lizzie

Rushes to plant room in a panic........phew its the camera angle!

@Ed Davies @newhome @PeterW @Nickfromwales I have the dymo at the ready LOL, I actually bought it way back about March ready for labelling at handover....of couse handovers never happened, I asked and was ignored. or fobbed off and distracted by other problems going on. On the timer pump theory guess it may be possible in some circs but I have a circulation pump here and I know how they work as have had before. Mine does not operate on time clocks on and off like heating controls it comes on when you turn a tap on whatever time of day and my previous system was the same. I cant imagine having a pump on a tap that would only come on between certain hours what on earth would be the point in it. The timer PeterW and newhome identified is without doubt an immersion timer, as far as I can tell it has never been set up and why would it my hot water is heated by the gas boiler immersion is only a back up (building regs perhaps) and immersion would very likely never be switched on under normal circs hence I am surmising that is why timer not apparently set up. The problem seems to me to be that the immersion has been switched on since install, water came in December so worst case scenario immersion on from December to yesterday continuously. It explains electricity bills so high the company refused my readings and said a meter test would be necessary.........I have had to monitor electricity consumption and report back, its pretty constant. Because of this high electricity useage I wondered if there was an immersion and if it was on so I asked the electrician if I had one and if so where was the switch. He pointed me at what we now know is the switch that controls the motorised valves and me switching it off on his instruction thinking it was immersion knocked the heating out. Electrician is still adamant (without coming and looking) that it is immersion switch not heating valves, have proved him wrong but I am none the wiser about where the immersion switch is and Im not going to start switching random things off I have automated lighting and god knows what I might mess up so immersion is off at trip on CU and no doubt when i check electricity consumption that will have dropped too. Be interesting to see where immersion switch actually is and how electrician deals with having told me quite stroppily I am wrong when he is shown to be wrong when he shows up. God help us if he doesnt know what is wired where!! The temperature in the plant room is noticably lower, the tank does not feel boiling hot all the time either, it feels more normal. I agree with you to install such sytems and not give the user any idea how to use them is very bad, even just marking up switches would have been a help and as you say not coming back is also not good. The electrician and UFH/MVHR installer seemed to have fallen out with each other during the job as did the electrician and the alarm company (who are lovely and did exactly what I wanted on time and at the exact price in their quote.....a rare occurance on this build!) Prima Donna’s why did I end up with them all LOL Hopefully electrician will show in next few days and I will chase MVHR/UFH installer again. I have been on to suppliers and purchased replacements for those missing bits....they are actuators on the flow valves......hopefully installer will fit them when he eventually shows up. I suspect because they all fell out with the erstwhile PM I have suffered from a knock on effect. Not right or fair but I cant think of any other explanarion. I paid them all on the nail never queried anything even though it was always more than their quotes (penalised for messing about by PM usually). I should have been tougher and not paid until they did a proper handover. All water under now I just want to get the place running as it should and never have to ask them to come again.............

@Moira Niedzwiecka mine have been included in my claim. I hope they will be accepted. Will let you know.

Thanks @Michael P and @Nickfromwales it reminded me we had missing bits. There was a little plastic bag tied to each manifold with bits to be fitted on site (manifolds come ready assembled). Sometime between heating being put on and installer coming back to finish everything the little plastic bags of bits dissappeared....best guess is labourer binned them. Installer was going to ask supplier for repacements but I guess forgot, I have emailed supplier today to ask and hopefully when installer comes back to sort the MVHR he can fit them. After all the testing etc of ufh I feel I have some understanding of the system now....only basic but hugely better than before. I am waiting for the electrician to come, he is adamant that the switch he told me is immersion is the immersion I am just as adamant that if I swith it off the UFH stops working, it clearly powers the motorised valves. He also told me that timer that @PeterW identified for me as immersion timer is a timer for a pump for hot water to the taps and is nothing to do with him plumber should have set it up! I have told him manufacturers website clearly identifies it as immersion timer....beggars belief really why would anyone have a timed pump on their taps, do you only want taps to work between certain hours! In desperation I went to the fuse board flipped the trip for the immersion so it is off (for the first time since installation I now beleive) and then put the switch he reckons was immersion on and off. If it was immersion it would have made no difference as off at board but as we have worked out it runs the motorised valves and sure enough the heating goes off when that switch is off. Have told him all this in an email and asked him to come and identify his switches (nothing is marked) and locate the immersion switch correctly. No response as yet. I feel so grateful to all you lovely people on here for all the help so freely given, without this I would still be going round in circles with misinformation and condescension from the installers ...I can almost hear the ‘stupid woman ignore her’ comments from here. I am armed with the the right info now so they better look out and get it sorted.

