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.
- 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 :-)
- 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?
- 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?
- 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