Hi guys
Here is the system:
Vented system.
Boiler is Ideal Concord WRS 255A, 55,000 btu
Gravity feed hot water.
Pumped central heating, the pump fitted on the return pipe.
I am told the boiler has one heat exchanger shared by both
the hot water & central heating.
There is not a 2 port valve or thermostat on the hot water circuit.
Central heating pipework is follows: to & from the boiler in 22mm,
then splits off to 15mm, then splits to 8mm micobore near upstairs
rads, and 8mm again dropping down to ground floor rads.
For a house built only 25 years ago, this system is from the ark, no wonder the builder went bust !
Bought the house 2 1/2 years ago, the heating has never worked properly. The best it has managed is any 3 rads you like out of 8, the 3 rads getting hottish, but not as hot as they should be.
Fed up with soot coming down the chimney and blocking the gas fire, in January I called in the guy to sweep the flue. He condemned the gas fire,
swept the flue, took my cash and left me cold!
Ok, so I buy a new gas fire, call in the corgi man, but after 2 visits and countless phone calls, he tells me he can't fit the fire as the pre-cast flue isn't deep enough (that bloody builder again) !
So, I was planning to attack the central heating myself before xmas, but at the end of November. whilst refitting my kitchen, I made an effort to cut off 3 fingers with a circular saw, fortunately not totally successfully, but they are still not really up to a major plumbing job.
So, the plumber is here, I ask him to quote to sort out the central heating.
The rads were all single panel, no convectors, and the microbore feed & returns were both connected to one end of the rads. The rads had pipes running through the bottom which were corroded, I stripped one a couple of years ago to flush it.
We decide to replace all the rads. I would have liked to replace all the microbore with 15mm, but with cash being tight, I take the advice of my plumber, so we stick with it.
This week he does the job, 9 new rads piped up, fills the system fixes the odd leak, and off we go!
Or so it should be. Wednesday he spends 5-6 hours bleeding the rads, the pump, he could have tried my veins if I thought it would help. After lots of discussion with myself, the plumber & his plumber mates, we decide that the pump is goosed. I am not convinced, as I borrowed one a couple of years ago with no improvement, but ok, it wasn't a new one.
Thursday morning 9 am he arrives with the new pump. I should be in work, but we could be done & dusted in an hour. At 11.45 I have to go to work.
At 3 pm I get a phone call from the plumber, he is having a conference with his 2 plumber buddies, so I go back home, arriving at the same time as my wife, who is nearly in tears at the sight of 3 plumbers vans outside the house.
We are now back to square one, 3, no, maybe 4 rads will work. They have convectors now, so we are getting a little more heat out of them.
The plumbers conference convenes, and after a while, white smoke signals are seen over the hills of the Ribble Valley, a decision has been made.
They tell me that as there is no valve on the hot water side, the hot water is stealing all the hot water from the boiler, seems logical as this is running in nice fat pipe, compared to the starved central heating circuit.
They give me two choices:
a) fit a valve on the hot water circuit, a thermostat, then call in the sparky as I am not allowed to do it.
b) fit a nice shiny new combi.
Option b is preferred by all, myself included, but a flue kit is also required, and it becomes nearly 2k, on top of the 1700 odd already spent, so now I am hitting loan territory as well.
I tell the lads I will let them know over the weekend. Trying to get to sleep last night, it strikes me that the theory has holes in it.
If the pump is pumping water out of the central heating circuit, then water has to come out of the boiler to replace it, or otherwise there is one hell of an air leak !
Any comments, theories, advice much welcomed.
PS
My plumber is a really nice young lad, corgi registered, in his first year of business, apart from the fact I have no heating he did a nice job. And I paid him. His plumber mates have been around the block a few times and probably know there stuff, I'd just like to hear a few other opinions!
Cheers
Cold in the Ribble Valley
Here is the system:
Vented system.
Boiler is Ideal Concord WRS 255A, 55,000 btu
Gravity feed hot water.
Pumped central heating, the pump fitted on the return pipe.
I am told the boiler has one heat exchanger shared by both
the hot water & central heating.
There is not a 2 port valve or thermostat on the hot water circuit.
Central heating pipework is follows: to & from the boiler in 22mm,
then splits off to 15mm, then splits to 8mm micobore near upstairs
rads, and 8mm again dropping down to ground floor rads.
For a house built only 25 years ago, this system is from the ark, no wonder the builder went bust !
Bought the house 2 1/2 years ago, the heating has never worked properly. The best it has managed is any 3 rads you like out of 8, the 3 rads getting hottish, but not as hot as they should be.
Fed up with soot coming down the chimney and blocking the gas fire, in January I called in the guy to sweep the flue. He condemned the gas fire,
swept the flue, took my cash and left me cold!
Ok, so I buy a new gas fire, call in the corgi man, but after 2 visits and countless phone calls, he tells me he can't fit the fire as the pre-cast flue isn't deep enough (that bloody builder again) !
So, I was planning to attack the central heating myself before xmas, but at the end of November. whilst refitting my kitchen, I made an effort to cut off 3 fingers with a circular saw, fortunately not totally successfully, but they are still not really up to a major plumbing job.
So, the plumber is here, I ask him to quote to sort out the central heating.
The rads were all single panel, no convectors, and the microbore feed & returns were both connected to one end of the rads. The rads had pipes running through the bottom which were corroded, I stripped one a couple of years ago to flush it.
We decide to replace all the rads. I would have liked to replace all the microbore with 15mm, but with cash being tight, I take the advice of my plumber, so we stick with it.
This week he does the job, 9 new rads piped up, fills the system fixes the odd leak, and off we go!
Or so it should be. Wednesday he spends 5-6 hours bleeding the rads, the pump, he could have tried my veins if I thought it would help. After lots of discussion with myself, the plumber & his plumber mates, we decide that the pump is goosed. I am not convinced, as I borrowed one a couple of years ago with no improvement, but ok, it wasn't a new one.
Thursday morning 9 am he arrives with the new pump. I should be in work, but we could be done & dusted in an hour. At 11.45 I have to go to work.
At 3 pm I get a phone call from the plumber, he is having a conference with his 2 plumber buddies, so I go back home, arriving at the same time as my wife, who is nearly in tears at the sight of 3 plumbers vans outside the house.
We are now back to square one, 3, no, maybe 4 rads will work. They have convectors now, so we are getting a little more heat out of them.
The plumbers conference convenes, and after a while, white smoke signals are seen over the hills of the Ribble Valley, a decision has been made.
They tell me that as there is no valve on the hot water side, the hot water is stealing all the hot water from the boiler, seems logical as this is running in nice fat pipe, compared to the starved central heating circuit.
They give me two choices:
a) fit a valve on the hot water circuit, a thermostat, then call in the sparky as I am not allowed to do it.
b) fit a nice shiny new combi.
Option b is preferred by all, myself included, but a flue kit is also required, and it becomes nearly 2k, on top of the 1700 odd already spent, so now I am hitting loan territory as well.
I tell the lads I will let them know over the weekend. Trying to get to sleep last night, it strikes me that the theory has holes in it.
If the pump is pumping water out of the central heating circuit, then water has to come out of the boiler to replace it, or otherwise there is one hell of an air leak !
Any comments, theories, advice much welcomed.
PS
My plumber is a really nice young lad, corgi registered, in his first year of business, apart from the fact I have no heating he did a nice job. And I paid him. His plumber mates have been around the block a few times and probably know there stuff, I'd just like to hear a few other opinions!
Cheers
Cold in the Ribble Valley
