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On Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:57:19 +0000, Pete Verdon <...@verdonet.organisation.unitedkingdom.invalid
I have a fairly standard combi-boiler pressure heating system, which for
the year since I moved in I've mostly left to its own devices (had a gas
safety check since I have lodgers, but nothing related to its
effectiveness at providing heat). However, I'm thinking I should
probably pay a bit of attention to it if I want to keep it in good nick
and avoid wasting gas. The boiler is installed in (and so presumably
dates from) an extension which I believe was done in 2000ish. The rest
of the system would be about ten years older than that.
1. I don't think the system is at all properly balanced - the radiator
at one end of the living room never heats up (and that end of the room
is noticeably cold) but my bedroom (and most of the rest of the
upstairs) can become sauna-like at times. I've not balanced a system
before; any pointers to some good instructions? I do have an IR
thermometer :-)
2. I have no idea if the system has been properly treated with rust
inhibitor etc (something my dad goes on about at great length, together
with showing off his before & after jam-jars-with-nails-in :-) ). I also
can't see any obvious way of adding it; are there special gadgets that
feed it in via the filling loop (and what if the system is already up
near max pressure?). Are there any general cleaning/unbunging tonics
that might be worthwhile on an unknown system?
3. I have TRVs everywhere (the boiler has a bypass loop) and no
thermostat or timer apart from the simple circuit stat and timer on the
front of the boiler. Temperature can be erratic, mostly I assume due to
the lack of balancing and TRVs being set randomly, but timing-wise the
heating is generally ok in terms of being on when it's wanted and not
when it's not. Once I sort out the balancing, is there likely to be much
to be gained from anything more sophisticated?
4. This morning I had a low-heating-circuit-pressure warning on the
boiler, and had to top it up via the filling loop. I have had to do this
a couple of times before as well. There aren't any obvious leaks or damp
patches, but should I be worried about where the water is going?
On the plus side, the air-pressure warning I mentioned recently has not
recurred; perhaps it was just the wind after all. I might yet blow
through the pressure switch next time I'm working on the boiler though,
just in case.
Any other pointers to things to watch out for in a heating system?
Cheers,
Pete
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