Brand new house - but is the Central Heating working correctly?

[SeanC]

Hi,

I have just moved into a brand new house, which means a brand new Central Heating, but I;m not 100% sure its working as it should.

It has the mandatory condensing boiler (modulating type) in the kitchen connected to a thermal store mounted in a cupboard upstairs. Most of the radiators have TRV fitted except the ones in the bathrooms (2) and the two in the hall where the room stat is mounted. It has programmer that allows me to select heating or hot water.

This system has a three way motorised valve that seems to be controlled just from the room stat and a pump located next to the thermal store that runs as soon as the programmer turns on.

My concerns are that the room stat has not effect whatsoever. Yes I can hear the valve move as the thermostat is clicked on and off, but the radiators are always hot even when the stat is set down to its lowest setting. Now I expect some flow due to convection but should they all be red hot?

The other concern is that whilst the hot water is fantastic (mains pressure) the area around the cupboard housing the thermal store gets very hot....Now I can see the thermostat mounted on the thermal store but there appears to be no adjustment but I haven't taken the cover off yet. So I'm hoping I can turn that down a bit.

Initially I was concerned that the boiler was running for long period without ever cycling but I beleive that this is ok for a condensing boiler (we only had a combi before), but as the weather has warmed up it seems to cycle more. The thermal store keeps the water hot for quite a while.

I have yet to see what happens when you set the timer for just hot water (i.e. do the radiators get hot) thats tonights experiment..... I'm sure the room stat should offer me some control, otherwise I have to keep turning the TRVs up and down....

Thanks

Sean

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Why? TRVs should keep the temperature in a room reasonably constant. But they work by turning rads on and off - not reducing the temperature of them.

Some problems can arise if you have a programmable thermostat where you require different temperatures throughout the day. Obviously, this can only be accurate in the place where it's situated. However, if all the rads are correctly sized and balanced, the whole house should follow the main stat quite closely - even the rooms with TRVs.

[SeanC]

I understand what your saying....but the whole system seems to be ignoring the main stat. I even tried it tonight with the timer just on hot water and the rads still got hot. I suspect its been wired up wrong...plumbed wrong or the zone valve not working as it should.

Time to get the builders back in.

[chris French]

In message , SeanC writes

No, obviously something is not quite right. I sounds like the motorised valve isn't closing properly.

Indeed it should.

Err, why? the TRV should keep the temp in it's room - that's the thermostatic bit :-)

I think you need to get hold of however you need to to sort it out.