Balancing Problems

Dmac234 · 14 Nov 2007

The rad in my little boys room only ever gets luke warm so i thought i would try balancing the system.i have now found out than when i shut off any of the rads upstairs the others(three of them)start to cool down.Am i right in saying that the rads should all work off of a hot water 'loop' and shutting off one shouldn't effect the others? This is the case with my downstairs rads.
It appears to me that the upstairs ones have been plumbed in series and shutting one off stops the circuit ,meaning i cant balance them.Is this normal?
At the moment i've opened all the rads up fully at both ends and increased the pump to speed 2. But this increase in speed means that noise is created when the hot water storage tank warms up at 6 o'clock in the morning waking my baby boy up and then ,in turn,me. Grrrr!
Any suggestions would be appreciated.Cheers.

Bahco · 14 Nov 2007

Look in the relevant post HERE

D_Hailsham · 14 Nov 2007

Bahco said:
Look in the relevant post HERE

And which is the relevant post?

However, to help the enquirer ...

Have a look at:

http://www.diydata.com/planning/central_heating/pipework.php#single

This will explain the three piping systems in use for central heating. The single pipe is virtually obsolete, but can be found in very old systems. As you can see, turning off one radiator should not affect the others, whatever system it is.

How old is your central heating system?
What boiler do you have?
Is it pumped or Gravity?
Do you have a Hot water cylinder or a Combi

The more info you can give the better

Bahco · 14 Nov 2007

D_Hailsham said:
And which is the relevant post?

Er...... Ill give you a clue........ Its the post in the link I gave which reads " HOW TO BALANCE A CH SYSTEM"

3rd post down.

Nige F · 14 Nov 2007

He still won`t own up to Living in Hailsham

He won`t ,you know

Dmac234 · 14 Nov 2007

Cheers Hailsham

Boiler is an ideal,not sure of numbers,i'm at work at the mo.

The system is pumped and i have hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard.

the house was built in the 70's so the heating system is probably the same but may have been modded as all the rads upstairs are not the originals.

There is a heated towell rail in the bathroom and not a radiator.

D_Hailsham · 14 Nov 2007

Bahco said:
D_Hailsham said:

And which is the relevant post?

Click to expand...

Er...... Ill give you a clue........ Its the post in the link I gave which reads " HOW TO BALANCE A CH SYSTEM"

3rd post down.

And here's a clue for you, Bahco:

Dmac234 said:
It appears to me that the upstairs ones have been plumbed in series and shutting one off stops the circuit ,meaning i cant balance them.Is this normal?

Where is that answered in the FAQ?

Nige F said:
He still won`t own up to Living in Hailsham He won`t ,you know

See:

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=732230#732230

'nuff said, OK

Back to the OP ...

Dmac234 said:
The system is pumped and i have hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard. the house was built in the 70's ...

So it is unlikely to be single pipe - twin pipe more likely. In which case, shutting off one rad should not cause the others to cool down; the opposite in fact, if the system is not balanced properly.

You don't say if you have Thermostatic valves on the radiators, but if you do there are very clear instructions on balancing rads with TRVs at

http://www.invensyscontrolseurope.c...F-5323-48E3-BD8B-B33ADB04A2E5/7139/D348v2.pdf

The interesting fact in those instructions is the need to disable the TRV with the decorator's cap and have the TRV about a third open. Could it be that a similar approach should be take with standard valves? i.e the adjustable valve should be say about a third to a half open when adjusting the lockshield valve.

bengasman · 14 Nov 2007

Do a search under balancing and cold radiators from old threads. There must be a hundred

Dmac234 · 7 Dec 2007

Thanks for previous advice Hails. As i previously said,i just opened all the valves on all the upstairs rads and forgot about it.Until,that is, just the other day when my father in law came to stay.He was staying in our spare room and must of been warm in the night and shut the TRV on the rad in that room.Guess what. no heat in any of the rads upstairs after that!

just what is going on with my crazy system??

gas4you · 7 Dec 2007

Not a single pipe system is it?

Dmac234 · 7 Dec 2007

gas4you said:
Not a single pipe system is it?

Reckon it could be Gas,as the upstairs rads warm up as they should in a single pipe system.Still, shutting one off shouldn't effect the others should it?

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Balancing Problems

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