zoothorn

Joe installers months since refused to communicate. So I got onto 1) the dept who oversaw govt scheme, to ask to contact installers (didn't get much joy/ no response back to me).. then & the only plausible way to get leak fixed, by 2) contacting Vaillant for umpteenth time, to pressure THEM to contact the Co (who sub contracted installation, to my installers). This did the trick. Blood from a stone. Huge persistance. So installers didn't want anything to do with fixing leak. So, there was never a hope in hell of explaining it's their 'fault' what they proposed & installed is not performing (let alone demanding x&y): as I say till cows come home, it is not their fault either if this house is SO cold; & its partly my fault I agreed to it, &, I knew 100% it wouldn't be able to heat this 'old' house. I knew no CH system will as its got no insulation (unless a HUGE wallop of heat introduced, wherby a CH system is different & not its purpose). I only ever expected it to heat my 2 new rooms. So (only via Vaillant) this visit on friday by 'installers' was at last agreed to. Actually just a solo plumber came, not part of the install team at all, saw immediately X was connected wrong > tallied with Vaillant (I demanded their notes to have ready prior to his visit, to ensure what he proposed tallied: it did woohoo: fix job well done).

You wouldn't believe it.. last night woken 3x by the system coming on. 3.20, 4.30, 6.10am. After engineer here on thurs to install these '2 new boards'. Seven months of this. 8x engineer visits. Still doing it. This time its 'live indicator' saying at the time "HEATING. HEAT COMPRESSOR ACTIVE". The moon symbol is there/ the setback temp set as has been to 10*C/ the room temp is 12.5*C at 3.20am. I cannot deal with this anymore. So no hallelujah after all. Can you f****ng believe this wretched thing?? I did get the water leak/ low pressure fiasco -finally- fixed on friday. One small result Ive waited 7 months for, installers responsible for this (incorrect linking up to expansion vessel). Massive effort, calls, emails, threats of xyz suggested on here I threw at them. Appalling just this, but nothing compared to this infernal system coming on overnight dabacle. Nothing. Joe you've been 100% right from months ago, it is not fot fir purpise. And if I'd paid for it I'd be in more dismay than I am, and likely have had it removed/ taken Vaillant to small claims court, claimed on insurance? I don't know. But bc its foc, & I have zero funds to replace it I have no choice but keep battling. The dept who oversaw the whole govt scheme, whom Ive made call after call to, (to get him to try putting pressure on installer Co to fix leak) offered to 'have it removed for you' if thats what you want. Not that Im offered anything to replace it tho, it'd have to spend many thousands for something to replace it.. which I don't have. So I'm stuck with it you see.. fot fir porpoise or nit.

Yup, once I fit new door I may get a jot more heat contained in this new bedroom. But the thick blanket's doing a good job, all holes filled with pillows, & I can feel has helped (I even wonder if its doing a better job than the door will tbh). So I'm confident now, finally, I have sufficient loft insulation + sufficient barrier to my adjacent old bedroom to determine how this CH system -can- perform. And it gets to 18.5*C in here. Ok. But not before 3pm ish. Now 11am for eg, its 16.3* in here. So it takes from 6.30 am............ to 2pm to get this new room up near desired temp (set to 18.5*C). Ive tried setting it to 22*C to see if rads get going better, but the same results/ they don't "run any faster". The rest of the 'old' and 'older' house is n/a in terms of how effective the CH can be as I explained (its just too cold) ie @ 3pm in kitchen its 13.3* ..same temp at 9am. It is not capable of getting warm using a 'normally hot' wall radiator. So I will -never- be able to "get the house warmed up". I've run it all day for weeks from 6.30am > 9pm (@ average 19*C desired temp). ONLY the 2x new rooms get warm, & are therefore likely capable of this theoretical "get the house warmed up" situation, to aide my CH system, because, they have insulation. If the rest of the house doesn't, you just cannot expect it to be capable of "getting warmed up" (unless the jet engine introduced idea). There is a possible way to "get the house warmed" of course.. by introducing a massive ammount of heat (a totally hyperthetical idea, like a huge outdoor burner thing flat out for 12hrs). But in reality, there just isn't in most of -this- house.

