Forum menu
Well you seem not to have flow to that radiator so how can it be balanced? Maybe a bit of debris? valve jamming?
Thinking about it: the hot water comes out of the boiler and up 2 floors to the airing cupboard where the two 2 way valves are, then back down to the ground floor where the heat requirement is greatest. That's a shit design.
Was the rad in there working properly before? If so then occams razer says its something you have done. did you use PTFE tape on the rad connection? could be blocking flow.
Ours has been on timed but only if the house drops below 17. Good time to ensure everything works before you need it.
We had hot radiators in June when we discovered the motorised valve had failed. Genuine part was only £24
Always worth checking this now, rather than waiting until it snows finding that its broken.
Good call. Testing now...
[ edit: all good... I think I need to dust though ]
With the outside temperature all over the place at the moment, it's hard to tell how well the improvements I've made are helping. My hallway Nest stat reads as 19.5 at the very lowest reached so far, now sitting at 20 / 20.5 without heating. I'm hoping we can delay heating for a while yet. I can't improve the house any further without knocking it down and rebuilding to near passive standards. The biggest issue is lack of solar gain during the winter. Angle of the house and neighbour's property really put a stop to that so it's out of my hands. Positive to that is in the summer it protects the house from excessive high temps.
It’s usually late October or early November for us these days with the delayed Autumn and Winter that we now seem to always have, but I’m not looking forward to the cost of heating oil this year. It seems to have stabilised at 80ppl which is MUCH higher than any price we paid prior the invasion of Ukraine. I think the most we’d paid prior to that was 47ppl. So it’s new normal seems to be settled at DOUBLE the previous high price. That’ll be us looking at £880 (1000l) to get from November to early March. £1000 with the boiler service. Ouch.
Is fine balancing actually necessary if you're running TRV's of any flavour? Barring the house having sat at in anti-frost for a week they should control everything and will balance out eventually anyway.
Even with trvs preferential flow will still occur
Yes, it still is. Rads closer to the boiler see higher pressure and their water will be hotter so they'll output the most heat. Then water will flow slower to the more remote ones and the water will be cooler before it gets there as it's been through a longer length of un insulated pipe.
By restricting the flow through some rads you force more through others so you can direct heat where you want it. We need the most heat on the ground floor so the upstairs rads are almost fully closed. However you can also adjust things so rooms with TRVs heat up first and then the room with the thermostat in it starts to get more heat only once the other rooms have turned their TRVs off.
I have put my heating on a few times just to make sure it works
Our boiler heats the HW every day, so it gets checked every day!
The only CH component which isn't tested is one motorised valve (which has a mechanical over ride and you can change the motor un 10 mins without needing to drain the system).
The answer is a nationwide insulation programme.
Seems a bit extreme. Wouldn't it be easier just to insulate all the houses instead of the entire country?
Well did another burn tonight and the hallway rad got pretty warm so I guess it's working now.
I may but some X400 cleaner in it just to make sure.
That’ll be us looking at £880 (1000l) to get from November to early March.
We are electric and wood heated with the house only heated in the evening up to 18 degCby wood with electric on towel rail and kids bed room and spend that much so that doesn't sound bad.
The answer is a nationwide insulation programme
The thing is insulation needs to be coupled with ventilation/ extraction so it's not quite the simple job of just insulation.
Only if you get it up to passivhaus standards or close surely? Pretty much impossible in a building like mine. despite doing as much as I can its still not short on ventilation partly because planning made me put a load of useless vents in the roof destroying its windproofness. I must get round to blocking some of them up.
Where do you put insulation in a single brick thickness, 1890's terraced house?
Either inside or outside. Both are possible.
Does anyone know of a good resource for q's regarding boiler life span/replacement and TRV's life span? Looked at the Energy Trust website but no help.
Thanks.
Where do you put insulation in a single brick thickness, 1890’s terraced house?
External insulation or internal insulation.
Neither are cheap or simple to do - but are very effective.
External wall insulation will, obviously, change the external appearance so might be worth checking with council.
It should be done after any other external works to minimise the possibility of knocking chunks out of it which will be disproportionately expensive to repair.
Costs are usually based on the area to be done so, end terrace will have 3 walls but mid-terrace only 2.
Geographical location will be a cost factor - SE is always most expensive.
