Radiator on when central heating is off thread

Lemoncurd

I'm looking for a fairly recent thread where someone had a radiator which was on even when the heating was off but can't find it. Can anyone remember it?

Our bathroom radiator always comes on FULL when the hot water is on (nightmare with the recent weather, upstairs has been 32C!!). Our landlord says that they were told this is normal (as long as it's only upstairs radiators)but I seem to remember this thread saying it isn't and is easily fixable.

payless

Yes- its not unusual

Can't you just turn the valve off on the radiator itself

Lemoncurd

I'm sure we can turn the valve off - had a quick look at it the other day and there was nothing you could turn by hand so we forgot about it.

trisha

Apparently there is an end which has a dummy cap on,pull or lever it off,there is a square brass spindle projection underneath, turn it clockwise to turn it off, you may need plyers to turn it.

(So there should be a wheel valve at one side and a dummy cap which doesn't turn at the other, that's the one you need to pull off.)

Good luck :-)

plumb1_2

If your heating system is solid flue(coal)then do not turn the rad off as it acts as a heat sink.(in the old days bathroom rads didnt have any valves)
If gas, it sounds like gravity circs feeding the hot water tank,the it will be ok to turn off.ask you landload to put thermostat valves to the system.
As you are renting the house/flat get your landlord to sort the problem out,as if you damage anything,you will end up paying

Silent_Bob_3

There should always be one radiator that is left open to allow hot water to flow, otherwise the boiler might blow up.

I think what you need to do is check the boiler and put it onto summer setting i.e. hot water only. Winter setting is both hot water and heating.

economiser

Difficult when its not your own system. I suppose you could could try covering the radiator with lots of towels and so on to reduce the heating effect. You won't blow the boiler up.

plumb1_2

Silent_Bob wrote:

There should always be one radiator that is left open to allow hot water to flow, otherwise the boiler might blow up.

The boiler will not blow up

Silent_Bob_3

yeah, I meant to say theres a good chance the pump in the boiler would pack up.

They need to put it onto summer setting so its hot water (for taps etc) only, or failing that look for a programmable time that might be set to continous and adjust the settings (time on/off) on that.

cloud_dog

I have same problem. I expected the upstairs bathroom rad to remain on / warm but we also get one / two of the d/stairs rads being warm.

We have a Worcester Bosch Highflow 400 combi boiler (big washing m/c sized one), and it does not have a summer setting. I have dialed down the heat output of the heating to zero and turned the water heating down to half way but still get the excess heat.

So, to clarify the situation (between Plumb1 and Silent Bob) will I be safe in turning down / off the the rad thermostats or could this cause problems with the gas combi boiler?????

Thanks for any info.............

cloud_dog

Silent_Bob_3

Radiators should have an easy turn thermostatic valve on one end where you can regulate the heat from low (inc off) to high. It is quite safe to turn all these radiators off.

In the radiator system though, there is always one radiator without these controls (normally on the landing or hallway) that allows any hot heating water to flow from the boiler, around the system and back to the boiler. Its called an open system.

This radiator should not have it valves closed at all - normally it would take a pair of pliers to turn it after taking the plastic caps off.

As for having a combi boiler without summer setting on it, there should be a time clock by it or in the airing cupboard that allows you to tell the boiler when to turn on for heating. You should be able to adjust this so the heating doesnt come on.