Yup understood. But your house is well insulated (I assume). Mine.. well only 2 rooms are. In theory. I'm not complaining about CH's (in)abilities in rooms other than the 2 new ones. It cannot possibly heat these older 5x rooms (so my main 1830 room big shell [tho it does its best to, helped by a very low ceiling] my 2x 80's extentions ungodly cold). They're just too cold. Look: Today kitchen (CH on 6.30 flow temp 55*!) @ 8.30am = 13.3*. @ 6am it was = 12.7*. I do not blame the CH, if the insulation is non-existant. My bathroom 8.30am = 9.3*. Now if temp at 5pm is just 9.7* then the Q of having rads on at all (if you can't even feel any difference), in these 2x very cold rooms, is surely worthy to ask. But I'll give your weeks' idea a go, of course. Right, new bedroom [this is the only worthwhile test of the CH, new fairly-well insulated room]. @ 6am = 12.9*. If at 8.30am big rad on since 6.30am: if I measure only 14.6*, then even in here with the benefit in 2hrs @ 8AM of just 1.2*.. asking is it worth it in here too is also a worthy Q surely? Yes it can get warm'ish by 4pm (CH on in day to nominal 18.5*) to say 17.8* lingering well enough to 11.30pm that I'm ok at this part of the day (prooving the room's sufficiently, if not perfectly, insulated). So it works ok.. given 8 hrs rads on 1st! But this is the rub: I need heat primarily/ fundamentally, at 8am. Not 4pm & I do not want to pay out nor have the rads on all hrs overnight to achieve this (I don't like sweating overnight/ I don't like any rad on overnight, nor the wasteful knowledge of many rads on when I don't want them on, nor the funds to run it 24/7).. so its mostly, but not totally, hopeless. So any complaint I have is --discounting-- these 5x rooms. Because I just dont blame it having a rad nice and hot on for many hours, as is proven, in a tiny bathroom which has such cold walls & floor.. that

@Onoff no sorry my photo is misleading, hinge just plonked on for idea of how far in it should go, and not even on the correct side here (it'll go on the other 'front' side, 3x of them on the ledges.. unless 2x is recommended instead). So in your photo, mine will be different: as you exit new room, up 3x steps the door's ledge & brace side visible (& thumb latch will have to be on the LHS the only caveat), and door will open away into the old bedroom, with hinges on the RHS as you walk thru. The hinges will be in old bedroom side (the architrave side) with the 'front' of the door this side, and the wee latch thing on the RHS.. which will look a bit odd but no choice. So my ledge side of door.. will sit on the plant-ons. This is 'goofy' as it were (snowboard talk, I think).

@PeterW ok understood, & I will try now its 'fixed' for as long as is neccessary/ 2 weeks or so. But I have to have a fan heater on as well as the rad in both my kitchen and bathroom: i take the thing from one room to another its essential or I'll freeze my butt off (cannot have a shower without it on at dial 3/4). Now in kitchen here: rad been hot all day (CH set to 20*) & fan on too & running on dial 2/3rds way up.. & Im still in a wooly hat & scarf, my legs cold my nose is cold! So tbh I just dont see the point of having the rad on too. The temp in my bathroom right now is 9.7*C. It was 9.3* stone cold at 8am (no rad on all night, rad only just turned on at 8am due to noise issue). This will not change just bc I leave the CH on for a week. It'll still be 9.5C. My plums are so constantly retreating I'm actually worried my voice has started to go 'a bit falsetto'.

Yup sorry my pic was only meant to show hinge, not also where its going. So they'll go on the other side of course, & @ the 3x ledge positions (I guess is sensible.. or do I put the lowest one up a bit-?). So m5x 40mm maybe. nice slotted ones ideally, but seem £alot more than philips. thanks.

