How to set a programmable room thermostat 

Thanks, Clive. Glad you like it. And you're right: they can be confusing, and remembering that they work thermostatically is critical.

That's great! It's what we're here for 🙂

Gen ferris me too grrrr

So true I agree with you 100%

Thanks for your kind words, Sallie. So glad you like it! And we agree with you: so many manufacturers' instructions are very difficult to understand.

You're welcome, Aftab - glad you found it useful

Still did not make sense, this unit is far too complicated, all I want is to have 7 days all the same

And crazy eyes as a bonus

Indeed. It's amazing how badly some of these manuals are written or translated. It would take a competent person half a day to write decent instruction - a drop in the ocean compared to all the R&D that firms have invested in the product already.

Thanks! So glad you're now nice and warm at home.

You're not alone! For many people the idea of using a temperature setting is certainly counter-intuitive: "Between the hours of X and Y, turn the heating on when the temperature of my home falls below Z degrees". But it does mean the heating won't come on if the weather suddenly gets warmer. Many types of thermostat have a setting called 'manual' or something similar which is basically an override of the timer, but we reckon it's worth taking the trouble to programme the thermostat, and hopefully our film will help.

I tell the most annoying thing ever . I accidentally press the wrong button and to try and resit the dam time . It like rocket science. I tell you on:off button all We dam need Manufactured not all this stress 🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️

Glad you find it useful. We're often struck by how poor some user manuals are!

Nice of you to say so, Emran. Glad you found our video useful.

Totally agree, I had a simple Honeywell ST699B programmer and a seperate room stat, easy to set and forget and east to overide if needed. All the options in the controller in this vid will help reduce fuel bills, but what a nightmare to set up.

Great!

Thanks, Ian!

Great. It's what we're here for!

99l

@@csebristol l

Very kind, thanks!

Great that you found it useful.

Stratoszero - We're glad you liked the video, and thanks for your question. The temporary override function does not have a fixed duration. Instead the override will last until the next heating period begins. For example, let’s say on your programmed heating pattern, between 8am-5.30pm the boiler will only come on if the temperature drops below 14 degrees. Then from 5.30pm the system is set to maintain a temperature of 21 degrees. One day you happen to get home early and you don’t want to wait until 5.30pm for the heating to come on again. Using the up arrow will override the programme and the boiler will fire up until your home reaches whatever temperature you have now set manually. Then at 5.30pm the next heating period begins and the pattern reverts back to your regular programme settings. Conversely you can use the temporary override to lower the required temperature and therefore stop the boiler from coming on. Use the down arrow to do this. The lower temperature that you set will apply until the next programmed heating period begins. This is useful if you happen to be going out early and no longer need your home to be warm.

Thanks! Glad you liked it.

Thanks, Krzystof. Glad it was useful for you.

Hi Hidden Existence. The 5th time setting just allows you to set up to five different temperatures for five different times in the day. If you don’t need this many, you can always set the temperature for the 5th setting at the same temperature as the setting before, so the temperature of the house doesn’t change. For example, you could set 10pm -11pm at 14 degrees, and then 11pm-12pm at 14 degrees too.

goodbut how do you just switch it on and offmanually

Hi Gisele. I'm afraid you can’t get rid of the heating periods altogether. The best way to control the heating manually and ensure that it doesn’t come on at weird times is to set the minimum temperature for all of your heating periods (except 4.30-5.30am when you say you want your heating to come on). At 4:18 on the video Anna explains how to set the times and the temperature. Follow this process, leave your heating times as they are but reduce the temperature to the minimum setting allowed (with some timer-thermostats if you reduce the temperature setting to below 5 degrees the display will show ‘OFF’, meaning that the heating should not come on at all during that heating period). You can then control the heating manually using the up and down buttons. Anna shows you how to do this at 6:18. So if you feel cold in the evening use the ‘up’ button to turn the heating up to around 18-21 degrees and it will turn itself off automatically at whatever time you’ve set as the end of the evening heating period. If you don’t want to wait until the end of the heating period then you can turn it right down to minimum again manually using the ‘down’ button.

Hi Jodi, I’m sorry to hear that. Assuming you mean your programmable room thermostat isn’t working (the device shown in the video), there may be a few things you can check to get it working again: • Always check if the heating system is switched on. • Try pressing the reset button. • If the batteries aren't changed according to the instructions, the thermostat can go into a locked state and appear to not work. To get it working again, follow these steps: 1. Fully remove the batteries and leave for at least 10 minutes. 2. Make sure you use good quality alkaline AA batteries. 3. When you fit the batteries in the programmer make sure the polarity is correct. 4. After about 10 minutes your screen should re-appear. 5. If the thermostat is still not working, try repeating the process but leaving the batteries out overnight or for 24hrs. We hope this helps! If after doing all this your thermostat still won’t work, it would be worth speaking to a heating engineer.

Great! Glad we could help.

Hi Sandra - Anna explains how to set it on this particular model from 7:07 on the video. Generally, the best way to do this is to put your heating system into frost protection mode. This means the radiators won’t come on at all unless your house gets so cold that there's a risk of the water pipes freezing. All modern central heating programmers and programmable room stats should have a frost protection mode.

Hi Jade - and sorry for the late reply. In normal mode this programmable room thermostat will show the current ambient temperature. So the 25 it is showing will be the actual temperature in the room. When the temperature drops below whatever you’ve set the thermostat to for that period the boiler should fire up. Based on your settings, at night time the heating will not come on unless the temperature drops below 5 degrees C. However, the display will correctly show the current room temperature. 5 degrees is nearly as cold as the inside of a fridge so you’d never expect the temperature in your home to drop this low, therefore the actual room temperature on your display will always be higher.

