How does central heating work?

[filthiestfis]

I've never used central heating before until I moved home recently. Im not sure how to control the heating in each room. Each room has a heater with a valve on each side of it, but no numbers on the valve. The only way for me to turn the heating on and off is by turning the knob on at the entrance of the house and regulating to the temperature I want.
The problem is that most often I only want to heat one or two rooms, certainly not the kitchen which doesnt require it to have a heater on!
Im not sure how to turn off the individual heaters. Is it just a case of fiddling with the side valves to see if heat is increased/reduced? Or are the valves there for something else?
Please help as at the mo Im worried that we will be getting a high electricity bill due to this!

[Sandy-Wroe]

In the rooms where you don't want heat turn the valve clockwise as far as it will go.

[VHG]

>high electricity bill due to this!

Your central heating is probably Gas not Electricity.

[VHG]

Central heating works (usually) by heating water in the central heating bolier (by gas) and then pumping the hot water round the house to each of the radiators and then back to the bolier when it is heated again.

Each radiator MAY have a thermostat control (not all do) looking a bit like this
http://www.bathroom-e...0radiator%20valve.jpg

If your radiator has one then turning it up and down controls how hot the radiator gets. Note that not all radiators have thermostats.

There will also probably be a main thermostat in the hall which controls the overall heating in the house.

I doubt that sending the water round each radiator will add that much to your bill.

The two things that will effect you bill are:

1) How long you have your central heating on

2) How hot you heat the water.

Both of these can be controlled by settings on your central heating.

[buildersmate]

........ and (most critically of the lot):
3) how much insulation and effective draft-proofing you have installed in the place.

[Old_Geezer]

If you don't have the knowledge of how your c/h works, it can still lead to a high electricity bill; even if fuelled by gas. Because you are so worried you turn it off, and switch on your electric bar fires in all the rooms :-)

Umm yeah, as Sandy mentioned; turning the large knob clockwise turns an individual radiiator down/off, anticlockwise turns it on/up.

[BertiWooster]

Am I correct in saying that when you turn the thermostat control on the radiator up or down , what you are doing is increasing or decreasing the amount of the water that enters the radiator .

Assuming the above is correct why would adjusting the thermostat control save money when the boiler has to heat all the water in the system OR does the boiler only heats some of the water in the system

[Old_Geezer]

If there is less water flowing into the radiator then less heat is 'lost' from the radiatior to the room, so the boiler has to use less energy heating the water up again.

[Vagrant]

You may be worrying unnecessarily - if you've never used central heating before, keep a careful eye on your gas consumption - (I assume it's gas) - you'll be surprised at how cheap it is compared with individual gas fires and heaters in every room.