Boiler and a Stove question

[martyc]

Guys,
Mate of mine has a oil burner and a stove with a back boiler both connected to his heating system.
He mentioned to me that some of his rads arent getting as hot as others etc.
I asked him had he it balanced etc and he mentioned that the stove and the boiler are @ different ends of the heating circuit each with their own pumps and if you balanced the system for say the boiler it wouldnt be balanced for the stove.

Are there a few hard and fast design rules here when you have 2 heat sources?

my thinking is that the outputs from both should be going to the one manifold and then split into zones etc.

Also when both heat sources are on...is there some clever device that can decide to say always take water from the back boiler once its hot otherwise turn on the oil boiler and vice versa etc.

Its a pretty new house but it sounds like it wasnt planned out very well...no thermostats in any of the rooms so im guessing the boiler is just cycling all the time.
Cheers,
Marty.

 

[martyc]

Bump....anyone??

 

[Terrywookfit]

With a properly designed system it should work with full control from both boilers!

It sounds like it has been cobbled together for convenience/cost!

Or by some one who was clueless!!

 

[martyc]

Hi terry,
It was installed by a qualified plumber only 2 years ago.
anyway i have done a bit of googling and apparently the only bit of hardware out there to handle this is a dunsley neutralizer...
http://www.dunsleyheat.co.uk/neutralizerpics.htm

You say it should work with full control from both boilers...can you give me an outline as to how you would say fit a stove into an existing system.
(assume the stove is @ the other end of the house to the boiler)

Should both heat sources go to a common point and then be redistributed based on hot water/CH demand?

Cheers,
Marty

 

[Terrywookfit]

If using a neutraliser, both boilers are piped independantly into it and the heating /hot water is pumped out!
I have installed some systems that had 4 pumps running!!
Controls are different to each system and need careful consideration!

The other option is to use a thermal store!!

The installation you describe has no quick fix!!

 

[oilman]

It was installed by a qualified plumber only 2 years ago.

This is, unfortunately, no indication of any fitness for purpose. There are many diy people who could knock the spots off "plumbers"

 

[martyc]

oilman,
Im glad you said that and not me...the workmanship is usually good but unfortunately the planning is often non existant.
After recently putting a lot of work into my own heating system i have realised that more often than not heating systems in Ireland are poorly designed even on new houses.
Marty.

Anyway...how should we go about putting this right??
Ill google thermal stores...havent come across one yet.