I currently have a noisy central heating system.
The noise appears to be flow noise and there is no air in the system and the pipes and pump are properly secured etc. The noise is at its worst in the night when the heating is cutting in and out under the roomstat control in the hall and you can hear the noise throughout the upstairs of the house. It is particularly bad in the room adjoining the airing cupboard where the pump is located which happens to be our 1 year old son's room
You can distinctly hear when the motorised valve closes and the bypass comes into use. The flow noise is around the same volume but goes up in pitch and it just sounds like too much water is being pushed though the pipework.
The system was fitted around 3-5 years ago (before we bought the house) and consists of a gloworm ultracom 24 hxi which heats 9 radiators downstairs and 7 radiators upstairs in a 2 floor house. The system is sealed and all but 3 of the radiators are fitted with TRV's. The system is on S plan and has a bypass valve.
The pump is a Grundfoss 15-60 set to the intermediate speed setting.
My current thinking is that the pump is the cause of the noise in one way or other. There is either excessive flow around the system or the closing of the TRV's is causing too much flow through to few radiators and hence making the noise or the pump itself is on the way out. I had a similar problem at our previous house that was fixed by replacing the pump.
Firstly, is this pump the right pump for this size of system?
Secondly, can i experiment by turning the pump speed down without risking damaging the boiler. I would expect the boiler to modulate the burner in line with the water temperature in the heat exchanger so i'd have thought i can do this but thought i'd check. I'd expect this to reduce the noise but it will obviously also increase the heat up time for the radiators so it would only be a temporary solution to prove that it is the pump or excessive flow that is causing the noise.
Thirdly, would fitting a smart pump help with the flow noise? If so, would the Wilo A rated Smart pump be a suitable replacement. It can achieve the same flow rate as the current Grundfoss pump but gives a 4M head rather than the 6M head the the current pump can produce.
The noise appears to be flow noise and there is no air in the system and the pipes and pump are properly secured etc. The noise is at its worst in the night when the heating is cutting in and out under the roomstat control in the hall and you can hear the noise throughout the upstairs of the house. It is particularly bad in the room adjoining the airing cupboard where the pump is located which happens to be our 1 year old son's room
You can distinctly hear when the motorised valve closes and the bypass comes into use. The flow noise is around the same volume but goes up in pitch and it just sounds like too much water is being pushed though the pipework.
The system was fitted around 3-5 years ago (before we bought the house) and consists of a gloworm ultracom 24 hxi which heats 9 radiators downstairs and 7 radiators upstairs in a 2 floor house. The system is sealed and all but 3 of the radiators are fitted with TRV's. The system is on S plan and has a bypass valve.
The pump is a Grundfoss 15-60 set to the intermediate speed setting.
My current thinking is that the pump is the cause of the noise in one way or other. There is either excessive flow around the system or the closing of the TRV's is causing too much flow through to few radiators and hence making the noise or the pump itself is on the way out. I had a similar problem at our previous house that was fixed by replacing the pump.
Firstly, is this pump the right pump for this size of system?
Secondly, can i experiment by turning the pump speed down without risking damaging the boiler. I would expect the boiler to modulate the burner in line with the water temperature in the heat exchanger so i'd have thought i can do this but thought i'd check. I'd expect this to reduce the noise but it will obviously also increase the heat up time for the radiators so it would only be a temporary solution to prove that it is the pump or excessive flow that is causing the noise.
Thirdly, would fitting a smart pump help with the flow noise? If so, would the Wilo A rated Smart pump be a suitable replacement. It can achieve the same flow rate as the current Grundfoss pump but gives a 4M head rather than the 6M head the the current pump can produce.