Controls
In this section we will cover some of the controls you will find for the heating and hot water in your home.
Room Thermostat
The room thermostat, or room stat as its commonly known, is usually located half way up the wall in either the downstairs hall, living room or dining room ( you may have differnt names for these rooms, lounge, reception etc dependant where in the U.K you are from ). This controls the air temperature in the room its in and roughly in the home. When this component reaches the set temperature it turns off the heating. You can set the temperature yourself usually from 10 to 30 degrees C. What temperature the room stat is detecting is identified by a click sound or little light on some modern room stats. Turning the stat to the lower numbers below the indicator (click/light off) will turn off all the radiators. Whilst turning it up (past the click/light on) to the higher numbers will make the air temperature rise.
Cylinder Thermostat
Yes as you've already guessed this is located on the cylinder itself. Either in a pocket within the cylinder or strapped around it depending on how old your cylinder and stat are. It controls the temperature of your hot water. This works similar to the room stat and can also be set by you to your desired temperature. The range of temps usually go from 45 to 90 degrees C (not going too low because of the risk of legionella disease).
Radiator Valves
These are simply used to turn the radiators on and off by you. You will find two different tops on your radiator valves a wheel head and a lockshield head. The wheel head is the one you use to turn it on or off. The lockshield you will only be able to adjust if you use a pair of grips, it is used to balance the system.
Thermostatic Radiator Valves
Called trv's for short, they offer the most control over your radiators. They keep each individual radiator the temperature you set it on.
Boiler Thermostat
This control is found on the boiler itself and controls the temperature of the water going round the system in the pipes, radiators, hot water circuit and even inside the boiler. This, like all the other controls, can be altered by the user.
Programmer
This is the control you use for selecting either the hot water or the central heating and what time you would like it to come on and go off (models vary - giving varying modes of control).
Programmable Room Thermostat
This offers greater control over your heating and saves money (cost of running one component instead of two) by combining your programmer and room stat into one control.