@newhome looks likely I will have a browse thank you

no I have a neohub timer for that. God knows how this new one works google is not coming up with any instructions

My old house one had a light too.....knew where I was with that one!

Got some white cables coming out of a box on the back of the tank but they go up inside the wall and no real clue where they go. If I ask electrician what hope of sensible answer after last one.......grrrrrr, might have to get another one in just to check things over. Does the attached look like an immersion control? Its got a clock thats an hour out. Ive never touched it and never been able to work out what it is. Its got 2 cables going into it via some trunking. The tank has 3 cables that come out and go into trunking in a different part of the room...the trunking has junctions so not sure what goes where inside. Guess I had better google the thing in the pic

Ok guys I think I have a partial answer. That switch that @PeterW and @ProDave commented on - the one the electrician told me was the immersion and to switch it off - if I flip that on the heating works with both manifolds getting warm pdq. @Nickfromwales spot on with wiring problem. So that looks like heating sorted after a thorough work out!! Now the question is where is the immersion heater switch, never ends does it!! Thank you again for all the help.

@PeterW I dont know who wired it I assume it was electrician who did everything else. However there were issues with wiring he did for boiler which plumber identified and were rectified. He had not wired in an over run and he had not done something with a 240thing which stopped the boiler running permanently. I only know about those things as they came to light when we moved in. The UFH was commissioned in December while the house was a still a building site so I have no idea who did what and how all I know is some trades told me it was very hot in the house and tilers were turning heating down as it was drying their adhesive. Others were coming in and turning it back up apparently.....its all hearsay I have never been aware of heating working since we moved in end April........house was massively hot due to heatwave then. Ive not touched the pumps again since yesterday, will rewatch the utube and see how to put them back to auto thank you. @ProDave I can only assume it was working then I dont know. Yesterday the heating worked when the valves were manual open the minute they were turned back to auto the heating reverted to not working. I would be happy just to get someone new in to replace motorised valves (plumber?) if that would sort it. If its wiring then new ones won’t fix it. I guess I need to have someone (is that plumber or electrician) check it over to establish if it is faulty valves or wiring. How likely is it that 2 motorised valves will have developed the same fault at the same time?

Only had the one electrician and he did everything..........sounds like the blame game will start next...

I'll find out! Are we talking wiring whole heatmiser system or just motorised valves please.

Thank you @Nickfromwaleselectrician not plumber by the sound of it then..... will try and get them both back or a new one I am at wits end with it. Really appreciate all the help thank you.

I'm here all day too I work at home.

Wow clearly mine is very high then. I have managed to put the motorised valves back to auto but this has caused manifolds to revert to no heat and the little red things have dropped very low on manifold 2 as has the return temp on the flow and return meters. I'm thinking I may have a faulty motorised valve? The one marked 2 was the most difficult to move, the little lever was all bent and it took a huge effort to get it shifted both ways.

Thank you - should I put back to auto at some point then?

@PeterW and @ProDave and @Triassicthank you! I have reset pumps to maximum per the video and set both motorised valves to manual open (they were on auto) and a miracle has occurred......put one zone on for each manifold and now have hot pipes in both and can hear pumps running, Not had that before so looks like we are getting sorted. Will let it run for an hour and see if we start melting. The motorised valves were really tricky, very stiff, do you think they might need replacing?

The vent is open I have not felt any air coming out of it though, I have been checking them periodically.

