Any advice for starting up central heating?

[sugar loaf]

I am having central heating fitted in a period property for the first time (after getting all the correct permissions) and wondered if any one had any advice about turning it on. I have heard that its advisable to turn it on very slowly to stop the building shifting and warping (any more than it has!).

Does any one have any experience of this?

Thanks

 

[middi]

I would not worry too much about the bulding moving and shifting with the central heating, it expands and contract through the seasons anyway.

Having the heating on in winter the building things is permanent summer.

I dont think that turning it on gradually is going to make any significant difference.

It would have been better if you hadn't fitted heating at all, the building slowly would have adjusted itself to the different temp. gradients of the seasons, now that you have fitted heating you might as well use it and if it moves it cannot really go very far.

 

[Penners]

if it moves it cannot really go very far.

Not far enough for you to have to change your postcode, anyway.

 

[MdB]

if it moves it cannot really go very far.

Not far enough for you to have to change your postcode, anyway.

A big chain to nearby tree will stop it going to the pub while you are out. (people sometimes wonder where their damp problems come from - now you know )

 

[tony]

it will do no harm to turn the heating up gradually, you never know if the building has been empty for a while and heating comes on full blast it may dry out materials quicker than normally expected.

turn the trvs up 1 notch per day .

thats what i would do.

best regards

tony

 

[Lime]

My advice would be to keep an eye on all the wooden furniture, fixtures and fittings to prevent shrinkage and splits opening up.

If you are particularly worried about heating everything up too much too soon turn the water temperature down on the boiler. (not the room thermostat)
Turning down the room thermostat (or radiator control) without altering the boiler water temperature just leads to greater extremes of temperature change.

 

[Aidan]

I have heard that its advisable to turn it on very slowly to stop the building shifting and warping (any more than it has!).

Does any one have any experience of this?

Thanks

IMHO. it mainly applies to starting underfloor heating from new, when it is drying out screed , or is fitted under wooden floors. In that case the warm-up period to normal operating temperatures can be something like a month, I vaguely recall. The amount of water that has to be evaporated from an average new building is somewhere around the order of a ton. Laying impervious floor coverings over damp concrete and screed will guarantee that the covering gets lifted

There would have been some heating in an existing building, so movement will be less pronounced.

Heating alone, without humidification can create very dry internal conditions in winter, if you want to familiarise yourself with a psychrometric chart. The latent gains from breathing, cooking, washing usually counteract it.