Oh, good! That's what we're here for ...

Thanks for your question, MrMunky. Yes, if you turn on frost protection then it will stay in that mode until you adjust it manually. It will not automatically take itself out of frost protection. So you can go away for a couple of weeks and if the temperature in your home drops to 5 degrees or below the heating will come on.

We think you are referring to the Salus RT500RF. The user guide for this device states the following: "Connecting the RT500RF reciever. Note: All electrical installation work should be carried out by a suitably qualified Electrician or other competent person. If you are not sure how to install this programmable thermostat consult either with a qualified electrician, heating engineer or your boiler / heating system supplier for advice on how to continue." We would suggest that this is very sound advice. However, if you are confident that it is all wired in correctly and the batteries are not flat then you can find connection instructions in the user guide. It’s a bit too lengthy to cover in a RU-vid comment but you should find the guidance you need here: www.manualslib.com/manual/515617/Salus-Rt500rf.html#manual

Hi Andrew - The best way to do this is to put your heating system into frost protection mode. On this setting the radiators won’t come on at all unless your house gets so cold that there's a risk of the water pipes freezing. All modern central heating programmers and programmable room stats should have a frost protection mode. Anna explains how to set it on this particular model from 7:07 on the video.

Hello Gisele. What you need to do is set the temperature for each of the 5 settings or 'heating periods'. So for your required heating period of 04.30-05.30, set the temperature to e.g. 21 degrees, and for all the other settings set the temperature to e.g 10 degrees so the heating won't come on during that time (assuming the temperature in you house doesn't fall below 10). I hope this helps.

A lot of people struggle with these, which is why we made this series of how-to videos. If used right, though, they can save you money so it's worth persevering!

Hi Billy - The key thing to understand is that the different heating programmes are not ‘on’ and ‘off’ settings. Technically the heating system is never ‘off’ but the boiler will only fire in response to the times and temperatures that have been set. For example, from 4:39 on the video Anna sets heating programme 1 to start at 6.30am at a temperature of 20 degrees. She then sets heating programme 2 to start at 8am to a temperature of 14 degrees. The heating does not go off at 8am. Instead from 6.30am the thermostat will tell the boiler to fire until the temperature reaches 20 degrees, then from 8am the thermostat will only tell the boiler to fire if the air temperature drops below 14 degrees. Similarly you can set the start times and the temperatures you want for heating programmes 3-5 in the same way. Programme 5 will last until the start of programme 1 the following day. If you want to read about this in more depth the manual is here www.salus-tech.com/cache/filelibrary/4726/library/fileLibrary/2015/10/Salus-RT500RF-.pdf

Thanks for that but I think I will swap it for one I can use like a normal timer or as near to one.

I still don’t understand number 5? Could you further explain?

@@tom4od Hi tom4od - Number 5 is no different to settings 1-4. It simply means that there are five separate *heating periods* in a 24 hour day, each with its own temperature setting. It’s cyclical so heating period number 5 runs until whatever time heating period number 1 begins, at which point the daily heating pattern starts again. Let’s say for example that you tend to go to bed at 11pm and you do not want the heating to come on during the night when you are tucked up in bed. You can set heating period 5 to begin at 10.30pm with the thermostat set at or below 5 degrees (many programmers display ‘OFF’ if set below 5 degrees). Following Anna’s example in the video, let’s say you usually get up at 7am and so set heating period 1 to begin at 6.30am with the thermostat set to 20 degrees so your home will be nice and warm ready for when you get up. In this example the heating will not come on between 10.30pm (when heating period number 5 begins) and 6.30am (when heating period number 1 begins the next morning).

Hi Zipp. The programmer’s factory settings will switch the heating on for a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening. During the rest of the day it shouldn’t come on unless it gets very cold. If your heating is coming on at times when you don’t need it or your home is reaching a higher temperature than you want, then yes you will need to adjust the settings. From 2:38 on the video Anna talks you through a demonstration of how to do this. You won’t need to set each day separately. If the ‘jumper’ on the back of the programmer (see 0:42 on the video) is set to 5-2 mode then once you’ve set the heating times and temperatures for one week day it will apply these to every other week day and allow you to have different settings for the weekend.

csebristol thanks for the advice. The problem has been recorded thanks again

Hi David - The user guide for the Salus RT500RF states the following: "Connecting the RT500RF reciever. Note: All electrical installation work should be carried out by a suitably qualified Electrician or other competent person. If you are not sure how to install this programmable thermostat consult either with a qualified electrician, heating engineer or your boiler / heating system supplier for advice on how to continue." We would suggest that this is very sound advice. However, if you are confident that it is all wired in correctly and the batteries are not flat then you can find connection instructions in the user guide. It’s a bit too lengthy to cover in a RU-vid comment but you should find the guidance you need here: www.manualslib.com/manual/515617/Salus-Rt500rf.html#manual

I'm talking about the crazy eyes not the thermostat lol

Damn son you were tripping. Ha! You meant to reply to the comment "let's talk about those crazy eyes" (agreed btw, she looks like she got cheated on last night.lol) yet you managed to post and then reply to yourself. Also, May I humbly inquire what the actual fk your doing with your life, taking acid and watching thermostat control videos? Friend. Surely out of, well, let's say everything ever invented in the entire history of our species there are more enjoyable things to be doing while tripping. You only have one brain, I wouldn't be doing that to it

Unless of course you just found out that your thermostat actually controls our reality and that sesh basically sorted global warming while you were fking about with it. In that case, humanity thanks you intrepid traveller. Not all hero's wear capes x

Bro I'm literally on acid right now and I thought the exact same thing

Somebody got cheated on last night

You're right, Mick, the way these programmers work is slightly counter-intuitive. However, we're glad you found our video useful.