Stoneblade Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Hi all, Been a avid reader of the forums for many years, learnt a lot, thanks. But need to ask for some help on our current system. Moved into a top floor flat (in Cornwall) about 2 years ago and for the past 2 winters have had a cold flat! The flat consists of open plan kitchen/lounge, 2 bedrooms, hall and a bathroom (added heated towel rail to help). Each room is zoned. It is powered by a Daiken Altherma 6kw, which is about 11 years old now, with a small hot water storage tank. I also have a MVHR installed due to getting quite a bit of condensation. Have made a few changes this year with adding salus auto balancing actuators and Heatmiser NeoStat to each room. It takes about 6 hours to feel anything through the floor or the air temp to move a degree. It is costing us a bomb to heat this small flat. I have tried weather compensation to save some electric but takes even longer to heat up. I have tried leaving on for a few days without set backs and still struggles. I've found the original design diagram for the system and it states 50c flow temp, does this mean it has to be set at 50c flow temp for it to work correctly?? My ASHP would struggle to get to that. I'm wondering if they have designed to a boiler instead of a ASHP in the original stages? I have attached the original manifold and flow rate diagram, plus the pipe floor plan. I also noticed that the manifold doesn't match real life, i.e. port 1 = bedroom 1, port 2 = bedroom 2, 3 = bathroom, 4+5+6 = Lounge/Living room, 7 = Hallway I am also finding that the auto balancing actuators are a bit hit and miss, and not sure they are compatible with ASHP. Either they are fully open or seen them sometimes fully closed. I have tried contacting Salus who originally sent out a new updated firmware version, but still the same issue. I have also recalibrated on several occasions following the steps given on this forum and the tech support. don't know where else to start, ready to pull my hair out, well the little I have left haha. Any pointers would be gratefully received. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnMo Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 No issue with auto balancing actuators with heat pump. But does look like the UFH pipes have very little insulation below. UFH is very slow by nature, mine can run for a very long time to make any difference. I would dump the zones and operate as a single zone, run very long (all day) at low temps. Try to switch on and off at low flow temperature just doesn't work. How do you operate? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joth Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 9 minutes ago, Stoneblade said: powered by a Daiken Altherma 6kw, which is about 11 years old now At that age, this is probably not inverter driven so will have little to no modulation range. If so, it either needs a large buffer to batch charge up, or replacing with something a little less antiquated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoneblade Posted January 9 Author Share Posted January 9 @JohnMo Would making 1 big zone mean getting rid of all the thermostats and just having 1? Or still have the separate ones but if any call for heat they open all zones? @joth No Idea if it has an inverter. I have attached the details of the ASHP below. Ive got one loop in the hall always on now, but guessing this isn't enough? Thanks for the replies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnMo Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 45 minutes ago, Stoneblade said: Would making 1 big zone mean getting rid of all the thermostats and just having 1? Or still have the separate ones but if any call for heat they open all zones You can do either way. I would wind them all a couple of degs hotter than you need for now. Leave the UFH on for 24hrs and see what happens. Just do a set flow temp for now say 35. If the temperature starts to drop after 12 hrs add a couple of degrees to the flow temperature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceverge Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Are you sure the heat pump is working and it's not just operating on the back up immersion? Is it cycling a lot? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoneblade Posted January 9 Author Share Posted January 9 (edited) @JohnMo I have tried before with leaving the system on for 24hrs, even at a lower temperature, it never seems to increase in temperature in the rooms. I rang nuheat (who designed the system) earlier and they told me the system is designed to have a flow of 50c for the heat loss? lol Im at a loss let alone heat. @Iceverge is working, compressor symbols are displayed on the control panel and heats the water and the manifold is hot. I don't think these units have back up heats, only internal to the water tank when it does the sanitise process. It tends to go on for 10 mins and then turn off for about 5 and then back on. Would this this be classed as fast cycling? Edited January 9 by Stoneblade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnMo Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Top floor flat, downward heat loss should be arrested by the flat below. 16 minutes ago, Stoneblade said: rang nuheat (who designed the system) earlier and they told me the system is designed to have a flow of 50c That sounds like a throw away statement. Ignore for now, although it says that on the drawing. What are your floor coverings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoneblade Posted January 9 Author Share Posted January 9 9 minutes ago, JohnMo said: Top floor flat, downward heat loss should be arrested by the flat below. That sounds like a throw away statement. Ignore for now, although it says that on the drawing. What are your floor coverings? That's what I thought when they said that. I said I've read in most references to underfloor heating, low and slow. We have laminate throughout the flat. Has a thin foam underlay. Though the floor isn't exactly flat, so may be a gap of a few mm every so often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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