My House dosn't Heat up !!

Leightonjns

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post on the site, im kinda just hoping for a little advice. I bought a newbuild from Barratt 3.5 years ago and from the very beginning the ground floor has always been extremely cold so much so its unlivable. My house is a three storey townhouse with the thermostat in the living room, so as heat rises, down stair will never warm up enough, iv contact Barratt who to put it brielfy said its been designed by experts and this configuration is correct. NHBC say its not their problem its Barratt. Oh also the same houses that went up after mine have their central heating installed differenlty.

Has anyone any advice on how i should proceed or even ow i can fix the problem if i get no further with Barratt or NHBC.

Many thanks

MX5huggy

Thermostat in the Living room is normal, make sure the rad in the living room is on MAX (if it has a thermostatic Valve fitted, it should not really have one but they still get fitted).

Is the heating working? ie do the rads get hot? is it drafty?

It is not unheard of for the cavity insulation to be misssing on new builds but you would require a independant survey to establish this.

Piggles12345

Do your radiators downstairs get warm at all?

Leightonjns

Hi thanks for your replys,

My rads downstairs do warm up when the heating is first switched on, the problem lies with the thermostat in the living room reaching temperature then switching off (as it should), so no further heat is given downstairs and any existing warmth quickly goes away as the heat i assume rises upstairs. Im pretty sure the heating system is ok but just not suitable for my house.

MX5huggy

Once the heat "goes away" the thermostat should then tell the boiler to fire again. What sort of thermostat have you got? just a dial or some sort of electrontic thing. Have you got a thermometer that you could put in the living room? Are your stairs in your living room?

PS you can click the thanks button if you like.

Rikki

Do you close the doors to the rooms?

Piggles12345

I had this problem. Once my house had heated to the temperature set by the thermostat on the wall, the radiators would go cool and the boiler wouldn't fire up again like it was supposed to.

I had a heating expert come out and fit a part and it is all repaired now. I'm afraid I have no idea what part this was or how much it cost as I am a tenant and it was my landlord's responsibility, sorry!

motch

Would Individual Thermostatic valves on each radiator do the job ?

motch

How well is the floor insulated? Perhaps a thick well insulated carpet and underlay might help a bit

CLAPTON

It may be that the system is simply not balanced correctly.
What sort or controls are on the radiators.

But basically open the lock shield values and the the TVR / or screw values to be fully open on the downstairs radiators and set the upstairs ones to nearly closed.
Turn the thermostat to high during this process.

Then see what happens ..if the downstaris still go off too soon then close down the lock shield values upstairs a bit more
If they are OK but upstairs is too cold then open the upstairs lockshield values half a turn and then see whats what.

Leightonjns

I do tend to leave the doors open as this slows the process of the living room getting to set temperature and gives the downstairs radiators more "on time". To be honest iv pretty much tried most things, my house is one in a block of six and the neighbours have the same problem, one neighbour in particular has had to move their 15yr old son as he has been sleeping with his clothes on its that bad,

I really think Barratt have just dodged a problem that is down to design, and think they shoul do more, but as my two year warranty is expired and NHBC wont get involved i dont know what to do.

Zoned central heating may solve the problem but i really think i shouldn't have to pay for this

Ps Wheres the thankyou button