upstairs now too warm

[GMM]

That's why I had a wasps' nest in my intake - Had to take the flyscreen off for air flow -> wasps' nest -> no air flow !

Well...apart from the lack of controllability (the topic of this thread!) and having dirty great grilles in the walls I mean dirty - they're almost impossible to keep clean / paint up well), I've found that the biggest problem is that potential buyers walk away when they realise it's not a conventional system. In principle, it should work OK - most of North America uses it (not sure if that means it works well or it can afford to be inefficient), but it's very inflexible (I had to install electric UFH in an unheated area rather than extending the pipework and plonking another radiator in there). If it wasn't for lack of time and general procrastination, I would certainly have changed mine to a wet system by now.

[Dave Liquorice]

Next time ask for the air requirements of the heater and measurements of the the existing ventilation and see how they tally. I bet the first one will flumux the average BG "engineer". May also be worth asking to see his GasSafe (nee CORGI) certification for working on warm air systems.

In the meantime do a bit of digging on the web and find out what the air requirements are. Then see how you can meet those with out having to open ventilate the entire kitchen. It's very odd that one time the insist that the cupboard is kept closed then they insist that it is open. Almost as if they are making work for themselves, not that BG would do that sort of thing of course....

[<me9]

I had conventional flued warm air installed in a cupboard when the house was built in 1977. I installed the vent in the floor of the cupboard to reduce the draught.

I eventually gave up on it and installed a system boiler in the garage feeding a radiator system in 1993.

Despite simultaneously changing from an electric to gas tumble drier, the gas bill was considerably reduced (about 30%).

I'm now toying with replacing that boiler with a condensing model, possibly next time it fails (it has been quite reliable).

[<me9]

In my case it was the long runs of ducting to extensions that reduced the efficiency of the WAU. they had to heat up each time the heating ran and lost heat out of the house. they then had to heat up next burn, and so the further parts of the house cooled the longer the heat was on. Water is much more efficient in moving heat. The original (compact) system worked well once I'd balanced it properly.

You sound as if you get a well known national fuel supplier to service your system. Try a recommended local firm. However this may be difficult with warm air, there aren't many experienced withit.

[Jules]

I don't find that's usually too much of an issue, unless some bright spark's put a return vent in a smelly area - then it does get distributed all over the place :-)

[Owain]

Maybe that's an employment opportunity for dwarves outside the panto season.

Owain

[GMM]

Tell 'em Snow White's stuck down the end of the eaves in the dark and they should lay a trail of insulation to her so they can find their way back?

I have tried bribing my (skinny) 16yo, but he reckons he's too busy on the XBox.

Actually, just to make it more of a challenge, the rolls of insulation are already through the gaps (roofers kindly put them there when they were re-roofing, ready to install for me, but it rained and they had to get the roof covering on pdq. So I'll have to wriggle past them to make life more interesting......and unroll/cut them in the confined space. Ahh joy!

[Jules]

Toss Xbox through the hole and yell "fetch"? :)

[GMM]

After attaching the insulation to him? Good plan.......