What do I need to do to get my radiators working properly?

matt100

matt100

matt100

Soldato
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Surrey
We use our converted loft as an office which is obviously way too hot in summer, freezing in winter.

We've had a big radiator put in but it would appear I need to turn some radiators off downstairs to get any heat into the one up here... do I need them balancing or is it possible the combi is mostly just too gutless to power all the radiators? It's not a big house but the boiler is on the bottom floor, this is on the 2nd.

I've bled it all, seems fine, it also had a good clean out/service on account of breaking either last year or the one before.

I did watch some youtube vids on balancing and it's not for me, is that the sort of thing a heating engineer would have as a service? Any idea on cost if we think it's necessary?
 
SoliD said:
Have you got the option of turning up the temp of the rads on the boiler, it may just need the boiler to give a bit more oomph through the system to get it up to temp. Would've thought whoever installed the RAd would have done this for you already though.
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I trust the guy who did it but we've had a lot of work done/new rads/bplumbing/new bathroom/new kitchen etc all done when we weren't using heating so I'm not all that surprised.
 
Well like I say I can make it all work it's just finnicky so I don't think I'm in new boiler territory..

And I freely admit this house is insulated like a pile of ****.. it's a 1910 semi with a suspended floor in the living room that you can actually see through... getting that insulated is a non starter allegedly, I've had a few people look and the lack of distance to the ground and the fact it's on stilts etc and the risk of damp means we've resorted to a rug.

The roof is also like swiss cheese which didn't come through on the survey but we're not planning to stay beyond the current mortgage fix so all of these things are sort of unchangeable.

Thankfully we're able to pay pretty much whatever heating bill so really my main concern is making the radiators work.

If we were staying it would be a new boiler, new roof, solar panels etc etc
 
Did you see the bit where I said it was converted already (so is insulated but either way is also plastered and decorated and has a bathroom in it etc) and that there is also a radiator that works?

Intermittently is the issue in discussion?
 
Honestly no idea, but I know the guy who did it has fitted me a very nice kitchen and bathroom and 2 other radiators that work just fine!
 
Bat said:
Assuming all your rads have lockshield valves, why not turn all rads off at the lockshield, making a note of how many turns are required to fully close the lockshield. Then open the problem radiator lockshield fully. If that makes it work, just open the lockshields on the other rads a tiny bit at a time until they get warm.

If you then end up with the problem rad not heating up again, then it's a fair indicator that the system is not up to circulating to all rads currently. You can always return everything back to how it was by re-adjusting the lockshields based on your notes of the current setup.
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thats not a bad idea, I may give that a go!
 
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