When it comes to essential parts of our homes, few are as crucial as central heating. Designed to keep us comfortable all year round, being a literal lifesaver in the colder winter months. This is why it’s extremely important to know how your system works, and how to get it to operate as and when you need it to.   

This can be a daunting task however, especially with the many different models and brands of heating control that have been produced over the years – not a year goes by when a new component or system is released with multiple new or different functions than before. It can get very confusing, very quickly.  

In this guide, we’ll look at some of the most popular types of devices you can find in your heating system, from thermostats to radiator valves. Each one can play a crucial part in getting your household to your desired temperature, so it is extremely helpful to know how each one works.

There are plenty of benefits to heating controls that can be enjoyed throughout the year. Some are related to the direct impact more control with have on your home and everyday life, while others are financial and environmental.  

One of the key features of advanced heating controls is that you can choose which areas of your home get more heat, and which rooms get less. This can be ideal for a wide variety of reasons. For example, heat rises, which means our bedrooms can get incredibly warm in the summer months, yet downstairs can get fairly cold at night. Thus, it makes sense to apply more heat to your lower rooms and lessen the heat output in your bedrooms and upstairs corridors.   

Another advantage is that you can be more accurate with your scheduling, setting your heating and hot water systems to activate and deactivate as and when needed. This will save you a great deal of time each day, and prevent you from having to make changes to the temperature throughout the day.

What’s more, you can change your schedules at any time, so if you have an unexpectedly cold day in the middle of summer, or a surprise warmer one in the colder months, you can simply head to your controls and change the setting accordingly, only for them to continue the schedule the next day.  

Benefits to you don’t just come directly from the effect of the heat in your home – more control over your heating could save you a considerable amount of money year after year. Eliminating the risk of forgetting to turn off the heating or forgetting to turn it on and resorting to more extreme, more costly methods of heating your house such as electric heaters, controlled heating systems are almost guaranteed to save the majority of homeowners considerable money.  

Another key result of controlled heating is reduced emissions. This is becoming one of the most important aspects of any part of keeping a home – the condition of our climate and the environment is extremely crucial for our future, and we all must do what we can to help reduce our consumption levels.

Controlled heating means less wasted heat, which results in less carbon dioxide being produced and released into our atmosphere.   

If you’re looking at a new central heating system control panel for the first time, it can be daunting. There will be a lot of different settings and options you may well not recognise or understand. However, most central heating systems will have similar settings to one another, so here are a few of the most common ones, and what they do to your system:  

• Auto - Heating will come on automatically at the allotted time.  
• Twice – Your heating will come on and off at two periods in the day.  
• On – your heating will be on constantly unless another setting is selected.  
• 24hrs – Pretty much the same as above, your heating will be on 24 hours a day.  
• All day – Your heating will turn on at the allotted time, but then remain on all day until the last ‘offsetting you have scheduled that day. This means it will skip any other setting you have on that day. It will do this every day until the setting is changed  
• Once – The same as above, meaning your heating will skip any other entries you have put in other than the first ‘on’ and the last ‘off’  
  Boost – a boost of heat for your entire system. This period will usually last 1 hour before turning off automatically back to the previous setting but can be switched back on if necessary  
• +1hr – the same as above.  
• Advance – moves the programmer or timer from its current setting onto the next one in the daily cycle. Useful for skipping warmer afternoons if you think it might get colder come the evening. 

Most current central heating systems, if not all, should have a timer or programmer, but there are a few other additions they may also have, especially the most modern ones. They can vary in how they appear and function, so it is worth looking into each entry to ensure you know the role of each possible component in your heating system. 

Room Thermostats 

If you have a small device on the wall of your bedroom, hallway or living room that displays numbers in ‘°C’ (for the UK and Europe), it is most likely a room thermostat. These extremely useful systems will monitor your room temperature to ensure it stays within the intended heat range – if it gets too hot or too cold in that particular room, it is usually able to send a signal to your boiler or heater telling it to switch off or on.  

The usual temperature of a thermostat will be between 18°C and 21°C. This is considered the ‘comfortable’ temperature for most, though some will have it on higher settings on a very frequent basis, especially if they have health problems or are older. They can be very useful for households with older members, as they can massively decrease how much distance they need to cover to change the temperature of their room.  

With newer heating systems, room thermostats can often be set to allow you to schedule different heat levels for different times of day as though you were using the timer usually located nearer your actual heater or boiler, again making it a lot less hassle to get that ideal temperature for whichever room your thermostat is located in. 

Hot Water Thermostats 

These thermostats are considerably different from room thermostats and are usually located near your hot water tank or cylinder. More cylinder and tank models can often possess a thermostat of their own, which makes it even easier to have direct control over the heat of the water in your household. 

Like programmers and timers, hot water thermostats can save you a great deal of money as they usually result in a lot less wasted hot water, which can also benefit the environment by again reducing your energy consumption. While almost always require professional installation, the year-on-year money you are likely to save should recoup the money you spend on getting one applied to your system. 
A good idea to remember when setting your hot water thermostat is to set it to around 60°C, as this is more than hot enough to kill off a lot of harmful bacteria. However, this temperature is rarely enough to waste considerable energy. 

Thermostatic Radiator Valves 

Thermostatic radiator valves are excellent devices that allow you to regulate the temperature of a room via the radiator, regulating the flow of water that passes through it. Many models can monitor the temperature of a room themselves, and therefore see to the flow of the water travelling through it to get your room to the temperature it has been set to try to achieve.  

There are a few helpful tips to remember when setting the actions of your radiator valve. Firstly, when operating the valve, it won’t directly change the operations of the boiler valve, meaning the rest of your system is unlikely to be affected (important to bear in mind).

Also, it is not recommended to turn radiators off completely for many weeks or months, as this can allow dampness and mould to form in and around the radiator, as well as in other parts of the room. Even in warmer summer months, it is best to set the radiators to low rather than off if possible. 

Smart Heating 

Arguably the most modern method of heating control, smart heating is growing in popularity up and down the country due to how easy it is to use and access. Usually operated via a smartphone or tablet app, you can access your heating, hot water and more to adjust temperatures, set schedules and many other tasks to ensure your system runs smoothly – all you need is the app.  

There are a few things to remember with smart heating apps. First of all, they don’t work with any old heating system – while this may be obvious to some, you’d be surprised how many people download the apps thinking that they will work with their systems only to find out they have none of the required components.

Secondly, specific instructions regarding the operation of these apps are hard to give considering the huge differences between each company’s app. However, these apps have been designed with ease of use as a top priority, and most companies will have built-in instructions and guides to get you up and running as quickly as possible.  

There are plenty of advantages to smart heating, with access to your system being granted to you even when you aren’t home (as long as you can access the internet). Some of the more modern versions will even utilise GPS settings to control your heating depending on how close to your house you are.

Running late coming home from work? The system can potentially account for this and delay the initiation of your heat. Year on year, this could save you tens, hundreds or even thousands of pounds.