When I renovated the gite I put in electric underfloor heating in the Kitchen and Sitting room so I could rent in the low season.

This week I had some guests arriving, but the weather forecast predicted cooler temperatures. It was time to turn on the heating for the first time since it was fitted in the spring.

The underfloor heating is on two separate circuits with one floor temperature thermostat each. The lounge worked fine, but bad news – the kitchen thermostat did not work at all. The LCD display was dead. Swapping the lounge and kitchen thermostats heated the kitchen OK – so thank goodness the heating wires and floor sensor buried under the tiles worked OK.

With people coming in a couple of days I couldn’t find anywhere locally to buy a replacement, so I had to ‘borrow’ the thermostat from our house. Disaster averted.

The broken thermostat is on it’s way back to the manufacturer (who were very helpful on the phone).

Next year I think I’ll check things a little earlier.