Thermostat turned down. Radiators still hot

JasonHand

OK, I'm not very good with all this sort of stuff so please be kind. We've just moved into an ex-council house which as a back boiler fitted. Its probably been there years but on the face of it, it still works and when the thermostat is on high the house is lovely and warm

Now when I turn the themostat down the radiators downstairs all coo down nicely but this doesn't happen to any of the radiators upstairs and its actually too warm. I do actually have the heating on.

Now does this sound like normal behavior and is it simply a case of putting my heating on timer? I've just read the myths page and I can see its probably cheaper to do that anyway but is it possible there is a fault somewhere?

I do have a quick question. The house we've moved into has pre-payment meters which is fine, and it stops us from getting any scary bills but I would like to move to a smart meter. I did ring Eon and they asked where the flue was. Now I've got no idea. With it being a back boiler I would have thought in the loft.

Is there an easy way to check. The previous owners don't know

Thanks very much, Jason

JJ_Egan

Can you turn the boiler down??

Alter_ego

Is the boiler in front of an old chimney breast?

JasonHand

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Can you turn the boiler down??

Well its behind the chimney breast so I can't physically access the boiler itself. As I said I can turn the thermostat down and the radiators cool down nicely downstairs.

Sorry if I sound like an idiot

JasonHand

Alter_ego wrote: »

Is the boiler in front of an old chimney breast?

I believe its built into the chimney breast above the fire.

I hope I'm being helpful with these replies and not sounding like a total baffoon

System

Have a read of this link:

https://www.aconehourair.com/radiators-still-hot-heating-off/amp/

Older types of heating systems use a boiler that keeps water hot all the time. Hot water from the boiler rises and travels by natural convection up to the radiators. When your home’s heat is turned on, a pump starts and draws water up from the boiler and pumps it to the radiators.

When the house reaches the desired temperature, or the heat is turned off, the pump stops running. To keep natural convection from allowing hot water to circulate to the radiators when the pump is off on, there is a check valve. A spring or weight keeps the check valve closed and stops the natural convection from occurring.

Once the pump is activated, it can overcome the resistance of the weight or spring and allow hot water or steam up to the radiators. If the check valve fails because of a broken spring or some debris, your radiators will be hot from the natural convection, even if the heat is not “on.”

matelodave

You really need to work out where all the pipework goes. I'm gussing that upstairs stuff id heated by gravity circulation whereas the thermostat which runs the pump is only affecting the down stairs stuff.

Is it a gas or solid fule back boiler. Can you see how many pipes come out of it two or four. generally a four pipe system will have two fat pipes that go up to the hot water tank and two others feed the radiators via a pump.

The pump is controlled by the thermostat to circulate water through the radiators however that doesn't always stop the thermo-syphon effect where hot water rises through the upstair radiators - you might need to reduce the flow rate through them to see what happens.

Without having a much better idea of how your system is configured it's difficult to give ant tips.

gardner1

OP is your back boiler behind a gas fire....if yes the boiler thermostat will be accessible

Alter_ego

JasonHand wrote: »

I believe its built into the chimney breast above the fire.

I hope I'm being helpful with these replies and not sounding like a total baffoon

So it's an open fire?