Set-back thermostats may soon be your best friend.

Steam/hydronic heat generally doesn't have that "instant gratification" of standing over a forced-air vent in your bathrobe first thing in the morning. Certainly with the older systems, it takes a relatively long time for the radiators to heat up -- but they also take a long time to "cool down" so you end up with different kind of heating experience. The "why" is that you have to heat a large amount of piping and radiators, as well as potentially water/steam before you "feel" the heat, as opposed to just heating a little air and blowing it through the duct. Its not necessarily "slow" (or inefficient) in heating the house in general compared to forced air, but doesn't have those "hot spots" that can be so satisfying.

For me, I've generally had older systems and have the "turn on" time about an hour before I wake up and, on work days, it reverts to the "cool daytime" temperature about when I wake up, so that its just starting to cool off when I'm packing to head off for the day. Your own "lead time" will vary depending on the kind of system you have, how much heat it produces per hour ("BTU per hour"), how well insulated your house is, and how much heat you lose from drafts and the like.

I know this is a little late but maybe it will help. First, your boiler being only 6 months old should heat up very quickly because of the low water content in new boilers. Next, when they replace a new steam boiler in place of the old it is not like replacing hot water or warm air. The what we call "near boiler piping" must be appropriate for the new system. It can become a little technical but if they didn't pipe this right you won't get the steam traveling the way it should and will not reach the radiators or will be very uneven. The thing to remember with steam is, it is gravity and must flow on its own. There is no help. It needs larger pipes to do this. Wrong piping will cause banging, condenate troubles, and no heat. What else is important on steam are the air vents on the rads. They are what balance the system. The farther from the boiler the more open the valve. What the valve does is release the air when the steam first hits the rad. It them shuts down to hold the steam in, until it cools to become condensate and return to the boiler. If the vents are closed off or bad then no steam will be allowed into the unit and that means no heat. Iknow this gets a little long but steam is a good heat but must be set up properly. Any more questions I will try to help.

spot09 finally someone who gives good advice, so much misinformation out there it`s scary some of these people work in this field