@joe90 thanks/ gives me a good start. Do you think I might need longer & maybe m5? if my ledges are 25mm.. don't I want them to go thru this, & onward into the t&g (20mm thick) a bit too? or is say M5 x 30mm ott..

"Two new boards, waiting to come from germany.." they kept telling me ProDave. Yeah right I thought/ surely not made just for me-? BS. But an issue in all units (afaict) rectified by making new circuit boards, & getting das engleesman engineers to install in all units sold. afaict. Very costly surely. & not very german is it.

Longest fight Ive had. monumental effort. Got yet another engineer visit tmrw.. to fix leak (water pressure etc)! again tho fingers x'd. Not ideal having cardiff young chaps from cardiff/ swansea area come out again & again in current climate tho is it.. Screws: my black hinges didn't come with any, & my fab diy shop I can test a screw for size, is shut (no plant pots in town too! bah). So could you advise? hinges have quite big 6mm W holes, with top of countersunk splayed bit 10mm W. thx zH

But if I'm getting such little results even having it on at all, I can't see therefore any point putting it on for 24/7. I hate to think what the CH has cost me so far for the ~6 months. I see your idea tho, try get the 'core' of house warm. But I just don't think (certainly I'm adamant of this in the 2 rooms warmth most needed -kitchen/ bathroom- & by bad luck the worst insulated rooms of all) that the house is capable of benefitting from this exercise. The two new rooms I think would, but I just can't afford to run all 8x rads effectively to keep two new rooms warm. It seems I'm better off ditching the CH, run 1x leccy heater in workshop (seems easily to get toasty so maybe a diddy 500w ok) & a bigger 1kw one for new bedroom above. So what I had before, just shifting my 2 leccy rads I removed, to the new extention.. instead of in bathroom/ kitchen where I had a suspicion were useless due to the huge cold in these rooms (now today I have proof using your thermometre). I'll see how I go with CH on from 6.30am for a week tho. Decide then. Main thing is awful incessant pump noise stopped!! hallelujah. fingers x'd mind. Chap today told me many complaining of same thing, & an acknowledgement by Vaillant of a mfr defect!! so at last I'm vindicated!! blimey now they say. I've been fighting fighting for months in the belief it was only me, screwed my head up with effort to sort out, & stress that Id never get rid of it (let alone stress of it waking me)/ it was normal & Im only one complaining/ everyone else must just put up with it etc. Relief. Thanks zH.

Hi Peter, hny to you.. thing's moving indeed: just today Vaillant here (CH pump noise overnight debacle) & fingers x'd finally resolved. So can leave system on overnight, ie so rads can come on from 6.30am again. But.. it makes no difference in kitchen, bathroom tho: I measured temp in bathroom today (first time done in here) 8am 9.3*. Ok so no rad on since 6.30 am, but at 2pm (rad on hot since Chap went 11am) 9.4*. Just now.. still 9.4*. So in these two adjacent rooms the CH is completely innefective. So I'll turn these rads off, just use fan heater as Im used to doing. That's how bad this house is. As I can just put up with new bedroom at 12.7* no rad on 8am (today, coldest yet).. there's very little point putting CH on at all!!

Ok will start this later/ off to find emergency plant pots! But the hinges: so I 1st fix to the door (presumably) with hinge pivoty mid bit just off door edge? or just on it? Then its where to attatch hinges to, on the frame. Ok my architrave strips are on perp onto the door frame.. so do I need to whittle out sections of it to fit hinges to? (so when door's closed the hinge is all on the same "plane").. or can I fit hinges perp to this, onto the inside of the frame itself? IE do I have a choice where hinge fixes to, frame side?

Aha ok that makes sense. Right hinge here ( not fixed obviously). 10" long the door side: i hope with 3x instead of 2x like my other bedroom doors i think 12" jobs, they'll be sufficient. Door is bit thicker @ 20mm (plus 25mm ledges, chosen just in case I need to put PIR on the back).

