Balancing radiators

[JamesAsus]

Im not overly bothered about upstairs getting very warm, i mainly want downstairs to get hot quicker, one of the rads in the living room takes a while to heat up compared to the rest of the house so the system needs balancing.

However im not bothered about exact science of the 12 degrees difference etc, i just want the downstairs rads to have priority over upstairs.

Boiler is a combi and is upstairs and them rads get hot pretty much instantly, can i just close the lockshield on all of them by 50%?

I dont have any TRV's or anything.

 

[oldbuffer]

1. You may not be bothered about the exact science, but heating systems obey the laws of physics.
2. You could close the upstairs lockshields by 50%, but 50% of what:
2.1 The number of 1/8 turns between where they are now and fully closed? Might work, might not. Valves are not necessarily linear in the way the reduce the flow of water.
OR
2.2 50% of the water flow. Would have to be measured, and the only realistic way is by determining heat loss across the radiator, measured by temperature difference.
3. Fitting TRVs to every radiator (but see below) would automatically close down the ones heating rooms most quickly, and the hot water would be diverted to those where the room are still below required temperature. Set upstairs to 18 degrees, downstairs to 21, or vary by room.
4. You might need to leave on radiator permanently on (no TRV) or, when all TRVs close, the pump is working against a closed system. Modern systems have an automatic bypass valve which opens when a closed load occurs, and diverts the water back to the boiler.