Central heating problems

eventide

Not sure if this is the right place to post, but very much desperate for some advice. Hopefully there's a lurking plumber!

Moved into a rented flat about 2months ago and noticed some issues with the heating at the time- they didn't seem like the mattered & I'm friendly with the landlord so I didn't want to kick up a fuss but we've just got a gas bill and seem to be paying for heat we're not getting!

Will give as much info as possible, I suspect I'm looking at multiple issues rather than 1 causing all the following.

So:

All heaters have their own TRVs; no room thermostat at all; combi boiler Alpha 240E; bled all of them when I moved in but they didn't really need it.

1- The living room heater is crap. At the bottom, it barely heats at all but even at the top when turned up full it only gets warm-ish. This persists even with all other heaters turned off, but if I put on the one in bedroom 2 just on the other side of the wall, it gets even colder! I suspect it needs to be power flushed regarding the cold spot at the bottom? No others have the cold spot that I've noticed. Landlord thinks this is furthest from the boiler. The 'in' pipe gets very hot.

2- Bedroom 1 heater only works at 3+ unless turned up full then turned down, and even by this method it usually cuts out totally. Seriously hot at 3+, which would be fine if I could turn it down... Works fine if turned right up to 5 and left. This is the closest to the boiler.

3- Hall heater only works at 2+ but gets REALLY hot at 2, again would be fine if I could turn it down for the cost. Again works fine left at 5.

4- Bedroom 2 heater is fine.

5- Hot rail in bathroom doesn't have its own thermostat and just comes on and off according to if the heating is on. Works fine.

6- Unrelated to the radiators, but the boiler has periods of making 'clicking' noises sometimes, only when the heating is on.

If there are any DIY methods of fixing even some of the above that would be great, I'm fairly handy I just know next to nothing about central heating systems.

Just paid £80 for a months gas, which seems steep for having on 2 heaters for about 6hrs a day...then again I'm a student so most things seem expensive on my income!

Also, would running 2 or 3 heaters at 1 or 2 (if this was possible) be much more expensive than running 1 at full (5)?

Thank you very much in advance for your help- have enough stress in my life finishing my final year at Uni without the heating being screwed.

ormus

does sound like the system is full of air/air locks or you have sludge blockages all over the place.

3 quid per day for GCH is pretty average.
i love it when students join the real world.

eventide

Damn, guess I'll get on to the landlord.

I wasn't complaining so much about the price of the gas overall, but the price/warmth ratio considering that we run only 2 heaters in the flat for a short period of time, & I'm very careful with turning it off early etc if the house will be empty. Could just be down to not 'knowing' the flat yet and being able to judge costs accordingly, even the electricity was high & that's after having banned the tumble drier and dishwasher, replaced all the bulbs with energy savers and turning things off almost obsessively.

If the 'real world' lets me stop working 15 hour days 7 days a week bring it on! Either that or let me go back to 1st year

WestonDave

One common misconception you seem to have fallen into is that radiators can be turned up or down - they can't - they will either be on (at the temperature the boiler central heating outlet dictates) or off. The TRV turns them on when the room drops below a certain level (depending on the setting on the TRV) and turns it off again when the room reaches the required level. So for example your hall radiator is doing what it should be - its coming on when the hall gets colder than the relevant temperature at "2" but its probably warm enough in there not to need it to come on at "1" Bedroom 1 is doing likewise - when you turn it up full, you get a nice full radiator of hot water so its red hot, you then turn it down to below 3 at which point the room is warm enough to shut the radiator supply off, and so it just gradually cools down. I'd personally set them all at about 3. The lounge sounds like its sludged up or wrongly balanced - either of which is a landlord get the engineer type problem.

eventide

Ahhh, so the fact that the radiator temp at eg. 2 feels less than say 5 is because its just turned off and is cooling?

Wow, I feel stupid now...going back to genetics and leaving the plumbing to someone else.

Although I have to say, bedroom 1 rarely comes on if left at '2', even when the room is absolutely freezing, and its right under the window.

Thanks I'll get on to the landlord about the living room heater.

eventide

So based on my newly acquired heating knowledge, is it more economical to have the boiler thermostat up higher to let the room reach its set temperature faster, or have it lower but taking longer for the room to reach set temp?

gas4you

eventide wrote: »

is it more economical to have the boiler thermostat up higher to let the room reach its set temperature faster

With your boiler and in your case yes

eventide

gas4you wrote: »

With your boiler and in your case yes

Great, I'll go turn it back up then. Thank you!

karl-123

:xmassign: TEXT SANTA

your boiler has a link in it provided for a roomstat
get one they are ten quid
trv`s are crap
they are big on/off switches basically
boiler on full on central heating ... roomstat corectly positioned,
with a switch live in and out and a neutral..........
job done

yawn..........

karl-123

i use f3 to clean and f1 to inhibit

sludge rgularly £40 screwfix or £15 e-buyer

for both bottles, f3 for a week then flush out and use,

f1 to stay in the system

f1 stops sludge and reduces scale

scale adds 10% on your heating bills yearly

ROY47

take the TRV off each radiator and give the pin inside the valve a tap with a hammer or similar (gently) ,they are known to stick

If that doesn't work take the dam. things off completely

i've removed everyone of mine as my house was freezing cold all the time with them useless piece of cr..