If I could have some advice from the knowledgeable people of DIYNOT I’d be extremely grateful.
We have a converted chalet bungalow – c.1955. The heating up in the loft is fine, the heating in the new kitchen is fine. The heating in the old part of the house, especially the back rooms, isn’t the best. It takes a while for the heat to actually get around to the rads, and even then they never get that hot (the TRVs remain on 5, but remain tepid at best).
We’ve had a few heating engineers around, and none of them have been able to diagnose it (one slight caveat is the solid oak flooring, which I’d prefer not to take up!). There’s no sludge in the radiators or pipes – they’ve been cleaned, and there’s inhibitor in there.
Personally I think the old house is on a single circuit, so all the heat is dissipated before it gets to the latter rads. So the heat seems to go into the circuit via the downstairs bathroom, then the lounge, then the hall, then bedroom 3, then bedroom 4, then the study, and back to the boiler. Bedroom 4 and the study are the coldest. But if I turn the heating off in the lounge (when the stove is going say) they get hotter. Turn the hall and bathroom off, and they get hotter still.
Due to the time it takes for those rads to get up to temp, we seem to run the boiler longer than I think we should. The rest of the house gets too warm, and those two rooms are just starting to get to temperature. Coupled with the fact bedroom 4 and the study don’t get the sun, they’re often cold and damp compared with the rest of the house. Not good for sitting in the study, or in fact sleeping in the bedroom.
We now have the chance to set up a separate circuit for those two rads – the boiler/HWC has been moved into the bedroom above the two rooms. So we could take a spur, run some boxed in pipes down the wall, and feed those two radiators. This would obviously heat these two rooms up more; stopping the damp etc. Allow the heat to dissipate around that end of the house. Hopefully this would also enable the radiator in bedroom 3 – which is a lot lot better than the those two, but not 100% - to get warmer, as less heat would be needed further on around the original circuit.
What do people think? Would I be on right track about the single circuit, and taking two radiators off it would heat the others up more? It would obviously heat those two rooms up that need it the most, which would be good.
Or is there something else I should be looking at? Something else that could be the issue?
On a completely separate note; Worcester Bosch boilers and softened water. WB say no softened water past the heat exchanger. Harvey’s water softeners say it’s not a problem, and if there’s ever an issue they’ll pay. Again, what are people’s thoughts?
Many thanks
We have a converted chalet bungalow – c.1955. The heating up in the loft is fine, the heating in the new kitchen is fine. The heating in the old part of the house, especially the back rooms, isn’t the best. It takes a while for the heat to actually get around to the rads, and even then they never get that hot (the TRVs remain on 5, but remain tepid at best).
We’ve had a few heating engineers around, and none of them have been able to diagnose it (one slight caveat is the solid oak flooring, which I’d prefer not to take up!). There’s no sludge in the radiators or pipes – they’ve been cleaned, and there’s inhibitor in there.
Personally I think the old house is on a single circuit, so all the heat is dissipated before it gets to the latter rads. So the heat seems to go into the circuit via the downstairs bathroom, then the lounge, then the hall, then bedroom 3, then bedroom 4, then the study, and back to the boiler. Bedroom 4 and the study are the coldest. But if I turn the heating off in the lounge (when the stove is going say) they get hotter. Turn the hall and bathroom off, and they get hotter still.
Due to the time it takes for those rads to get up to temp, we seem to run the boiler longer than I think we should. The rest of the house gets too warm, and those two rooms are just starting to get to temperature. Coupled with the fact bedroom 4 and the study don’t get the sun, they’re often cold and damp compared with the rest of the house. Not good for sitting in the study, or in fact sleeping in the bedroom.
We now have the chance to set up a separate circuit for those two rads – the boiler/HWC has been moved into the bedroom above the two rooms. So we could take a spur, run some boxed in pipes down the wall, and feed those two radiators. This would obviously heat these two rooms up more; stopping the damp etc. Allow the heat to dissipate around that end of the house. Hopefully this would also enable the radiator in bedroom 3 – which is a lot lot better than the those two, but not 100% - to get warmer, as less heat would be needed further on around the original circuit.
What do people think? Would I be on right track about the single circuit, and taking two radiators off it would heat the others up more? It would obviously heat those two rooms up that need it the most, which would be good.
Or is there something else I should be looking at? Something else that could be the issue?
On a completely separate note; Worcester Bosch boilers and softened water. WB say no softened water past the heat exchanger. Harvey’s water softeners say it’s not a problem, and if there’s ever an issue they’ll pay. Again, what are people’s thoughts?
Many thanks
