Should I turn off radiators in rooms I do not use?
Where the saving actually comes from, the condensation and cold-bridge risks of an unheated room, and the setting that gets most of the benefit safely.
beginner15 min3 min read
Heating & Energy
Staying warm without heating the street.
130 guides in Home & DIY
What can I service on a heating system myself?
The dividing line between householder maintenance and an engineer's job, and the jobs on your side of it worth doing.
beginner1 hr 30 min4 min readWhat temperature should my hot water be set to?
Balancing legionella risk against scald risk and standing heat loss, and why the cylinder and the tap should be at different temperatures.
beginner15 min3 min readWhy is my boiler making a banging noise?
What the different boiler noises usually mean, the two checks you can safely make yourself, and when it needs an engineer.
beginner30 min3 min readWhy is my radiator cold at the bottom?
Cold at the bottom means sludge, cold at the top means air — how to tell which you have and what each requires.
intermediate1 hr 30 min2 min readWhy is my radiator hot at one end and cold at the other?
Sideways cold is a flow problem, not an air problem — what it says about balancing, and the one case where it is completely normal.
beginner30 min3 min readHow do I set my heating timer and thermostat properly?
Getting the thermostat, timer and radiator valves working together instead of against each other.
beginner30 min2 min readDoes leaving appliances on standby actually cost much?
An honest, unexaggerated answer: for most modern devices, very little — but a handful of specific items are genuinely worth switching off, and they are not the ones people usually target.
beginner15 min5 min readHow do I remove a radiator to decorate behind it?
Closing both valves, catching the water that is definitely still in there, and getting it back on without losing system pressure.
intermediate1 hr 30 min4 min readHow do I replace a TRV head without draining the system?
The head unscrews from the valve body without touching the water, provided the fittings match — how to identify yours and what to buy.
beginner20 min4 min readIs it worth topping up loft insulation that is already there?
Why the first hundred millimetres does most of the work, what topping up still buys you, and how to lay the second layer so it covers the joists rather than just the gaps.
intermediate4 hr5 min readWhat is an unvented hot water cylinder and what am I allowed to do to it?
What the safety devices on an unvented cylinder do, how to read a discharging tundish, and exactly where the line falls between what you may check and what needs a ticket.
intermediate15 min5 min readWhere should a room thermostat be positioned?
The thermostat measures one spot and controls the whole house — the positions that give a false reading and what a good one looks like.
beginner20 min3 min readWhich radiator valve is the lockshield, and which one do I adjust?
Every radiator has two valves doing completely different jobs, and adjusting the wrong one makes another room worse. How to tell them apart on sight, including on old valves with no markings.
beginner10 min4 min readWhy does my boiler pressure go up when the heating is on?
The normal rise when water heats, the band the gauge should stay within, and what a pressure that keeps climbing is telling you.
beginner20 min3 min readWhy does my heating come on at the wrong time of day?
Clock drift, AM and PM confusion, the clocks changing, and the override buttons that quietly leave a system in the wrong mode.
beginner20 min3 min readWhy is my radiator hot even with the valve turned off?
A valve that will not shut, a pin that will not extend, and the gravity circulation that heats a radiator nobody asked for.
beginner30 min3 min readDoes it matter if my loft insulation is squashed?
Mineral wool works because of the air trapped in it. Compress it and you remove the air, so squashed insulation performs closer to its compressed thickness than its original one.
beginner15 min2 min readWhat is a motorised valve and why is my heating stuck on?
Heating that will not switch off, or hot water that never comes on, is very often one small valve. What it does, the three ways it fails, and the safe check that identifies which.
intermediate25 min5 min readHow do I find out where my house is losing heat?
A room-by-room survey using nothing but your hand and a candle, and what to fix in what order.
beginner1 hr2 min readIs a dehumidifier worth it?
When a dehumidifier genuinely helps, which type suits a cold house, and what it costs to run against what it saves.
beginner20 min2 min readIs my heating system full of sludge, and how would I know?
The five symptoms that together prove a system is silted up, the bleed-water test that settles it in five minutes, and what each finding means for what needs doing.
beginner30 min5 min readShould the radiator in the same room as the thermostat have a TRV?
Why two thermostats controlling one room fight each other, what happens to the rest of the house, and the conventional answer.
beginner15 min3 min readWhy does my combi shower run hot, then cold, then hot again?
The cold water sandwich explained — what causes the slug of cold water a few seconds into a combi shower, and what genuinely reduces it.
beginner20 min3 min read
Going deeper: MaterialWorld
Material properties, comparisons and suitability — paints, fillers, sealants, timber, tile, insulation.