my ufh

[lizzie]

The lovely man who sorted the mvhr has been back today to look at the ufh and service the boiler.

 

Turns out that although I could see actuators up and bobbing red things on the other bits (forget what they are called) some of those zones were turned to a very low flow so hardly any water getting through hence cold floors and no matter what I turned room stat to I couldn't get the place warm. We did have some warm bits of floor and that is explained by areas where there are two loops and one turned up and one at min.  The temp of water coming in was quite low too.  All now reset and I can live with it for a week or so and if not right he will look again when he comes back to do another small job after Easter.

 

Why couldn't the installer have either left it properly set up or told me where to look and what to do. No-one has ever explained to me how it all works until this man. Now I have some basic understanding after being at my wits end for the last 12 months trying to work it all out.

[ProDave]

For some reason a lot of people just do not understand under floor heating.  I have been to several to "make them work" and found basic things like the wrong thermostat connected to the wrong room.  It is just a case of being methodical, and it is really simple. 

 

If your system was designed professionally, you will have been given a quoted flow rate for each loop.  The only reason you might want different flow rates for different loops is to ensure an even heat up time, e.g a kitchen, which tends to have less heated floor area because you don't heat under the units, might want a higher flow rate than a living room where the entire floor area is heated.

[lizzie]

@ProDave yes professionally designed and flow rates in design...installer never ever explained them to me or showed me anything to do with system at all and I had not looked at design docs in trying to find the source of the problem. I had worked out it must be something to do with flow rates as everything else seemed ok but tbh after nearly a year of mvhr not working properly, ufh not working properly, dhw not working properly I was at the end of my tether. I am not a heating engineer! All the professional installer had to do was set it up properly or tell me how to sort it instead of saying he would come and look at it and never showing up. 

[Jeremy Harris]

I feel for you, @lizzie, as I'm afraid there are some people around who will take advantage of anyone that they think may not know much about something.  Without in any way wishing to be sexist, I'm afraid that tradesmen taking advantage of women who they think may not know what they are talking about isn't that uncommon.  My late mother was reasonably savvy when it came to practical stuff (she was a farmer) but even she got done by a plumber and a general builder, and both times I stepped in to sort things out.

[ProDave]

Yes it is a job to know if this was a deliberate taking advantage, or whether the guy really had no understanding and was as stumped as you, but too proud to admit he was stumped so he fed you BS and scarpered.

 

I even have a plumber friend who has little understanding of how UFH works (but this is the same plumber that paid and MCS company a 5 figure sum to install his heat pump, so I suspect anything beyond an oil fired boiler and radiators is outside his comfort zone)

[newhome]

Had the same issue here as you know. Person after person compounded the issue when they arrived to 'fix' it and I ended up with a system that pretty much didn't work at all in the end. Luckily I had BuildHubbers to the rescue as I would still be sitting here freezing otherwise I imagine. There just don't seem to be any (many) people who understand how UFH is supposed to work here, probably because it's not that common and they can make money pretty easily using traditional methods. 

 

[daiking]

Not trusting anyone to even set mine up.

 

Holding out for a hero (or a

bonny tiler, I’m not fussed).