@Nickfromwales and @PeterW and @newhomeI have spent a good part of last evening and all day today testing the system per instructions........... down to off then on one by one up to to 35 degrees and only one on at any one time with a cool down in between.....I am dizzy in more ways than one! TRV set at 40 on both manifolds. Upshot is the whole things seems mad. I have established which zone is which on the manifolds (my hand done scribbles attached) BUT and this is the very confusing thing the manifold that has a zone switched on is cold, cold pipes, cold pump and no change to stat/temp in house in that zone, lights on heatmiser hub show power on, boiler on, valve on but nothing is happening other than actuators are up and corresponding little red things have an almost imperceptible jiggle, so slight you really have to look to see it. However the other manifold (no zones on) is boiling hot, no lights on the heatmiser other than power light, no pump on, no anything other than very hot pipes and boiler going full pelt (temp to heating on boiler display over 70 ) ...in fact boiler got so hot at one stage it shut down for a while. I thought it must be a problem with one manifold but no it happens with both of them. One manifold is in plant room the other is in my bedroom so a good distance apart. On the manifold where a zone is calling for heat the two little dials - flow and return - are the same. On the other manifold where no heat is being called for but its hot as hades there is a differential between flow and return. This happened with every individual zone on both manifolds. The app and stats all seem to be working on the face of it but they are clearly not and I have no heat anywhere at all. The house temps are reading 25 but thats because its very warm and humid here today with storm going on. The house temps have not changed by more than half a degree since yesterday no matter what I have done with the UFH. Definitely very confused.com now Thank you all for any advice and your contributions so far. ufhzones1.pdf

A howling gale here in the Midlands but we are very exposed on the top of the ridgeway so get it worse than most.

I am devoting tomorrow to testing will report back. Thank you all.

Oh dear, I recall yours was an absolute nightmare....yes he was suggested by Robbens and he seemed very competent....to someone who knows absolutely nothing about plumbing!

Hi Guys - internet now restored! Back to questions/answers. Sorry for delay. @PeterW that switch is immersion so I am told. It was on for months, I asked electrician what it was (by text and photo - quickest way) in case it was contributing to large bills and he replied it was immersion so switched it off a few weeks ago. @Nickfromwales I have two small tanks and a giant hot water tank. Not sure either of these is related to heating though. I have not been able to get at manifolds until now as carpenter has been here building cupboards to hide them in my bedroom. I left the floor in the en suite set to 28 before I went out at 10AM just back and floor still showing 24 on stat which is where it was before I went out its not moved at all. The blue bit on the actuator is up but all pipes are cold. The other manifold in the plant room - all pipes are very hot no lights on other than ther power light and there has been no call for heat in any of those zones this morning so I cant understand why all is so hot. Boiler shows radiator symbol at 65 and is firing. Guess that is for bathroom floor even though it is not any warmer than it was 6 hours ago. On bedroom manifolds I have TRV set to 50degrees (72) and flow and return dials are even at 72 each but stat for temp not moved at all since I left. Have now put bedroom floor on to see if that helps in case of fault on bathroom zone. Little blue bit is up on actuator but guess will have to wait a while to see if any warmh appears on floor. Can't understand plant room stuff being red hot when nothing is on calling for heat. I have a quieter day at home tomorrow so will try @Nickfromwales suggestions on turning it all on and off etc. The boiler is a Vailiant Ecofit Pure 418 Regular boiler. I have a Vailiant Unistor 250l unvented hot water tank and one of the small tanks is called Altenic reflex 18L heating expansion vessel. Thats the smaller lower down tank with a mesh type metal pipe in the photo. Both small tanks are cold. The bigger one seems to go the hot water tank the smaller one seems to connect to the main via that flexible metal pipe and there is a copper pipe going into the wall. The small one also has a pressure gauge. I have no problem with hot water it is hot and plentiful I only have water heating for 2 hours a day in the morning and that is more than enough for us. I did e-mail installer again yesterday but as yet no response, its nigh on impossible to get him on the phone but his wife usually picks up the e-mails so I live in hope!

@PeterWAre any of these any good, I have no idea what I am looking for sorry!

@PeterW nothing from installer yet. I have no idea on buffer - where would I look for that please?