Converting one pipe to two pipe system

ThisIsWeird

nicw_3 said:

@Doozergirl @FreeBear @Bendy_House Thanks all for the great advice a few months ago. We have just finished the conversion - we were able to replace the worst of our single panel radiators with some nice columns, which are absolutely kicking out heat now. The kitchen has never been warm in the three years we've lived here, and the first day the new system was running in there it was actually sweltering. Took the advice on relocating a couple of rads and, I think, accidentally on oversizing a couple too.

Just finished the work yesterday so we'll see whether we're doing much in the way of cutting down costs, but in terms of actually heating the house, the conversion has definitely been a success - thanks so much for pointing us in the right direction!

Pleased to hear such a successful outcome.

Alas, I suspect you are unlikely to be cutting costs, since it's clear you are heating your house up more than before, and that means more gas consumption.

What I would suggest is that any 'living' area such as the kitchen which is now heating up very quickly and effectively, is is tweaked back by turning down the boiler's flow temp rather than by shutting off the rad valves. The lower you have the boiler flow - and hence the return - at, the more efficient it'll be.

Any room you aren't using, turn rads to 'frost', crack open a window to 'vent', and close the door.

What room temp controls do you have, and where located?

nicw_3

ThisIsWeird said:

nicw_3 said:

@Doozergirl @FreeBear @Bendy_House Thanks all for the great advice a few months ago. We have just finished the conversion - we were able to replace the worst of our single panel radiators with some nice columns, which are absolutely kicking out heat now. The kitchen has never been warm in the three years we've lived here, and the first day the new system was running in there it was actually sweltering. Took the advice on relocating a couple of rads and, I think, accidentally on oversizing a couple too.

Just finished the work yesterday so we'll see whether we're doing much in the way of cutting down costs, but in terms of actually heating the house, the conversion has definitely been a success - thanks so much for pointing us in the right direction!

Pleased to hear such a successful outcome.

Alas, I suspect you are unlikely to be cutting costs, since it's clear you are heating your house up more than before, and that means more gas consumption.

What I would suggest is that any 'living' area such as the kitchen which is now heating up very quickly and effectively, is is tweaked back by turning down the boiler's flow temp rather than by shutting off the rad valves. The lower you have the boiler flow - and hence the return - at, the more efficient it'll be.

Any room you aren't using, turn rads to 'frost', crack open a window to 'vent', and close the door.

What room temp controls do you have, and where located?

Yes it's possible, we'll need to look at the readings and numbers over a couple of days to try to sort it out - before everything was so inefficient that while we were using loads of gas, we were still freezing - the hope is that we can use the same amount or less but actually get heating out of it!

We have a Tado thermostat located in the lounge in the middle of the house, which now gets quite warm with a combination of a working radiator and effective draught excluders. We're also having insulation put into the downstairs floors over the next couple of weeks, so the hope is that we will be able to keep the heating relatively low and still be comfortable once we're actually able to a) generate and b) retain the heat.