Heating system issues

Apodemus

Should a hot water cylinder not be plumbed so that it can be isolated, with a valve on both the input and output side of the circuit?  Mine certainly has this. 

If it is set up in this way, then the cylinder could be balanced with the flow to the rest of the heating circuit by restricting the input (or output) flow.

ThisIsWeird

Apodemus said:

Should a hot water cylinder not be plumbed so that it can be isolated, with a valve on both the input and output side of the circuit?  Mine certainly has this. 

If it is set up in this way, then the cylinder could be balanced with the flow to the rest of the heating circuit by restricting the input (or output) flow.

In conjunction with a PropPress pump, that sounds a good solution.

Just curious about this - no idea what the OP's setup is, but just worried that even when their CH is balanced, the DHW might still be pinching the lion's share. And too-easy a flow through the cylinder coils would just have the boiler 'cycling' too easily, making heating the CH even more laboured. But no idea on the OP's setup.

Already a wee shame the 3-porter wasn't swapped for two 2's.

Apodemus

ThisIsWeird said:

Apodemus said:

Should a hot water cylinder not be plumbed so that it can be isolated, with a valve on both the input and output side of the circuit?  Mine certainly has this. 

If it is set up in this way, then the cylinder could be balanced with the flow to the rest of the heating circuit by restricting the input (or output) flow.

In conjunction with a PropPress pump, that sounds a good solution.

Just curious about this - no idea what the OP's setup is, but just worried that even when their CH is balanced, the DHW might still be pinching the lion's share. And too-easy a flow through the cylinder coils would just have the boiler 'cycling' too easily, making heating the CH even more laboured. But no idea on the OP's setup.

Already a wee shame the 3-porter wasn't swapped for two 2's.

Yes, but I still wonder about the tank thermostat.  If it is functioning correctly then the tank balancing issue would only be quite short-lived as the system initially warms up.  Of course, it could be that the thermostat is simply set too high.  If the tank was set at 65C and the boiler flow at 60C, then the thermostat will never reach temperature and the flow valve will never close.

ThisIsWeird

Good point!

mkshadows1

Apologies for a late reply; I haven't balanced the radiators yet - but did turn the pump speed up to 2, I believe this was turned down to 1 before the boiler circuit board was replaced.

This appears to be the cause of both the DHW taking priority and downstairs radiators taking longer to warm up. It seems there wasn't enough pressure in the system at speed 1 to allow both the DHW and CH to work at the same time; and likewise taking longer to pump the hotwater around the downstairs rads.

I will keep an eye on it; especially since we're coming into some cold temperatures again, but so far it appears to be functioning correctly!

Thank you for responses; we're going to look at getting the system powerflushed and a filter installed; I doubt it's been flushed and it would probably help it.

Apodemus

Thanks for the update, it is always good to hear how the story ends!