Energy & Environment

Tips on how to use your heating system

General Advice

• A timeclock or digital programmer automatically turns the heating and hot water on and off at the times you set. You can set them to come on once, twice or stay on all the time. You have three switches to control on/off times;
  • AUTO – turns the heating and hot water on or off at the times that you set
  • ON – you can use this to manually override the set starting time
  • OFF – you can use this to manually override the set finishing time
• Set the heating to go off during the night and when your home is empty during the day
• During freezing spells keep some background heating on all the time
• A room thermostat controls the heating to keep the room at a set temperature. Turn the dial so that the arrow or marker is against the temperature setting you want
• You can control the heating in individual rooms by adjusting the radiator thermostats.

Types of central heating controls

	Radiator Valves

To set a Timeclock Programmer

• Check the clock is showing the correct time and adjust if necessary
• Decide when you want the heating and hot water to come on and go off
• Timeclock programmers will have sets of pins or arrows for setting the heating programme;
  • PINS – push them in against any time you want the heating to come on. Pull them out against any time you want the heating to go off.
  • ARROWS – slide the ON arrows (usually red) around to the times you want the heating to come on. Slide the OFF arrows (usually blue) around to the times you want the heating to go off
  • CHECK that the programmer is switched to TIMER (or AUTO) to activate the times you have set

To set a Digital Programmer

• Check the clock is showing the correct time. If not, put the timer switch to CLOCK and adjust the time using the FORWARD and REVERSE buttons
• Set the switch to ON and OFF in turn adjusting the times when you want the heating to come on and go off
• RESET the timer switch to AUTO and double check that the settings on the display are as you have set.

If you smell gas - what should you do?

• Open doors and windows to get rid of gas
• Check to see if the gas has been left on unlit or if the pilot light has gone off
• Turn off the gas at the meter
• Don’t operate anything electrical (including phones)
• Don’t smoke or use naked flames
• Call National Grid (Gas) – 0800 111999 from outside your home. (Using a phone inside could cause an explosion)

How to use your heating system fact sheet (pdf file 120kb)