Help with understanding my hot water system

[elsmandino]

Hi there.

I have shown a bit of recent interest in how my central heating actually works but, having watched some videos and reading all I can on the subject, I am not quite sure as I seem to have extra pipework and connections to what I was expecting.

Could anyone possibly advise how the water from pipe A flows, please, round my system for the heat exchange in the boiler above?

Just does not appear to make sense to me.

Picture of my system below.

Just to note - you can ignore pipes F and G as they are to do with the gas.

 

[JonathanM]

Could anyone possibly advise how the water from pipe A flows, please, round my system for the heat exchange in the boiler above?

I'm not a plumber, so this could be total nonsense! But, if the boiler is above, then it looks like the flow comes down from the boiler, through the pump, to the white mid position valve, which splits the flow between the heating circuit and the hot water circuit. Pipe A turns into Pipe D and it looks like that goes to the cylinder. It returns from the cylinder in Pipe E. The other flow comes out of the left of the white valve and goes through the wall, presumably to the radiators. Then the water from the radiators returns in the unlabelled pipe in the bottom right and joins with the return from the cylinder, before going back up to the boiler in Pipe C, to be reheated. Pipe B might be a bypass.

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Looks like what is known as a 'Y plan' system. Flow from Boiler will (should!) come down the 22mm pipe to the left of the picture, into the Pump, which then pushes it out into the 3 Way Valve. This valve is controlled by 2 Thermostats, one for Room Temperature, the other strapped to the Hot Water Cylinder.

Basically then, when Programmer is set for 'On' for Central Heating, Hot water, or both, then if the appropriate State calls for heat, this energises the valve to open to allow the flow from the boiler to the appropriate port, (or both if required).

Operation of valve then activates a microswitch within the Valve Housing, that then supplies power to the Boiler and Pump in order for them to operate, hot water is then supplied from the boiler to the appropriate circuit(s), Radiators, Hot Water Cylinder or both.