If it was me, I would get some indicative costs and then attempt to calculate likely reduction in heating costs to estimate payback period.
If you're likely to move before end of payback period, is it worth doing?
If you’re likely to move before end of payback period, is it worth doing?
It also depends on any increase in property value over the timescale compared to a similar less efficient house. I would be asking for money off an unimproved house in the current energy costs situation.
If you’re likely to move before end of payback period, is it worth doing?
Why ? You list it as a selling point and a value add.
Sandwich's view is more likely.
A prospective house buyer is, IMO, likely to expect that energy saving improvements have been done; if they haven't then lowball offers will result.
A prospective house buyer is, IMO, likely to expect that energy saving improvements have been done; if they haven’t then lowball offers will result.
Most don't care.
But a house with a better epc vs a low epc will be valued differently to each other at valuation stage - if you reach the right epc you can have access to lower mortgage rates also.
Much the same as houses with non rent a roof solar panels are getting higher valuations than those without....
Energy and epc is having a bigger and bigger influence on buying habits than it did previously in younger generations. Boomer generation still generally care more about what colour the kitchen and bathroom.
Here's hoping we get to the stage that you must have a minimum epc to proceed and the buildings of no historical interest nor fabric that can be improved are removed from the housing stock
Boomer generation still generally care more about what colour the kitchen and bathroom.
Not this one, today I have mostly been using 2" foil covered Kingspan panels to insulate the loft header tanks. That and the hatch are the final parts of the warmth retention in the house project for the last year. We've some curtains to fit to the newly installed windows and that's it for the 'cheaper' stuff.
Temp thermostat on the boiler told me the house was at 20F
Decided to see what 20F was in Celsius.
-7c 😮
Best put on the heating, dont want hypothermia 😆
My thermostat is reading 19c, and my small digital thermometer in the living room is reading 20c.
It's not time to put the heating on.
The heating is set to come on at 12c currently, incase of an emergency temperature drop!
Humidity seems to bounce between 64% and 72% today, which is too high, but it has been rainey and damp outside a lot recently, so there's not much I can do about that.
A prospective house buyer is, IMO, likely to expect that energy saving improvements have been done; if they haven’t then lowball offers will result.
Depends on the asking price, and if it's reasonable...2 identical houses in all available metrics other than...
One has a full re-furb, especially kitchen and bathroom
One has a 10yo but still very decent kitchen and bathroom
I'd expect that would already be reflected in the asking price. But you have to know the local market and see what's selling for what.. some people really do think they can sell a house with a 70's avacado green bathroom suite for the same price as one that has been modernised.
cinnamon_girlFull Member<br />Does anyone know of a good resource for q’s regarding boiler life span/replacement and TRV’s life span? Looked at the Energy Trust website but no help.
Thanks.<br /><br />
That question probably needs its own thread. Basically replace when it starts being uneconomical to repair. If the tiles inside it start to crack for example then it will get condemned. Ask your boiler engineer. At least 10 years life expectancy for a new one though. Most have long warranties these days.
Does anyone know of a good resource for q’s regarding boiler life span/replacement and TRV’s life span? Looked at the Energy Trust website but no help.
Can't help with TRV lifespan questions (provided the valve body moves freely I'd assume the lifespan is pretty much unlimited if the system runs with inhibitor and is fairly clean) but whoever services your boiler should be able to give you a guess at how much longer it has left based on experience.
Gas boiler and oil boiler are also different animals when it comes to repairability. But provided it's not leaking and meeting its claimed efficiency figures I don't think there's any hurry to bin and replace.
I've been thinking about swapping my 15-year-old oil boiler out for a heat pump - mainly to recover a big chunk of space in the garden where the tank lives - but I'm loathe to throw away a perfectly good boiler that's running at 94% efficiency.
the stove is back in the lounge, still needs some fire cement and refitting the flue, oh and getting some wood delivered as this summers 'freebies' didnt appear meaning i reckon on about 1 weeks worth of heating
Feels chilly in the house this morning. Thinking about heating. Check the thermostat, temperature is currently higher than the set temperature anyway!
I’ve been thinking about swapping my 15-year-old oil boiler out for a heat pump – mainly to recover a big chunk of space in the garden where the tank lives – but I’m loathe to throw away a perfectly good boiler that’s running at 94% efficiency
You could end up running at 500% efficiency instead though. Maybe.. if everything else is right. But it's not cut and dried that a heatpump would save money. I am planning to wait until ours fails to install a heat pump, I just want to be ready when that happens.
