Hi all,
My UFH has been working for 13 years but in the recent cold snap I noticed that the ground floor was not getting as warm as normal. I've never really had to pay the UFH much attention as it has been working since I moved in to the house 7 years ago.
I have UFH with a direct feed to the manifold from a gas fired boiler together with HW heated using a thermal store.
My manifold is a GIacomini R557.
Trying to solve the problem, I opened and closed the thermostat valve a few times and noticed the temperature gauge on the manifold changed from 34 to 40 degrees. I suspected debris in the valve or a faulty valve and so have ordered a new valve. There was a couple of small leaks from the manifold pipework and so after changing the valve and fixing the leaks I will bleed the system. If that doesn't work, I guess the pump might be on it's way out but wanted to check the cheaper options first!
While looking at the problem I noticed that the return line to the boiler the temperature of the pipe was 50 degrees and on the supply pipe it was 35! The flow upper side of the manifold is cooler than the return lower side of the manifold.
I can't follow the pipes to know for sure but it looks to me like it has been plumbed in the wrong way round! I can't think of any other reason and having talked with Giacomini they have said that the system would work if it was plumbed in back to front although not as efficiently as it should do.
I was hoping someone might be able to help, by suggesting another reason for the return being hotter than the supply or if they have seen it plumbed in like that before for a specific reason.
It does look pretty straightforward to swap over the pipes but as its been working for so long I'm a little hesitant!
Any advice or help will be much appreciated, thanks!