central heating

[srp]

Hi,

I was wandering if any one here has had a go at DIY installing central heating ? Thinking I could consider doing this in my next house. I have plumbed my kitchen and bathroom before and I quite enjoyed it . I guess there would be alot of moving stuff around, ripping up floorboards and soldering pipes etc , but assuming I left the gas stuff to a pro. it wouldn't be too tricky would it ? I guess that isntalling the pipes and rads is what would cost the most to get done. The house I was looking at is 3 bed detached, it just needs central heating doing mainly ( and a kitchen maybe) !!

Simon

[kmillar]

Hi Simon, I recently installed a full CH system, two zones. (HW and CH) using a sealed system, and a BAXI 'system' boiler. Prior to this I had done a few bathrooms and kitchens.

It turned out to be lots more work than I expected, basically due to the limited space for working under floors, it took a lot longer to do the pipework. Plus I was working alone.

Make sure you understand exactly what you need (especially legal requirments of flue location etc), do you want a Combi? Condesing boiler? Two zone? Sealed system or Vented?

To help you decide, go to any boiler manufacturers website that allows you to download installer manuals (baxi is one) and make sure you fully understand the installation instructions.

Remeber there will be some wiring to do too.

However, it is possible, and I now have a fully satisfactory and working CH system in my 3 bedroom semi. Although it was hard work, and at times I could have seen it far enough, but now I'm proud of my achievment.

[srp]

Thansk for that, I think I might enjoy a project like that!

Simon

[John]

The OP doesn't seem to have read the FAQ:-(

There are various odds and ends to beware of as noted above some of which are obvious and some of which aren't. For instance I had a d-i-yer on the phone last night asking if I could explain why his self install rads with y-plan control got appreciably warm when hot water only was selected. It turned out he had used the same return pipe for everything as it passed instead of a return for the hot water only and a seperate return for the rads with connection of the two close to the boiler. Pipe pressure drop was sufficient to cause parasitic circulation. We managed to sort out his next course of action over the phone which considering the weather here last night I was pleased about.

Oh and IMHO he ought to look at Glow Worm boilers instead of Bxxx