Need Advice Of Central Heating

[Old_Geezer]

Not really a DIY question maybe but... How easy is it to change the actions of a heating system without replacing the whole thing ?

I, apparently, live in an area where the electricity supply company is so utterly incompetent that it feels the need to turn of the area's supply every few months. For the second time recently I've returned, after being some days away, to find that at some point they have done their 'turn it off and on again' trick, and on power restore the heating system turns out to reset itself to coming on twice a day. So in the middle of summer I'm paying for the heating being on and I'm not even there !

I know, I could go around turning all the individual radiators down to zero, but that's a plan B if not C since I'd then have to get to them and turn them all back on again in a few months, and I ought not need to as the heating IS turned off at the control panel.

I don't know who thought it would be hilarious to design a control system that defaults to on twice on a power cycle, (seems there's too much of that "gotcha" design going on these days) but how easy would it be to get the system to either return to where it was prior to the power removal, or failing that, perhaps be off ?

Cheers.

[alavahalf]

Turn your thermostat down to minimum and your heating cant come on.

[Old_Geezer]

That is a thought, thanks. I leave the thermostat to maximum because I consider it a ridiculous concept, that the temperature at one point in the house should dictate to every radiator; so have set the radiators where I want them and rely on the control panel. But with a control panel failing to function as it should, that might be a fail safe solution, even if the cause of the problem still exists.

Cheers for that.

[alavahalf]

We dont alter our control panel from one year to the next. The thermostat is used to switch the heating on if need be. The panel should have some batteries in it as a back up for when you lose mains power. The fact that it goes back to a default seting suggests that your batteries may well need replacing. This would rectify the panel losing it's memory and stop you having to reset it.
Not a good idea to go round each rad and turning every TRV down. They are often stuck down when you come to turn them back on with the arrival of colder weather.
Good practice would be to wind each valve down and then up immediately. This would keep the valves from sticking.

[Old_Geezer]

I'm not aware that it has batteries, I think it is powered. I'll have to check but that would mean finding out how to open it. A job for tomorrow morning methinks.

[Old_Geezer]

Apart from cracking the front of the box I see no way in. Going to have to assume no batteries.

Still, thermostat at minimum now. Just hope I remember I did that come winter !