How to get control of your heating at home
Heating controls come in five layers, and most homes are missing the two that cost the least. In order of what they do for you: the boiler’s flow temperature, a timer or programmer, a room thermostat, thermostatic radiator valves on each radiator, and smart controls on top of all of it.
The first is free and takes two minutes. The last is the one everyone asks about. This guide covers what each layer actually does, so you can tell which ones your house is short of.
Layer 1: flow temperature, the control nobody uses
This is the setting on the boiler itself that decides how hot the water going out to your radiators is. It is not the room thermostat and it is not the hot water dial. On most boilers it is a separate control, and on most boilers it has been sitting where the installer left it since the day it was fitted, usually around 80C.
That matters because a condensing boiler recovers extra heat by condensing vapour out of its own flue gases, and it can only do that if the water coming back from the radiators is cool enough. At 80C it never is. Turn the central heating flow down to 60C and the boiler condenses properly again.
Your rooms still reach the same temperature. They take a little longer, which the timer absorbs. We cover what that is worth in money in how to reduce your gas bill in winter.
Two cautions. If you have a hot water cylinder rather than a combi, do not take the cylinder below 60C, because that temperature matters for legionella control. And if the house genuinely will not warm through on the coldest days, raise it in small steps rather than going straight back to 80.
Layer 2: the timer or programmer
The timer decides when the system is allowed to run at all. Set it so the heating comes on shortly before you get up and shortly before you get home, and goes off around an hour before you leave or go to bed. Residual warmth covers the gap.
The thing worth internalising here: it is not cheaper to leave the heating on low all day. A house loses heat for as long as it is warmer than the air outside, so heating an empty house is paying for warmth that leaks away with nobody in it. Our myth-busting piece sets out why the belief persists.
Layer 3: the room thermostat
The thermostat tells the boiler when to stop. Without one, the boiler heats to the timer regardless of whether the house is already warm, which on a mild day in October means burning gas for nothing.
It measures one room, normally the hall or living room, and switches the whole system. Somewhere between 18C and 21C suits most households. Do not site it above a radiator, in direct sun, or in a draughty hallway with an external door, because it will read the wrong number and the rest of the house will pay for it.
Layer 4: thermostatic radiator valves
A room thermostat controls the boiler. Thermostatic radiator valves control the house. Each valve throttles flow to its own radiator once that room reaches the number set on it, which is how you stop heating a spare bedroom to living room temperature.
They are inexpensive, they fit to the system you already have, and they are the single best value control upgrade for most homes. Two rules: fit them to every radiator except the one in the room with the room thermostat, because there the two controls fight each other, and leave the towel rail in a bathroom on full if the bathroom is the room you want warmest.
Layer 5: smart controls
A smart thermostat replaces the room thermostat and the programmer with something you can set from a phone. Smart radiator valves extend the same idea to individual rooms, which gives you genuine zoning without touching a single pipe.
The honest case for them is not the phone. It is that the schedule ends up matching how your household actually lives, and that when plans change you actually turn the heating off, because it is one tap rather than a trip to the hall cupboard. If your schedule is already accurate and you never override it, the gain is modest.
We fit Hive smart controls and can supply and fit one for a fixed price. If you want to see how they work before deciding, our video guide to choosing your boiler controls walks through the options.
The order worth doing them in
If you are starting from an average house with a timer and a thermostat and nothing else:
- Flow temperature to 60C. Free, two minutes, biggest single efficiency gain.
- Check the timer schedule actually matches your week. Free.
- Thermostatic radiator valves on every radiator bar the thermostat room. Cheap, quick, immediate.
- A smart thermostat if the schedule is the thing letting you down.
- Smart radiator valves for true room-by-room control, once the rest is in place.
Doing it in that order means each step is worth having on its own, and you never pay for a smart control to compensate for a boiler setting you could have changed for nothing.
One thing controls cannot fix
Controls make a working system efficient. They cannot make a failing one efficient.
If radiators are cold at the bottom, the system needs a power flush, not a new thermostat. If the boiler is fifteen years old and non-condensing, no control fixes the 20-odd per cent of gas it wastes before the water ever reaches a radiator, and a new boiler installation is the honest answer. If it has not been serviced in a year, the £80 annual service comes first, because a dirty burner and a sludged filter waste more than any schedule saves.
Get the controls set up properly
We will set the flow temperature, check the programmer, balance the radiators and tell you honestly whether smart controls would earn their keep in your house or whether the free changes have already got you most of the way.
It is included in an annual boiler service, which is £80 fixed and takes about an hour. Or if you want smart controls fitted, request Hive supplied and fitted.
Book online in about two minutes, or call 0800 980 6018 and speak to someone in Bradford.
Flow temperature guidance checked 7 September 2026.