Our 29-year old gas boiler became temperamental, and refused to ignite on the odd occasion, so we've just had it replaced. It had a programmer that worked simply on room temperature to decide whether it should run or not, there was nothing clever such as an outside temperature sensor or variable modulation. Our new boiler has only an outside sensor, and bases its decision on whether to switch on, at what modulation, flow temperature etc. on that. So I can set a desired temperature, and I believe that it has some internal algorithms in the control unit (in the form of a heating curve) that makes all the decisions to reach our target temperature. I can't believe that it can be particularly efficient, mainly because it has no internal temperature sensor, but also because it has no idea how efficient our insulation is. The controller can include an inside temperature sensor in its ruminations, but the plumber who fitted it seemed to think that we didn't really need it. As an aside, we do have thermostatic valves on all our radiators.
I'm wondering whether this system is peculiar to the continent (we live in Austria).
Am I missing something, living in the past, or what? Will it really cost less to run, even though it seems to run the heating at a low flow temperature all night?
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