In a bid to get my system to operate to the best of it's capabilities I have been doing some research on boiler flow/return temperatures & balancing, based on what I have discovered I have made some tweaks to my system, my home set up is as follows:
3 Bed detached house constructed in 2011, 50mm slab insulation boards in the cavity (traditional masonry internal & external skin walls).
Potterton 12 SL Promax heat only boiler, it is the original boiler, it is in good order & was serviced in Dec 23, we are now fortunate enough to live in South Devon so the climate is milder, the boiler does not work as hard as our previous boilers did in Yorkshire, temps of minus 5 to minus 10, December 2010 I recorded minus 15.
Being a modern insulated property the radiators are on the small side, the exposed pipework to the rads is 10mm copper, 22mm copper can be seen in the airing cupboard for the flow & return etc. 12 Rads in total, 10 type 11's & 2 type 21's (single convector) 10 of rads have Myson TRVs.
Grundfos Alpha 2 pump with auto adapt function.
Hive 2 thermostat.
Since moving into the house the system noise seemed a little excessive, I decided to research the pump & people were saying that after installing the same pump as mine they could hardly hear it running, I began to think that my pump had an issue so I checked on Google & then headed for the airing cupboard...
The pump speed was set to 3, after going through the various options I settled on fixed speed 2, the noise levels dropped considerably, the electric consumption also dropped from 45 watts to 20 watts.
Whilst researching the pump I came across discussions regarding flow & balancing, I discovered my flow/return temp to be very close, this did improve when I changed the pump speed.
My boiler has limited options in terms of adjustment, I have tweaked the flow temperature & now when fully warmed up the flow temp from the boiler is 75 degrees & the return is 63, I obviously need to keep the flow temperature at a suitable level to heat the water in the tank, I did get it lower but you then sacrifice the heat to the rads & HW tank. I realise that this type of boiler although manufactured to condense will not be able to do so when fully warmed up due to the higher temperatures required to heat the water.
Never attempted to balance radiators before, after several days of trial & error I have got it as best I can, previously the rad temperatures were all over the place, each one is now giving off a more uniformed temperature of around 71 degrees at the top centre of the rad, the wife even commented on the rads feeling warmer!!
Hard to obtain the 12 degree difference across the valves with the size of some of the radiators, but the rads are now all warming up at about the same rate & the heat output is definitely better.
Any thoughts on my tweaks, particularly interested in opinions about pump speeds & flow/return temps, any suggestions on how I can make any further changes?
Thanks in advance.
3 Bed detached house constructed in 2011, 50mm slab insulation boards in the cavity (traditional masonry internal & external skin walls).
Potterton 12 SL Promax heat only boiler, it is the original boiler, it is in good order & was serviced in Dec 23, we are now fortunate enough to live in South Devon so the climate is milder, the boiler does not work as hard as our previous boilers did in Yorkshire, temps of minus 5 to minus 10, December 2010 I recorded minus 15.
Being a modern insulated property the radiators are on the small side, the exposed pipework to the rads is 10mm copper, 22mm copper can be seen in the airing cupboard for the flow & return etc. 12 Rads in total, 10 type 11's & 2 type 21's (single convector) 10 of rads have Myson TRVs.
Grundfos Alpha 2 pump with auto adapt function.
Hive 2 thermostat.
Since moving into the house the system noise seemed a little excessive, I decided to research the pump & people were saying that after installing the same pump as mine they could hardly hear it running, I began to think that my pump had an issue so I checked on Google & then headed for the airing cupboard...
The pump speed was set to 3, after going through the various options I settled on fixed speed 2, the noise levels dropped considerably, the electric consumption also dropped from 45 watts to 20 watts.
Whilst researching the pump I came across discussions regarding flow & balancing, I discovered my flow/return temp to be very close, this did improve when I changed the pump speed.
My boiler has limited options in terms of adjustment, I have tweaked the flow temperature & now when fully warmed up the flow temp from the boiler is 75 degrees & the return is 63, I obviously need to keep the flow temperature at a suitable level to heat the water in the tank, I did get it lower but you then sacrifice the heat to the rads & HW tank. I realise that this type of boiler although manufactured to condense will not be able to do so when fully warmed up due to the higher temperatures required to heat the water.
Never attempted to balance radiators before, after several days of trial & error I have got it as best I can, previously the rad temperatures were all over the place, each one is now giving off a more uniformed temperature of around 71 degrees at the top centre of the rad, the wife even commented on the rads feeling warmer!!
Hard to obtain the 12 degree difference across the valves with the size of some of the radiators, but the rads are now all warming up at about the same rate & the heat output is definitely better.
Any thoughts on my tweaks, particularly interested in opinions about pump speeds & flow/return temps, any suggestions on how I can make any further changes?
Thanks in advance.