Central heating design question

[judesudbury]

Hi there -
In the process of doing some work on the floors upstairs, I've noticed that there are two radiator loops - 3 rads on one and 4 on another. There's also a loop downstairs (with 22mm pipe feeding the D/S circuit). System is regular fully pumped open vent system. Should I join the two circuits upstairs to make one circuit or should I leave it? i.e. is it ok to design a system like this (it was clearly a DIY effort by previous owner of the house), will it make balancing harder?

Many thanks,
Jude

 

[GaytonTonner]

I am assuming you have three floors, which you do not state. It the professional way to do it. It makes balancing easier and easier to zone by splitting the floors into separate time and temperature zones that work independently of each other. A zone valve is fitted in each loop. Three clocks and three thermostats or three programmer stats - which can be wireless for ease of fitting.

You can have downstairs on and the rest off and time them to come on only at bedtimes. If you want to use upstairs when they are off, the you switch on that floor, then switch it off after. This saves a heck of a lot of gas.

 

[judesudbury]

I am assuming you have three floors, which you do not state. It the professional way to do it. It makes balancing easier and easier to zone by splitting the floors into separate time and temperature zones that work independently of each other. A zone valve is fitted in each loop. Three clocks and three thermostats or three programmer stats - which can be wireless for ease of fitting.

You can have downstairs on and the rest off and time them to come on only at bedtimes. If you want to use upstairs when they are off, the you switch on that floor, then switch it off after. This saves a heck of a lot of gas.

Thanks for the reply. I've just got a regular two storey 3 bed semi. Nothing as sophisticated as multiple independent zones, just one room stat downstairs. Going back to my original question - the pipework for upstairs has two loops (on the same floor). One loop supplies the front wall and the second loop supplies the back wall. Is it ok to leave it like this, or should I join the two loops together? I've got some ceilings/ floors missing, so now would be an ideal opportunity to do this.

Many thanks,
Jude

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

If it works, dont fix it.

 

[MJN]

Your use of the term 'loops' is intriguing - are you saying that the radiators are plumbed in series i.e. the return of one goes into the flow of the other? (They ought to be plumbed in parrellel with each other so if they're not that's an issue that deserves addressing)

Mathew