Because we have a cheap overnight rate we could use one to keep the house toasty at night when it's coldest which would result in a lot less power used during the day
perfectly good boiler that’s running at 94% efficiency.
How's that measured ?
You could end up running at 500% efficiency instead thoug
And that's unlikely- at times when you actually want heat.
According to what I read yesterday, after 10 years a boiler's efficiency drops to 85%. After 20 years it's 75%. TRVs last for between 10-15 years, plastic can become brittle apparently. Unfortunately there was no paperwork left when I moved in but do know that the boiler had been serviced annually for 20 years. Would be useful to know of any repairs carried out.
I will be replacing like for like, not interested in a heat pump. It may be worth replacing the boiler before the kitchen refurb, whenever that will be.
Decisions decisions!
As an aside, if anyone is looking for a positive ventilation system I have one with an electrical heating element that never got installed. Bought it last year, then we decided to move house so never got fitted.
Think it cost about £350 so if you fancy it PM me with an offer. Chesterfield based.
after 10 years a boiler’s efficiency drops to 85%. After 20 years it’s 75%
Hard to see what's driving that other than salesmen . They are incredibly simple units
According to what I read yesterday, after 10 years a boiler’s efficiency drops to 85%. After 20 years it’s 75%
I agree with trail_rat. Perhaps those numbers are worst case scenarios for completely un-serviced units.
You have a burner and a chunk of metal with fins on it that gets hot and heats the water. Perhaps if your chunk of metal were rusty or corroded (as mine is a bit) then efficiency would reduce. Wether or not it's worth replacing in that scenario depends on how much you can afford to spend on being green, or how much you are spending on gas anyway. If you are spending £300/mo then saving 20% of that will pay for your new boiler much quicker than if you are only spending £50.
TRVs can become brittle but that doesn't stop them working. They may however randomly fail - our house is 16 years old, one TRV failed a year or two ago.
Hard water area might change things mind you.
It's October, the sun's out, it's 18c outside, and we've got all the windows and doors open.
Nope, heating not on yet 😆
It’s October, the sun’s out, it’s 18c outside
Surely in the deep south that's low enough for heating.
It's currently 6 degrees outside and low lying areas are under water here.
Localized power and comms outages due to the water also.
Heatings not on though. Cycling is a challenge. At the moment I could go for a paddle board from the door and I'm at 60odd meters elevation 5 miles from the nearest major water course.
Hard water area might change things mind you.
A combi boiler that is always having new water ( for the taps) flow through the heat exchanger might well become less efficient and crudded up with calcium/minerals over time , but if its just a system/regular boiler thats just circulating the same water round and round , it probably wont make much difference.
We replaced a (non condensing) regular boiler and vented hot water cylinder from 1992 with a new condensing boiler and large unvented cylinder earlier this year, we also had the whole system flushed and new TRV's fitted , along with increasing the loft insulation from 10cm to 25cm. Its too early to tell how much these changes will reduce our gas usage by, but so far through the summer its taking about 50%-60% of the gas that we used to use to heat the hot water, and this is with double the hot water capacity than we had before.
I'm hoping for a 20-30% reduction in gas usage over winter, but maybe that will be optimistic...
For reasons unknown, oil has come down a fair chunk this weekend; I can get it for 68ppl, rather than 80ppl as it was earlier in the week.
after 10 years a boiler’s efficiency drops to 85%. After 20 years it’s 75%
If you live in a hard water area, never use inhibitor and never descale it, then yes, I could believe that might happen as the heat exchanger fills with limescale.
However, some basic maintenance and I can't see why it wouldn't run at the same efficiency for decades.
Our boiler is 30+ years old and still going strong.
As for TRVs, I've replaced a couple this year after maybe 10+ years, where the plastic became brittle and the wax module separated from the mechanical valve as the plastic split. They're dirt cheap though and fairly easy to change, although draining the system is a bit of a PITA.
It’s currently 6 degrees outside and low lying areas are under water here.
Localized power and comms outages due to the water also.
Is this the point where all us southerners feel very smug indeed 🤔 hot and sweaty after a lovely motorbike ride this afternoon