How central heating works in radiators question?

justaquestion

Hi folks,

A question about the flow of water in radiators if someone could enlighten me please?

Does the water mainly flow along the main pipes in floor and the water in rads in mainly heated by a conduction process with very little flow in the actual rads themselves?
Thanks for helping me understand this.

ic

There are two runs of pipes, flow and return. Hot water leaves the boiler and branches out to all the radiators, runs through the radiators and then back via the other run of pipes back to the boiler where it gets reheated and send back round again.

TRV (thermostatic radiator valves) on each radiator reacts to the air temperature close to the radiator and will stop the flow of water through that individual radiator when the room is warm enough. They'll allow more back through as the room cools down.

Balancing should be done on the system. This is about ensuring that the water flows through all the radiators at the same rate no matter how far they are from the boiler. Generally this means the valve will be wide open on the radiator furthest away from the boiler, but closed up a lot on the radiator closest.

So to answer your question - the water does flow through the radiators, and is under pressure the same as the main pipes.

glasgowdan

I assume the rads are parallel to the main pipes though? Not in series. Otherwise closing off one rad and removing it to decorate as I have done would stop the whole system heating up?

Gloomendoom

glasgowdan wrote: »

I assume the rads are parallel to the main pipes though? Not in series. Otherwise closing off one rad and removing it to decorate as I have done would stop the whole system heating up?

Yes.

At least they should be.

EssexExile

glasgowdan wrote: »

I assume the rads are parallel to the main pipes though? Not in series. Otherwise closing off one rad and removing it to decorate as I have done would stop the whole system heating up?

Yes, that's why you have to balance them to make each one just as easy for the water to flow through.