Hi,
I am hoping an experienced plumber or heating engineer can chime in here.
Our heating system consists of a condensing boiler (not combi) and the downstairs radiator system is a two pipe system. The upstairs radiators are on a one pipe system.
before I continue I just want to say that the system is functioning fine at this moment in time. I am asking my question purely for theory/knowledge.
The downstairs system is balanced such that there is 70 degrees on the flow and 50 degrees on the return at all radiators.
The upstairs one pipe system only reacts to pump speed regardless of what temperature differential you balance the radiators to. With the pump on speed two, I get 70 on the flow and 58 on the return back to the tee junction where the returns from up and down combine again. This gives me a combined return temp of around 53-54 degrees.
With that in mind, does balancing the radiators on the one pipe system upstairs even matter? If all lock shields were fully open then the same volume of water would still be flowing through the one pipe affair. My theory is that it doesn’t matter and if all the lock shield valves were fully open the rooms would heat up quicker upstairs without actually affecting the return temperature in a detrimental way that would take my boiler out of condensing mode.
looking forward to some discussion!
Cheers
I am hoping an experienced plumber or heating engineer can chime in here.
Our heating system consists of a condensing boiler (not combi) and the downstairs radiator system is a two pipe system. The upstairs radiators are on a one pipe system.
before I continue I just want to say that the system is functioning fine at this moment in time. I am asking my question purely for theory/knowledge.
The downstairs system is balanced such that there is 70 degrees on the flow and 50 degrees on the return at all radiators.
The upstairs one pipe system only reacts to pump speed regardless of what temperature differential you balance the radiators to. With the pump on speed two, I get 70 on the flow and 58 on the return back to the tee junction where the returns from up and down combine again. This gives me a combined return temp of around 53-54 degrees.
With that in mind, does balancing the radiators on the one pipe system upstairs even matter? If all lock shields were fully open then the same volume of water would still be flowing through the one pipe affair. My theory is that it doesn’t matter and if all the lock shield valves were fully open the rooms would heat up quicker upstairs without actually affecting the return temperature in a detrimental way that would take my boiler out of condensing mode.
looking forward to some discussion!
Cheers
