Moving main thermostat upstairs

ben03

Before I purchase more radiator thermostats for my home set up, I would love to know if anyone has a similar set up to the one described below and if I can zone upstairs bedrooms by moving my main thermostat upstairs.

I have purchased four radiator thermostats which I haven't fitted yet as I am working out where is best to fit them in my home. I currently have the main smart thermostat fitted in a kitchen/living area where the family spend most of our time, there are three radiators in this room. I planned to fit radiator thermostats in all the upstairs bedrooms and then the other downstairs rooms. As generally the upstairs rooms are heated at the same temperature and at the same time of day, I am wondering if I should move the main thermostat upstairs (placed on the landing at top of stairs maybe) and then fit radiator thermostats to all downstairs rooms instead where more flexibility is required. Would this set up work and can I re-assign the main thermostat once it has already been set up in a location?

I would really appreciate some advice before I go ahead and purchase further radiator thermostats.

Thanks.

samd

@ben03 Hello - Start off by remembering that the main thermostat (boiler control) can work in one of two ways.

1. It has to be calling for heat to allow other devices (radstats etc) to get the heat they are calling for. OR
2. Primacy can be given to all tado devices so a radstat etc could call for heat and get it even if the main boiler-control was on Frost Protection.

These options can be changed by support using chat line.

Using either of those options I cannot see how moving the boiler-control upstairs would work unless it was connected to a zone valve to close or permit flow through the bedroom zone. Unless you have an actual zone valve, whenever your tado devices call for heat, any other radiator with a standard TRV will get the heat also. For example, I have a boiler that requires one rad to be open at all times so whenever tado calls it comes running!!

Remember though, that only installing those tados that you have, will reduce your heating bill in so far as those radiators are concerned.

ben03

Hey samd, thank you for the comprehensive reply, it is really helpful and I appreciate you taking the time!

I do not have a zone valve and once heating is called from the combi it currently heats all those radiators with the TRVs turned up.

My thinking was that if I replaced all the manual trvs on the rads in downstairs rooms with smart trvs, left all the rads upstairs with manual TRVs. but placed the main thermostat either on the landing at the top of the stairs or in one of the upstairs bedrooms, I could call for heat to the upstairs rooms (there are only four) using the main thermostat and control the downstairs rooms independently with the rad thermostats.

So if I set all the smart radiator thermostats fitted downstairs to 16 degrees and the main thermostat upstairs to 20 degrees, I'm guessing the upstairs rooms would get to approx 20 and each room downstairs would stay at 16.

I realise this would.not provide control of the temp in each room upstairs but one of the rooms is rarely used and we have a thermostat controlling underfloor heating in the bathroom.

The other option is to spend the £150 on four more rad thermostats as that would cover pretty much everything.

Cheers!

samd

@ben03 You said:

 I could call for heat to the upstairs rooms (there are only four) using the main thermostat and control the downstairs rooms independently with the rad thermostats.

The location of the boiler-controlling thermostat is immaterial (possibly unless it's controlling a zone valve). Moving it upstairs will not alter its function which is basically a switch to turn on or off the boiler. It receives requests from other tado devices and reacts accordingly. It cannot receive requests from standard TRVs.

So, unless you move to your final option, which really is the way to go, putting the tados on ANY rads will mean that those rads without tados will only get heat if a tado requests it. Please note that your current thermostat can be a temperature measuring device for a number of tado radstats AS WELL AS performing its primary function of boiler control. I mention that because the room thermostats are more accurate than those on the rads.

Shout out if needed - there's always someone on here to reply.

ben03

Thanks for the input samd, definitely going to add the extra rad thermostats for more control.

Cheers