Your new home in North Abingdon has been constructed with fuel economy in mind and is very well insulated. The high-spec insulation, combined with low 'thermal-bridging' and low air permeability, reduce heat loss through the fabric of your home - meaning less energy is required to heat it. To add to the efficiency of your home, please take care not to block heating outlets (namely radiators), with objects such as furniture or bags.
The central heating system has a boiler - which is thermostatically controlled, supplying radiators and hot water. Your boiler is located in your kitchen.
We want you to get the maximum comfort and convenience from the gas central heating system installed in your new home. The following information offers a guide to adjusting the various controls as well as other useful advice to make sure your system runs as energy-efficiently as possible.
Get the most from your gas central heating system
The boiler in your home heats the water which is pumped through your radiators and supplies your hot water. Some boiler thermostats have numbers, for example from 1 to 4, or 1 to 8. Others may simply have a MIN to MAX scale. As a general guide, the temperature range will probably be from approximately 30°C to 85°C.
The boiler thermostat should be set at approximately 82°C but NEVER lower than 60°C, and should not normally need further adjustment.
The gas central heating system in your home will normally feature one room thermostat, usually located in the hallway. Where zoned heating is installed, you may have two room thermostats. When you set a room thermostat to a particular temperature, your boiler will come on and heat the room in which the thermostat is located until that temperature is reached.
The boiler then cuts out until the temperature drops a few degrees. Then the boiler will come on again until the set temperature is reached. Set the room thermostat at the temperature at which you feel most comfortable.
Watch this useful guide on how to control your heating via the room thermostat and radiator controls.
Control room temperatures with the thermostatic radiator valve controls available on your central heating system and NOT by opening doors and windows.
The valve settings are usually numbered from 1 to 5 offering a broad temperature range. To begin with, try the bedrooms at setting 3, the kitchen and hall at 3, and the living rooms at 4.
Watch this useful guide on how to control your heating via the room thermostat and radiator controls.
Your gas central heating system has been fitted with a programmer or timer so use this to its optimum effect. This enables the boiler to fire-up automatically, usually twice every 24 hours, at times selected by you to suit your household’s requirements.
If your house is empty during the daytime, set the heating to come on approximately one hour before you get up, go off half an hour before you go out, come on again one hour before you return home and go off again half an hour before you go to bed. Most homes do not need to be heated throughout the night.
Remember: you may need to re-set the timer at the beginning and end of British Summertime, after a power cut, or when the electricity supply has been turned off for any reason.
All central heating timers have a switch which allows you to turn off the heating in the summer, while still enjoying the provision of hot water. To conserve fuel, the on and off times for the ‘hot water only’ setting can be reset to reduce the operating periods. Always use the central heating boiler for hot water in summer – it is fast, convenient and economical.
If you have a combi boiler, it will not be necessary to adjust the timer for ‘hot water only’ during the summer.
If you are going away in winter
- Turn off the hot water at the programmer & set the heating selector to continuous
- Turn the room thermostat to a LOW setting of approximate 8°C
- Your boiler has been preset by a registered Gas Safe installer and should not be adjusted.
- Rented properties: Sovereign will carry out an annual service and contact you to arrange this.
- Shared ownership properties: to continue to get the best from an appliance, regular maintenance is essential. If you are the first occupier of a new-build property, we recommend that your boiler is serviced no later than 12 months after you moved in and annually thereafter. Failure to do this could also invalidate the guarantee.
- Boiler controls are electrically supplied and if a problem occurs, please use an approved electrician to deal with remedial works. If the controls on your boiler show any signs of leaks or corrosion, have them checked by an expert.
Please note: there may be slight variations to the system installed in your home. Specific user instructions regarding the boiler and programmer may be found in your handover pack.
Ventilation
Your property is ventilated by a natural passive ventilation strategy using intermittent extract fans and trickle vents in conjunction with window opening to avoid a reliance on mechanical ventilation systems. Watch this quick video guide to find out how fans and window trickle vents reduce condensation 
.