Hi Onoff. I do recall the suggestion, but now coming back to this info actually doing the job, I can't quite understand it. Ok firstly I'm not painting it/ leaving natural as other doors are, it'll darken over time (& less faff too). Its the '1st close door > then offer plant ons up to it' idea I can't see how (to close door without plant-on there 1st) at the moment.

Ok so you're proposing not fit the plant-on stops next then. I understand your reasoning to hang door 1st/ to get the more ideal fit onto the stops.. but I don't know how I can hang it & position it etc, without it falling fwd into room without the stops being there 1st to help me.

@joe90 or @PeterW or @Onoff I'm just continuing with the door fit. What to do next.. Ive got it trimmed best I can do, hopefully 1mm above carpet or so opening out, 4mm gap to frame above (2mm gap hinge side, 4mm gap latch side). I expect it expand a bit, being a very moist climate (black mould @ french door reveals already formed), so given an extra few mm's up/ down: I assume this is the more likely 'axis' it'll expand rather than the ledged L to R. Ok is the next step to whack on my frame plant-on 3x strips? @ exact 20mm depth, as per my door thickness? I guess so.. but just checking 1st. Then Ive got a stop all round, to offer door up very exactly using placcy packers I think is the idea. thanks, zH

@JFDIY gdn centres & our only diy place very shut here west wales.. gotta try pound shops. Yup plug cutter off ebay it is, thanks. Need to use in a hand drill tho/ no pillar drill, maybe a router but needs a 1/4" shaft exactly/ unlikely.

Haha yes, hi Peter HNY to you. Ive had a super lazy xmas, couldnt get myself going after it, the door job didnt inspire me out of a january lazy gloomy fug.. but pulled finger out this week, made it. Great clip, just the thing i need a 10mm one of those plug cutters then, simple as. Very useful thanks.

Hi joe HNY. Actually new bedroom is just about ok without a rad on 1st thing am, 14.5* or so ( luxury compared to my old bedroom next door).. its running the gauntlet down to terribly cold kitchen and bathroom next to it is the trial.. too tiny to get any other heater in bathroom bar my trusty £5 fan like your one, but not safe to put on timer me other end of house really. So i lump it.

@Onoff hi Onoff, I'll look into this.. need to watch clip to see how they're undercut to understand the idea. Good suggestion im sure yet again.. no lidl, shops very shut tho. cheers zoot

Well ive got better results in new top bedroom MJN, heat contained better.. so huge relief tbh, & sorted just in time for this cold snap. Loft refluff (held up by plant pots at the mo.. to go over downlights.. needed before i can put rest of fluff in.. shops shut) and thick blanket for a temp door, both done the trick. Thank god no awful back cold thing since rejig. Still not a warm room mind you, like below. But, still need to turn whole CH system off 9 pm until i wake/ turn on again, means super cold in mornings until 10am when it gets a bit of heat going. Brass monkeys, porridge and swearing for breakfast.

Hi chaps, happy new year. I've made my brace & ledge door, trimmed to fit as best I can do. So just to fill my screw holes.. got a shock with price of 'endgrain plugs' @ £ 17. Any other ideas i could use? 10 mm flat bit I've used to countersink screw heads 5 mm deep or so. Ive seen somewhere an eg of making them with a whatnot, but what whatnot's not very clear. zh

@joe90 I thought those plugs were always just wood filler.. never knew of 'plugs'. Ok so i have my 40mm x 4 goldscrews which get me almost all way into the t&g, with head recessed 5mm into the back ledges/ braces: can I then plug these? is it just a flat bit to dig out the 5mm/ plug, instead of countersinking the hole then?

I physically can't, well not in the position I need the door within the door frame. I think you mean shifting a door to within the room, sort of closing off the steps/ sliding twds bed.. would intrude in the room, & not the looks I want in here, & leaves the fitted frame redundent too. I think I have the idea now, simply opening away from room, & wood to do it.. & seems simple on paper, but not quite so esp hauling it up & down tight stairs to fettle it. My frame isn't perfectly plumb & a slight bow-out in its midrift hinge side (LHS now), header isn't bad. thanks tho.