Re: Central Heating System Balancing

lockshield valve (by counting the number of turns required to close it) when turning it off. Then you can restore it to more or less the same position.

I suspect that, even then, a further bit of fine tuning would be required.

When performing the balancing operation, it helps *enormously* to have a non-contact IR thermometer (costing about 30 quid) - which enables you to zoom round all the rads and to record the flow and return temperature of each very quickly. This makes the iterative process (of progressively restricting the flow to the rads with the lowest temperature drop) much faster than it would otherwise be.

Already there. "3. Record initial LSV positions in case you want to return the system to what it was."

Quite so. In fact I added the following to that part of the Balancing FAQ a few weeks ago :-)

• Since writing the above I have obtained a non-contact (infra-red) thermometer and this makes the task VERY much easier and quicker. As the reading from this type of instrument depends on the emissivity of the surface being measured, the reading will vary slightly depending on whether it is pointed at a dark copper pipe, chrome fittings or white radiator paint. I found the easiest way to overcome this was to fix a piece of black PVC tape on each of the points I wanted to measure. That gave me consistent results which agreed well with my old thermo-couple thermometer. The instrument I have is a model IR-88 Pocket InfraRed Thermometer obtained from CPC
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  for £35, part number IN02293.

-- Phil Addison The uk.d-i-y FAQ is at

Sorry for re-inventing the wheel! I must admit that I didn't read the updated FAQ before posting.

I tend to assume anyway that people (if they're like me!) will often read in-line text before (and maybe in preference to) following up external links.