Hello
I bought an apartment with installed UFH and ASHP. The heating system was installed in 2016, and previous owners are happy with it. However, it has no documentation about pipe lengths and needed flow rates. It's around 130 sqm, 8 zones. HP is 11kw heat power, split system, DHW tank and no buffer, feeding directly to one manifold. The issue I had initially was that there were some different temperature zones, and one zone in the kitchen was completely turned off from the flow meter because the previous owners said it was too hot. Anyway, I opened the flow meter, and in order to equalize temperatures in the zones, I rotated most of the flow meters blindly just to equalize return temperature, and because the flow meters are dirty I thought I couldn't see the flows but later I found out I could see the flows by using a light. Anyway, I completely de-balance the flow configuration without knowing the initial flows.😀 This was partially ok - now it's much better, heating is fine however I want to know what is the correct approach to balance the flow meters on unknown pipe lengths.
Here is what I did:
1. Opened all zones and flow meters to the max, noted the flow rates (as much as I can in the dirty flow meters) and they are around 0,75 to 1 L/min per zone, total flow in the manifold is around 6 L/min. The nominal water flow of the water pump is 0,52 L/sec.
2. In the HP manual, it's noted that delta T should be between 4 and 7 deg; however even with all zones opened to the max delta T is about 8 deg according to the HP temp sensors (with 35C output water) They say if delta T is higher than 7C circulation needs to increase by adding a pump eventually.
3. I just balanced the circuits without closing too much the flow rates to keep the flow in the manifold to the max (in order to decrease delta T), however, that's it - It can't go down below 8C on the HP and about 8-10C in each zone. (only bathroom zone is with delta 5-6C).
I was thinking of buying Salus auto balancing actuators, but they won't be able to reach 7C delta, so they will keep the valves open to the max. So what to do in this case? What is your advice?
Apparently, the heating is fine - the heat pump is configured with weather compensation, I turned it off only for testing today with 35C constant T. It has been working like that for 7 years and now it is also comfortable. I suspect the water pump is on the edge with the current pipe lengths, and if I need a lower delta T, I should add a pump. The filter has recently been cleaned, so it's not clogged. I can leave it like that and balance the return temperatures for the best comfort, which I more or less already did. I am only afraid that if it works with delta T more than 7C, the heat pump is not maximum efficient; however, 1C difference from the specs is not so far...