Heating not keeping up with demand.

[ericmark]

With the cold snap it seems radiators not big enough, the boiler is still cycling so clearly could output more, but in my bedroom I see rest of house not doing too well.

Hall has 4°C difference between radiator near front door, and wall thermostat, living room 3°C between the two radiators at 90° from each other both under windows.

So what would happen if I aim a fan at the radiators? Will air movement extract more heat from radiator, or will it mean more air up flue and past windows and cool the room?

 

[ericmark]

Corner of room by TV have a remote thermometer in living room showing 18°C and 4 foot higher the thermometer is showing 21°C and I have put fan blowing on radiator the other side room, in the 10 minutes since recording and switching on fan, already temperature seems to have raised 1°C, room not really that cold but only -0.2°C outside and very little wind. Lucky as snowing.

The idea was by fitting programmable TRV heads, the central heating water could be directed to where most required, however if boiler cycling then clear not down to boiler output but radiator output, and the radiators are quite large. Old house had a Myson fan assisted which worked well, what I am considering as a simple boost fan, but no point reinventing the wheel, so wondered if some one has already tried it?

 

[stem]

Sounds like your house needs its insulation upgrading. You are loosing heat faster than you can put it back in. Better insulation will reduce your heating bill and also help the environment too.

 

[MJN]

You haven't mentioned radiator temperatures. Are they hot, really hot? (>60C) Are you able to measure the flow and return temperatures? I could certainly imagine that if the flow temp is too low (perhaps *set* too low i.e. not a fault) then you might see symptoms you've got given the current weather.

Sounds like your house needs its insulation upgrading. You are loosing heat faster than you can put it back in. Better insulation will reduce your heating bill and also help the environment too.

You make it sound so easy.

 

[ericmark]

It is on the to do list to renew the double glazed windows to modern ones with the larger gap between the glass, however Covid19 put the brakes on, as been unable to sell old house, so as yet not got the money to do all we want, radiators are hot, I will get the point and read thermometer from my wife to test temperature, but we see instructions like this which looks all well and good, until you consider two radiators mounted at 90° to each other. Also a large room, the middle floor is like this

Orange square is the wall thermostat, which could not be more central, it is hard wired using the existing wiring, the shower room/toilet radiator is the only one without a programmable TRV, however the TRV heads are not linked to wall thermostat, main problem is hall it too well insulated, in the morning turning up the temperature no problem, but at night when turning down the temperature hall is last room to cool, since no heating on while cooling clearly no adjustment to heating will help. The fire has a board in front with a round hole cut and the adaptor for the AC used in summer in hole, with lid fitted, so in summer we can use a portable AC without having a window open. So very little air goes up the flue, from the stacks of fire wood, it seems last owners used the open hearth to burn wood. And lack of any thermostat in main house when we moved in, and having to go outside and plug in the circulation pump seems to point to central heating only being used to heat flat under main house, which is now set to frost stat levels.

So was considering some thing like these to boost output, however in mean time been trying a simple small fan, with little success, fan on and fan off blowing on radiator seems to have very little effect on room temperature. And not sure I want anything permanent, as once old house is sold then will be looking at testing to see if cavity wall insulation fitted or not, and new double glazed units.

As to if fitted this summer depends on Covid19, getting tradesmen at the moment seems to be a problem, even when found they tell us what you want is this, but no stock in suppliers at the moment, so everything on hold. Hence looking for a temporary cure, even if using brewing thermostats etc.