How Does a Thermostat Work?

The central heating thermostat is often set to one temperature and rarely touched again – as long as the temperature suits the whole household. Read on to get to find out how does a thermostat work…

How Does a Thermostat Work?

Your thermostat is crucial in your central heating system. It controls the whole system by reading the ambient temperature and switching the boiler on or off in order to keep the temperature constant.

How a thermostat works

If you set your thermostat to 21ºC and the temperature drops below that, the thermostat switches the heating on. When the temperature gets to 21ºC, the thermostat turns the heating off again.

Two main different types of thermostats

There are two common types of thermostats:

Analogue temperature dials

A mechanical thermostat works using two strips of metal called a bimetallic strip. As the temperature changes, the two different metals expand and contract to switch the electricity supply to your heating system on or off.

Digital thermostats

A digital thermostat has a sensitive electronic sensor that reads the temperature and controls the heating. It can keep it within 1 degree of the chosen setting.

What is a smart thermostat?

Some digital thermostats are smart, which means they can be controlled by a smartphone. Others use machine learning to follow your daily routines.

Thermostat Best Practice

Install the thermostat in an area where air flows freely –a hallway is common. Make sure it’s not in constant sunlight or behind a curtain – otherwise it won’t sense the temperature correctly.

Set the thermostat to the lowest comfortable temperature. This is usually between 18 and 21ºC. Remember that increasing the temperature by 1ºC adds about 3% onto your heating bill.

Don’t touch the dial! You may be tempted to turn up the thermostat when it us cold but the thermostat is designed to sense colder weather and control the heating. It will regulate the ambient temperature to whatever you set. You can program the heating to switch on earlier if it takes longer to warm the house on cold days.

L&W Heating and Plumbing

If you need to call on a Gas Safe registered plumber call L&W Heating and Plumbing experts Warrington on one of the following numbers:-

Boiler Servicing Wigan 01942 417220
Boiler Servicing St Helens 01744 776140
Boiler Servicing Newton Le Willows 01925 394260
Boiler Servicing Warrington 01925 394260
Boiler Servicing Runcorn 01925 394260
Boiler Servicing Widnes 01925 394260