Turning down the heating while he's away is commendable. That lowers consumption. But sometimes the apartment cools down a bit too much. Is it useful to turn up the thermostat all the way to have it cozy and warm at home quickly?
Quite a few assume that the room will warm up faster when the thermostat is on the highest level. Accordingly, they always turn the knob all the way when they come into a cold home. But that's not true, as the non-profit consulting company co2online explains. Because a heating thermostat is not a faucet. If it is turned up full, you do not heat faster, just longer - until the higher temperature is reached. This results in rising heating costs.
The setting of the thermostat does not regulate the speed of heating, but the target room temperature. Because how hot a radiator gets depends on the amount of hot water that the valve lets flow into the radiator. A small pin in the valve regulates the quantity. If it is pushed in, for example, the opening of the valve is reduced and less heating water flows into the radiator. Depending on the room temperature, a thermostat then exerts different levels of pressure on this pin. For example, there is gas in the thermostat. When it is warm, the gas expands and puts pressure on the valve: less water flows into the radiator. When it is cold, the gas contracts and the thermostatic valve opens: more hot water flows into the radiator, as the consumer advice center adds.
Determining the desired room temperature is not always easy in practice - especially when the thermostats do not have a temperature display. Level 1 basically corresponds to a temperature of 12 degrees. The distance between a step is about 4 degrees, the small dashes in between each mark one degree. Level 5 corresponds to about 28 degrees.
If you want it to be more transparent, you should exchange your old radiator thermostats for new ones with a temperature display. You can buy them from ten euros each. Depending on the general conditions, the new thermostats can save up to ten percent on heating costs per year.
