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With the aim of having better control over your energy bills and home heating, updating your central heating system is a smart move. Our team at Boiler Guide is here to make this process easy for you. Why will this cost me money? If a radiator doesn't have one, when the heating is on it will heat the room to a hotter temperature than is needed. The other type doesn't require a tank in the loft, but instead just one hot water cylinder. Heat-only boiler controls Modern condensing boilers can operate at a range of outputs and, when not running at maximum temperatures, actually recover some heat to run more efficiently. Until fairly recently, however, many boilers in the UK tended to have basic controls that switched them on for short bursts of intense heating then simply turned them off again, without making use of the range of output levels boilers are capable of. Like the thermostat on a cylinder, you can also have a thermostat in one room or each room of your house. Older versions are connected by wires running to your boiler, while newer systems tend to send signals to the boiler wirelessly.

When the radiators around your home aren’t heating up or are only partially heating up then it’s an indication that there’s too much air in the heating system, preventing the hot water from ciculating properly. To get your radiators heating up again, they need bleeding. How to fix the radiators See the best heat-only boilers as voted for by owners and heating engineers. Controls to use with combi boilers What are combination boilers? Your boiler is likely to have its own set of controls on the front of the unit, which is great for controlling your heating if your boiler is easily accessible but not so much if it’s been installed in a garage, loft or externally. If you've been considering replacing your Potterton boiler with a brand new one then you need to think about who will carry out the installation. Your choice will come down to a national company or a local engineer. In 2018, a new legislation was introduced to improve the efficiency of UK homes. Under the legislation, known as Boiler Plus, all gas and oil boiler installations must now include time and temperature controls.Weather compensation controls adjust your boiler's output according to need, based on a sensor that detects how cold it is outside. Before looking into the various types of boiler thermostats and central heating controls, it’s good to know how they can all benefit your home: Boiler thermostats and central heating controls not only make it easier to use your boiler, they can also reduce your energy bills dramatically. Plus, time and temperature controls are also now an essential part of a central heating system under the Boiler Plus legislation. How will I know if I don't have this? Thermostats are small dials that have a range of temperature options around a central circle. If your cylinder has one, you'll be able to see it on the outside, around a third of the way up. No room thermostat This is fairly precise work, and while it's possible to guess the right temperature setting to use by looking at the boiler's control panel, it's best if an engineer sets up the boiler to work it out automatically. How do I get compensation controls?

The heating controls you need will depend on the type of heating system you have – combination or heat only – and whether or not your hot water comes directly from your boiler. Read about the different types of boiler. The simplest boiler control is the on/off switch. Turning it on puts the boiler in standby mode until it needs to provide heat for your hot water or radiators – for example, when the room becomes cooler than the temperature set on the thermostat. Standby uses a small amount of electricity – usually less than 10W per hour. All modern condensing boilers have a Flue Gas Heat Recovery System. Since April 2005, all new gas boilers must be condensing by law. So, if you’ve had a new boiler fitted since then, it should be a condensing boiler. If you haven’t had a boiler installed since 2005, consider a boiler replacement. When to have boiler controls installed?There are two types of heat-only boiler. The first is supplied by cold water from a cylinder that sits high up in your home, usually in your loft. Cold water then flows down from there to a gravity-fed hot water cylinder, where it's heated and then sent around your home. Many properties only have the ability to turn the central heating on and off for the entire property, with TRVs on the radiators to set the temperature.

Most common cause is a broken internal component but it will depend where the water is leaking from If you don't have separate controls for this, it's worth speaking to a heating engineer about getting thermostatic mixing valves fitted to regulate the temperature of the water going to your bath, shower or sinks to avoid scalding. Temperature tips

This is a great way to heat your home when your central heating system can provide small amounts of heat. To raise the temperature, only small adjustments are needed. This kind of heating is often used in shops and offices. But if you rely on intermittent heating, such as a gas boiler running at high flow temperatures (55°C+) that's on for an hour in the morning and a few hours in the evening, this style of 24/7 heating might not be suitable. Load compensation controls lower the flow temperature your boiler is running at to a level that's sufficient to reach the temperature set on your thermostat, reducing heat wastage. Whilst thermostatic radiator valves don't directly control the boiler, they can help to keep your rooms at a desired temperature.