Advice Required for upgrading central heating system

[sotal]

My current Central Heating system isn't fantastic, it's in a 30 year old house.

It consists of, a glow worm boiler in the back of the garage, a mechanical timer in the middle of the garage, a cylinder and pump in the airing cupboard, tanks in the loft and a bunch of radiators (8 to be exact)

It heats the house with no problem at all and provides plenty of hot water (so I can't moan too much!)

But... There is no room stat anywhere and no cylinder stat. I control the heat in the house by turning a knob on the boiler between min and max, this also changes the temp of the hot water and max is far too hot to put your hands in.

The timer only has one setting which we have set for weekdays, then at weekends we have to get up and switch it to constant, then remember to switch it back to timed in the evening (there's no advance function)

And finally the water is always heating whilst the heating is on in Winter and the radiators come on when you put the water on in Summer which seems to cost a lot!

I looked in to the Y Plan kits a while back but have forgotten everything I learnt. I asked the corgi bloke last time he was round doing something else and he said it would be too hard to wire it all in, and advised just purchasing a cylinder stat which worked in the same way as a radiator themostatic valve and would limit the temp of hot water and would stop it flowing through whilst it was hot enough.

Anybody got a rough description of what would be needed?

I was thinking of something like this (the hsp one):

http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/danfoss-randall-control-768-0000

Would that do the job? Would any other wires be required to go to the timer or the boiler?

Is there anything else I need to tell you?

 

[tabs]

When that corgi bloke said it would be too hard he meant HE couldn't be arsed! :lol

Although I would seriously weigh up the costs involved involved if you are gonna go the whole hog and get a 3 port valve, roomstat, cylinder stat and associated wiring and wiring centre - could be a lot of mess and cost but depends on a multitude of factors , may be worth banging in a combi but as I said earlier, work it out, get a few quotes.

 

[sotal]

Would it be a lot of cost and mess?

The pack is only £60 - £80 depending on make - would I need much else? I presume I'm able to do the upgrade?

I was told a combi wouldn't be advised for the size of house? Not sure how true that is? It's a 4 bed dettached

 

[Gasman62]

When that corgi bloke said it would be too hard he meant HE couldn't be a***d! :lol

- could be a lot of mess and cost but depends on a multitude of factors , may be worth banging in a combi but as I said earlier, work it out, get a few quotes.

Ditto......if the system has no controls, then how old is the boiler, as old as the house? It could be time to replace??

 

[sotal]

I'm guessing the boiler is as old as the house so that would be approx 30 years.

The boiler does work well, and I figured by upgrading the system to a Y plan it would do eveything I required then if the boiler packed in it would be a simple job of having a corgi man swap me the boiler for a replacement?

 

[sotal]

So am I right that the upgrade kit should be fairly cheap and fairly easy to do?

I was thinking, the boiler wiring should be the same, so no extra wires would be required to there. The Timer could be moved to the airing cupboard as it's a bit daft being in the garage, the cylinder stat would be in the airing cupboard, the wiring center would be in the airing cupboard, the room stat could be in the landing next to the airing cupboard. That only leaves the 3 port valve which would need plumping in to the correct part and wiring in.

I rewired the system in the old house and am confident I could do that so the only bit left would be to plumb in the 3 port valve which I could do with some advice with if anyone knows which pipes to use, and if it would be straight forward - I can post photos if required.

Have I missed anything - am I being naive?

 

[spudkey]

what you are planning should be straight forward and will give much better control of system maybe also worth looking into the fitting of trvs

 

[sotal]

Thanks for the reply. I had planned to install a couple more trv's whilst the system is drained down also need to replace a couple of crap valves from the other ends thought I might as well do it all together, any advice on where to install the valve or will it all appear obvious when I've bought the kit?

 

[sotal]

Is there anything else I would require. I seem to remember some mention of an auto bypass valve between the pump and the valve - do I need that? Where does that bypass to?