It’s freezing… how often do you turn your heating on?

[a twig]

Interesting thread on the heating costs etc. We heat to 15deg throughout the house and then 17deg at certain times of day on specific days of the week, we have around 12 different zones with a thermostat. I'm accused of breaking all manner of human rights conventions. There are a couple of log burners that are very welcome and one contributes a little extra heat in the form of a back boiler. In 2024 our energy costs were in the order of £2600. I didn't think this was too bad for the size of the house and higher cost of energy than in previous years. A bit colder than we would like but ok... 2025 has been a cold start with yesterday breaking the £30 daily barrier (gas and electricity) for the first time.

I've noticed recently through the use of smaller humidistats around the house that the temperatures are around 2deg lower than the room thermostats. Has anyone else noticed such variations?

Are your room thermostats built into smart radiator valves? At our old place I had to offset the evohome ones by -1 or -2 degrees to get them to match the room temp (i.e. getting them to report back to the hub that they are reading 15 when they are actually reading 17).

Weirdly we haven’t had the same problem here, maybe we have more low level draughts in this place cooling the smart TRVs we have gone from solid floors to suspended, don’t know if that has made a difference

 

[DaveG]

Are your room thermostats built into smart radiator valves? At our old place I had to offset the evohome ones by -1 or -2 degrees to get them to match the room temp (i.e. getting them to report back to the hub that they are reading 15 when they are actually reading 17).

Weirdly we haven’t had the same problem here, maybe we have more low level draughts in this place cooling the smart TRVs we have gone from solid floors to suspended, don’t know if that has made a difference

Don’t want to post off topic here but do you have any threads about your journey from solid to suspended floors and any lessons learned? In the process of doing this in one room so interested to speak to someone whose bought the T-shirt!

 

[paulc]

I've noticed recently through the use of smaller humidistats around the house that the temperatures are around 2deg lower than the room thermostats. Has anyone else noticed such variations?

I went and bought a bunch of Xiaomi temperature/humidity sensors last year - Found they had a spread of 2-3°C. Humidity also had a spread of around 5%..
Unless you get a certificate of calibration with each device or can compare with a lab grade thermometer, treat the numbers as a guide only.

 

[a twig]

Don’t want to post off topic here but do you have any threads about your journey from solid to suspended floors and any lessons learned? In the process of doing this in one room so interested to speak to someone who’s bought the T-shirt!

Doesn’t need a thread as it was very simple, I sold the house with solid floors and bought one with suspended

 

[Flyfisher]

I went and bought a bunch of Xiaomi temperature/humidity sensors last year - Found they had a spread of 2-3°C. Humidity also had a spread of around 5%..
Unless you get a certificate of calibration with each device or can compare with a lab grade thermometer, treat the numbers as a guide only.

FWIW, I've been using Shelly devices recently in conjunction with Home Assistant for monitoring various temperatures around the house as well as the flow and return temperatures within the zoned heating system. The temperature sensors I'm using (DS18B20) also have a spread but the Shelly device allows an offset to be set for each sensor (in +/- 0.1C increments), so before deploying the sensors I put them all in a large bowl of warm water and then adjust their offsets so that they all read the same temperature.

This approach doesn't mean that they are totally accurate but it does make them all consistent.

 

[fernicarry]

So with the 10' bounce in temperatures over the last couple of days, the windows are now completely free of condensation. Yay! However, I noticed today that everything in the garage and the trailer is covered in a fine mist of condensation... Ye' cannae win.

 

[paulc]

The temperature sensors I'm using (DS18B20) also have a spread but the Shelly device allows an offset to be set for each sensor (in +/- 0.1C increments), so before deploying the sensors I put them all in a large bowl of warm water and then adjust their offsets so that they all read the same temperature.

I too have a bunch of those DS18B20 sensors - Cheap Chinese knock-offs... Checked them at 0°C in a bowl of iced water, and again in a bowl of boiling water, and a third data point at 22°C. The sensors had a non-linear response at all three points. Not wildly off (less than 1% for the most part).