christmas Eve. Never mind, we thought, we've got loads of electric heaters, and the immersion tank heater will see to the hot water. All we have to do is switch it on. That was when we realised that the immersion heater was also quietly dead, and probably had been for years. Plumber came out, but couldn't get the spares till 3rd January. Oh how we laughed.

BJ

[UncleIan]

I had to scrape the windscreen this morning. In sunny southern England. It's not summer anymore.

[Slarti]

I've lived with central heating systems since about 1964 and have never known one malfunction when it is turned back on after the summer.

You've never had a stuck radiator pin? Or a dead motorised valve that's been quietly extinct for the last four months, but nobody's noticed?

Not even sure what a stuck radiator pin is - unless it is something to do with thermostatic valves? In which case I've never had any.

The motorised valves all seemed to fail on a midweek morning, when a rush for getting to work/school could be nicely interrupted.

Slarti

[stewamax]

But at least now you can fix a motorised valve in 15 minutes or so if only the Synchron (or similar) motor has died.

[PrincessB]

I can hear all the northerners on the board laughing about us soft southerners'.
Has anyone else done the same.

Yes. It's been on since the start of the week.

My caveat is the North facing front room is by far the coldest room in the house. No heat gain through the windows, three outside walls and a corridor behind means gains no warmth from elsewhere in the structure.

With the Themostatic valves stopping the flow to every other radiator in the house, I'm essentially using the boiler to power a single 1kW radiator.

Annoyingly the larger South facing rear of the house gets huge themal gain thanks to a lot of glass. It's 29ºC at in the South and 22ºC to the North just warm enough to give the boiler the evening off.

B.