What "man jobs" have you done today?

theone8181 said:
I would have thought you could balance with trvs, or do you set them to max then regulate the locks hired, then set the trv to you preferred setting?
Click to expand...

TRVs are historically crap. But you would balance the lockshield valve. You want to close them A LOT. Mine are only open about 1/2 a turn. The TRV head should just be regulating room temperature.

TRVs are not designed for regulating pressure in the radiator, and there's good evidence from Denmark that shouldn't be used to control your heating system unless they are pressure independent.
 
Fitted a new light - used wago's to tie off the old connected loops for other lights on the ring

T2VKSkT.jpeg
 
I finally pulled my finger out and went up into the loft to check the boiler flow temperature. I thought it was set to 60c but it was @70c. I've lowered it to 60c which will reduce gas usage a little.
 
dirtychinchilla said:

How to optimise your combi boiler

Morning, https://www.nesta.org.uk/project/optimising-boilers-reduce-household-emissions/how-to-optimise-your-boiler/ Have a go at this. Super useful. Hard to test given it's not cold yet, but I don't think it'll be long. dirtychinchilla
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk

Link in here.
Click to expand...
Condensing boiler then. Won’t impact hot water anyway. Just heating and that’s assuming it wasn’t condensing already at 70C. Which depends on many factors in individual setups.
 
Last edited:
Simon said:
Condensing boiler then. Won’t impact hot water anyway. Just heating and that’s assuming it wasn’t condensing already at 70C. Which depends on many factors in individual setups.
Click to expand...

Well that is for condensing boilers, yes. But all boilers should benefit from lower flow temperatures because you burn less gas to get them to setpoint temperature. As you say though, depends on the rest of the system. However, right now most people shouldn't need to run their boilers at 70C.
 
dirtychinchilla said:
Well that is for condensing boilers, yes. But all boilers should benefit from lower flow temperatures because you burn less gas to get them to setpoint temperature. As you say though, depends on the rest of the system. However, right now most people shouldn't need to run their boilers at 70C.
Click to expand...
Hot water tanks need to be above 60C. Plus you need more hot water when running showers etc with a lower temp hot water.

And finally if you have small rads in your house you need the delta T to get your rads to warm the house. Or run the boiler for longer.

The condensing boiler mode is the real benefit. The rest is just thermodynamics and Q dot
 
Simon said:
Hot water tanks need to be above 60C. Plus you need more hot water when running showers etc with a lower temp hot water.

And finally if you have small rads in your house you need the delta T to get your rads to warm the house. Or run the boiler for longer.

The condensing boiler mode is the real benefit. The rest is just thermodynamics and Q dot
Click to expand...

Not above 60, at 60. If you read the guide it tells you not to set DHW to below 60 if you have a tank. But there's no reason why your CH should be at 60. You should read the thread instead of rehashing it.
 
Last edited:
Nah. I understand how my house works and boiler return temps rather than just dropping to 60C cause the internet says so. I put massive rads in so get a nice return temp drop and like nuclear hot kitchen hot water. :)

Back on topic I’m fighting a electrical fan in a bathroom which I replaced but it manages to trip two lighting circuits when it’s turned on
 
Last edited:
Simon said:
Nah. I understand how my house works and boiler return temps rather than just dropping to 60C cause the internet says so. I put massive rads in so get a nice return temp drop and like nuclear hot kitchen hot water. :)

Back on topic I’m fighting a electrical fan in a bathroom which I replaced but it manages to trip two lighting circuits when it’s turned on
Click to expand...

That's good to hear, but a low flow temperature is still important. A lower return being even more important.

One thing that I find hilarious at the moment (having said in on a round table with a lady from Octopus Energy on Tuesday) is the idea that we can succesfully transition to heat pumps and ditch gas boilers. I agree in principle, but almost every property in the UK has a gas a boiler, and almost everyone has no idea how to operate the system properly. There's no way those same people can be expected to run a much more expensive and dramatically more sensitive heat pump without major issues. Most people don't know that return temperature is a thing. No wonder they often get a bad rap!
 
dirtychinchilla said:
That's good to hear, but a low flow temperature is still important. A lower return being even more important.

One thing that I find hilarious at the moment (having said in on a round table with a lady from Octopus Energy on Tuesday) is the idea that we can succesfully transition to heat pumps and ditch gas boilers. I agree in principle, but almost every property in the UK has a gas a boiler, and almost everyone has no idea how to operate the system properly. There's no way those same people can be expected to run a much more expensive and dramatically more sensitive heat pump without major issues. Most people don't know that return temperature is a thing. No wonder they often get a bad rap!
Click to expand...
The issue with heat pumps is **** installers. No different to boilers really.

The end user really doesn’t need to know how it works, the installer should commission it correctly and all the user needs to do it turn it in when they want it to warm the house up.

The only major difference between a heat pump and a boiler is the reaction time due to the lower flow temperatures. It just takes a longer for a heat pump to warm up from cold than a boiler.

Running costs are near enough the same gas is 3x cheaper but a heat pump should achieve a 3x coefficient of performance averaged across the year.

The expense comes from retrofitting into houses designed for a boiler.
 
I can see cars becoming mostly EVs. I can see HGVs, ships and other heavy transport running on hydrogen.

I really can't see home boilers becoming heat pumps in our lifetime.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
The issue with heat pumps is **** installers. No different to boilers really.

The end user really doesn’t need to know how it works, the installer should commission it correctly and all the user needs to do it turn it in when they want it to warm the house up.

The only major difference between a heat pump and a boiler is the reaction time due to the lower flow temperatures. It just takes a longer for a heat pump to warm up from cold than a boiler.

Running costs are near enough the same gas is 3x cheaper but a heat pump should achieve a 3x coefficient of performance averaged across the year.

The expense comes from retrofitting into houses designed for a boiler.
Click to expand...

You're not wrong there. My house is just over a year old and nothing was balanced. But, if you have a system in your home you should be able to operate it properly. The level of ignoranve when it comes to central heating is astonishing.

Achieving an SCOP of 3+ isn't easy. I work for a building services company that supplies Mitsubishi heat pumps, and even ours here has an SCOP of about 2.7. It hasn't run for a full month with 3+ because it's rarely warm enough at the same time you're using the heating.

The expense is sort of irrelevant IMO. But the grid is also not green, so it's not a decarbonisation thing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom