Planning new boiler & heating zones

[jpdw]

Electically driven trc actuator -tell me where to get one of these please. Or your not talking about the honeywell rf trvs are you?

Long story short, but an actuator I am looking at is made by Sauter. The long story is that the intention is to control it by some extra-low-voltage automation kit and the HA vendor re-sells this particular actuator. Another plus is that it is supposed to fit in place of a "normal" TRV (TRV4, I think), so if I move & need to remove the HA stuff then it's a dry replacement back to a "dumb" system.

Though as I put in the above reply back to bengasman, the plumbing side of the HA is our 'requirements', maybe not all reasonably realisable.

 

[bengasman]

As far as I know, a trv is not sufficient but a zone valve with separate timer and roomstat will do the job nicely. You can have all the rads in the conservatory that you want, I just meant that it seems your current piping is a chaos. I find it quicker and neater, hence better and more cost efficient in the long run to hook up some new pipes than finding all the problems with sloppy pipework

 

[htgeng]

With that type of setup you might be better to look at using a low loss header. Then each floor has its own pump and zone valve. The conservatory will have its own. If you went for a high spec boiler such as Atag Q38 then this has a dedicated output for the cylinder so you wouldn't need an additional pump for that circuit.

Also if you have a bigboystoys budget you could specify a multiple zone controller with that boiler and have full weather compensation for each individual zone rather than a simple on/off stat. That option would cost some serious ££ though and is more often used in small commercial such as nursing homes/schools.

 

[jpdw]

Also if you have a bigboystoys budget you could specify a multiple zone controller with that boiler and have full weather compensation for each individual zone rather than a simple on/off stat. That option would cost some serious ££ though and is more often used in small commercial such as nursing homes/schools.

No big budgets for the very expensive toys I'm afraid, but in small steps I think I can achieve most of this. The first step is getting the heating zoned when the boiler is changed. Initially the valves can be driven by simple stats, but they are only volt-free on-offs which quickly I'll replace with relays-based units using temp readings in rooms & hopefully also external readings for setbacks etc... Also doing stuff like "turning off" (or down) the heating the guest room when it's not needed etc,. Not quite as costly - or at least can be done in chunks to make it seem less!

Anyway, thank you to all that have contributed, as I now know that there are some additional challenges relating to the conservatory rad - plumbing it & conforming to regs - that need some further thought and working through with the plumber when we get to that stage.

 

[jpdw]

As far as I know, a trv is not sufficient but a zone valve with separate timer and roomstat will do the job nicely. You can have all the rads in the conservatory that you want, I just meant that it seems your current piping is a chaos. I find it quicker and neater, hence better and more cost efficient in the long run to hook up some new pipes than finding all the problems with sloppy pipework

So a ZV connected to my 'heating control' (timer & thermometer and big "you are killing the planet" neon) should comply building regs and also still be compliant if I move out and "dumb down" the system with a timer & stat (or prog room stat, I guess). [wheras using a TRV actuator with replacement plan of simple TRV would not comply]

I do now understand (I think) why it's best to have the consrv.rad off the same point as the rest, just need to find a suitable route for the extra pipe. ...