Central heating driving me crazy

Hi,

I've just moved into a new house. It's probably 12 years old and is sporting the original potterton puma 100. The house is a 4 bed detached and at the moment the heating is on most of the time and the house isn't that warm. I'm having cavity wall insulation done next week which might help keep some heat in. It's big step up in gas usage that I'm used to, it's got a prepay meter in at the moment and I'm putting over £100 gas in alone!

Anyway to my problem, I've mentioned it before but the CH was loosing pressure and stopping the boiler. A plumber suspected a small leak and put in some treatment into a rad for the system. I still loose pressure but not enough to make the boiler stop. The problem I have is the CH noise. When on its ver noise with tapping, clicking and for the smaller noises like dripping. It happenes mostly upstairs and moves with the exemption of one room. I'm pulling the floor boards up there to check that one.

I've bled the system and air comes back over time, but to be honest it's not a lot, all rads are hot top to bottom. I'm saving to replace the boiler but I'm thinking a drain of the system might help. Whilst the system is draining, can I put the fill loop on to flush clean water through?

When the plumber drained the bathroom rad to put the stuff in the water was dark and there was debris on the inlet. I just need to get a few more months out of it and currently we can't have CH on in the evening as it wakes the children up.

Cheers

Jon

If its 12 years old it should have cavity insulation already.
A 12 year old house should be reasonably cost effective to run surely. Not sure what's up with your boiler though, sorry.

Nope, some neighbours have had it done and the surveyor said ours is not done.

Rads regularly need bleeding, debris at rad valve, poor heat and noise, all together sounds like a circulation problem.
Do you have plastic pipes for most of the heating system?

No it's all copper. I've bled it all and the noise is much better apart from the one room where I think it's a pipe touching the joists or boards.

I guess I'm back the the problem that air is getting in somewhere. I can't find any leaks at all.

You are lucky that you have the boiler that you do , I am guessing that your plumber put leak sealer in your radiator? This stuff is a nightmare for new boilers, make sure your installer of your new boiler completely flushes the system to get rid of this crap

it's got a prepay meter in at the moment and I'm putting over £100 gas in alone!

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Get rid of that as soon as you can, most expensive way to pay for usage. and sign up to cheaper online dual fuel rates!