My Nightmare Heating System

[PeterW]

How many zones are there in the house out of interest ..? Is it one per room..??

[newhome]

2 minutes ago, PeterW said:

How many zones are there in the house out of interest ..? Is it one per room..??

 

When you say zones. Do you mean UFH loops?  Or the number of room thermostats? 

[Nickfromwales]

How many room stats? eg how many individually controllable heating 'sections' / rooms. 

[newhome]

11 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

How many room stats? eg how many individually controllable heating 'sections' / rooms. 

 

14 I think, and 1 more that needs connecting ....... 

[PeterW]

5 minutes ago, newhome said:

 

14 I think, and 1 more that needs connecting ....... 

 

 

[Bitpipe]

Scotland's lovely this time of year @Nickfromwales...

[Nickfromwales]

3 minutes ago, Bitpipe said:

Scotland's lovely this time of year @Nickfromwales...

Pm's are being exchanged

[Ferdinand]

@newhome

 

Re your hand burning experiences.

 

A remote thermometer is cheap and may be useful. Eg from Amazon 9.99 - cheap as chips.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermometer-Tacklife-58℉-1022℉-Temperature-Adjustable/dp/B01MFGU4P9/ref=lp_6286456031_1_4?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1519364643&sr=1-4

 

A little cheaper if you look on eBay, but Amazon will probably get it there quicker ... next day with Prime.

 

Your local Maplin or similar may have one or similar if you have a local Maplin.

 

Ferdinand

 

 

 

 

[SteamyTea]

Did I miss anything

[Trw144]

@SteamyTea I ve just caught up myself - I had to go to bed before the climax.  Can’t wait for the next episode, in a nutshell I think we re going to be crowdfunding @Nickfromwales to be parachuted into Scotland to go on his mission. I would imagine he s also going to need a little Snatch Land Rover dropped in with his tools and some vodka.

 

Episode 3 will be based around @Nickfromwales buying his new suit and going to meet Carol Vorderman at the Pride of Britain Awards.

Edited February 23, 2018 by Trw144

[Triassic]

Epic. Don’t you just love this forum!

 

I have a feeling it won’t be long before the system is working as it should.

 

Let’s hope we don’t have to wait twelve months for the next instalment.

[Trw144]

14 minutes ago, Trw144 said:

@SteamyTea I ve just caught up myself - I had to go to bed before the climax.  Can’t wait for the next episode, in a nutshell I think we re going to be crowdfunding @Nickfromwales to be parachuted into Scotland to go on his mission. I would imagine he s also going to need a little Snatch Land Rover dropped in with his tools and some vodka.

 

Episode 3 will be based around @Nickfromwales buying his new suit and going to meet Carol Vorderman at the Pride of Britain Awards. He becomes a minor celebrity before going on to replace Nick Knowles on DIY SOS. ?

 

[SteamyTea]

Lot more compelling that 'The Non-Adventures of Rollo'.

[Gone West]

Wendy thinks we should all hire a charabanc and go up there so we can pass the spanners, make tea etc and see the action in real time. We wouldn't be able to offer any useful advice just moral support.

[newhome]

If not quite Apollo 13 

 

 

[newhome]

2 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

@newhome

 

Re your hand burning experiences.

 

A remote thermometer is cheap and may be useful. Eg from Amazon 9.99 - cheap as chips.

 

 

Cheers, have ordered!

 

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, newhome said:

If not quite Apollo 13

More Team America I think

 

 

[Ferdinand]

I thought we were getting leery of hi-tech and Les Grands Complications.

 

This is more like it, perhaps, for us non-pros like me.

 

(They seem to be sensitive about actual recordings.)

 

 

Edited February 23, 2018 by Ferdinand

[newhome]

A wee update on today’s heating trials and tribulations. 

 

First thing this morning, with a single room stat on downstairs and the 3 cylinder stats all set to 70 both manifolds upstairs were warm (they were cold yesterday when the cylinder stats were turned right down and every room stat was turned off).  One was at 20 degrees and the other 30. On the basis that they were warm anyway I turned on the room stats in 2 of the bedrooms (one from each manifold) to see if the heating works at all upstairs. I’ve just gone up to check some 10 hours later and both rooms have only risen by 1 degree which I imagine could be explained by the ambient temperature. So all heating upstairs is fecked I think. Lucky I have a leccy blanket! 

 

With the boiler at 65 the TS was only getting to 45 so I turned it up to 70 and it went to 50. Now with the boiler at 75 the TS has made it to 54. The hot water for showers is better at 60 from experience but I guess I’d have to have the boiler at about 80-90 for that so I’ll leave it be for now. 

 

I think it’s harsh to blame one cock for all of the issues as there have been a number of cocks here fiddling with things but CTS installer is probably chief cock because he fecked up more than most. Most of the others just fiddled with what was there. 

 

Tomorrow when the thermometer hopefully arrives (thanks @Ferdinand) I can report temps of pumps etc. without burning my hand! 

 

New screwdrivers arrived (Amazon Prime rocks) and a T20 was perfect for removing the boxing over the meters. Here they are in all their glory! 

 

@Nickfromwales should the 4 red thingies still be set to max? 

 

 

 

[newhome]

@JSHarris I found the instructions for that softener thing. Any advice please? I’m not sure if I even need it the thing as It’s been switched off, and when I got a new dishwasher recently the water hardness test strip it arrived with didn’t even register the slightest hardness. 

 

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Ok, so what you have is a 5u pre filter, plus a refillable phosphate dosing water treatment cartridge.  Phosphate dosing is a way of preventing limescale from sticking to anything,  It doesn't actually soften the water, but if you live in a hard water area it does help to stop limescale sticking to hard surfaces.

 

Whether it's worth using depends entirely whether there are any carbonates in your water.  The two main culprits for scale formation are calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate, bot of which are dissolved out of limestone and chalk by slightly acid rainfall.  If your water supply doesn't come from a hard water source, which is very unlikely, as the major outcrops of limestone in Scotland are in the far North West, most of Scotland gets water that is free of carbonates and slightly acidic, then I'm not convinced that you need to phosphate dose the water. 

 

We used to live in South West Scotland, and the water there was very soft, with no carbonates in the water at all.

[newhome]

15 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

but if you live in a hard water area it does help to stop limescale sticking to hard surfaces

 

Thank you. I suspect that my hubby just assumed that we'd need something to treat the water. Having lived in Kent with hard water, scale in kettles, limescale on tiles etc I can see why he thought installing one might be a good idea, but the water is just very soft here. 

[SteamyTea]

So have I missed anything tonight, apart from knowing that good tea can be made up there.

[MikeSharp01]

Great to see the meters and the Teleswitch (Which is the thing that tells your 'system' that cheap rate electricity is available.) The difference between the boiler output temperature and the TS temperature - 20 deg loss seems high and is interesting, It will be good to see the temperatures of things when you get the thermometer tomorrow, as this this will clear up loads of details.

 

PS was the TS temperature rising, even very slowly above the 45 / 50 or was it dead stable?

Edited February 23, 2018 by MikeSharp01

[TheMitchells]

This post is better than the latest box set!  Glad to see the BH gang are coming to the rescue and am keeping my fingers crossed that it all gets sorted soon.  What a nightmare and a lesson to us all to keep it simple as suggested by many on this forum!