do i need more insulation or new rad's?
Discussion
Brought our first home (eco friendly, new build) about two years ago and it does what is says on the tin. The cost of running the house has been very reasonable. My only problem is with the heating. The house gets lovely and warm downstairs within 15-20 mins of cranking up the heating. The upstairs however never gets what i would call warm or toasty no matter how long we run the heating. The rads in the room are all getting hot but the rooms aren't. Not a problem for me as i work outside all day and find the heating uncomfortable at times. However now we've got the patter of little feet on the way and my mrs is concerned about the babies room not getting hot enough. Each room has to windows in it about a meter square and have curtains. Ive been in the loft and its got an even coverage of insulation throughout.
So do i need to get larger rads or more loft insulation or what? Thanks for replies in advance.
So do i need to get larger rads or more loft insulation or what? Thanks for replies in advance.
The insulation in a house only two years old should be top notch, especially an eco friendly one!
If the rads are single panel, which they probably are, you could change them to a double panel without having to alter the pipe work too much (if at all)
If the rads are single panel, which they probably are, you could change them to a double panel without having to alter the pipe work too much (if at all)
Edited by gtr-gaz on Sunday 31st January 18:24
Are the rads upstairs getting as hot as the down stairs, if your room stat is located downstairs in a fairly warm room, the boiler will think it has done its job when that room reaches the right temp and therefor only kick in again to bring the temp up in the general location of the room stat i.e. downstairs
have you tried hiking the temp up high to see if this then affects the temp upstairs
we have the opposite problem at home, stat is located upstairs therefore downstairs tends to be cooler
have you tried hiking the temp up high to see if this then affects the temp upstairs
we have the opposite problem at home, stat is located upstairs therefore downstairs tends to be cooler
It may be a design issue! this happened where I live now as the rads where too small for the room. The heating engineer hadnt realised the bedroom was to have a vaulted ceiling so we ended up just fitting a bigger rad! I have also heard of a few issues with new eco houses which work brilliantly on paper but not quite so in practice!
http://www.homesupply.co.uk/radiator_output_calcul...
you colud size up your own radiators here to see if you have been corectly sized
you colud size up your own radiators here to see if you have been corectly sized
sheldo said:
Brought our first home (eco friendly, new build) about two years ago and it does what is says on the tin. The cost of running the house has been very reasonable. My only problem is with the heating. The house gets lovely and warm downstairs within 15-20 mins of cranking up the heating. The upstairs however never gets what i would call warm or toasty no matter how long we run the heating. The rads in the room are all getting hot but the rooms aren't. Not a problem for me as i work outside all day and find the heating uncomfortable at times. However now we've got the patter of little feet on the way and my mrs is concerned about the babies room not getting hot enough. Each room has to windows in it about a meter square and have curtains. Ive been in the loft and its got an even coverage of insulation throughout.
So do i need to get larger rads or more loft insulation or what? Thanks for replies in advance.
How warm does it get upstairs? Babies have managed for hundreds of years to survive in houses without near-tropical levels of centrally heated warmth! Also, upstairs may seem colder than it really is if the temperature downstairs is piping.So do i need to get larger rads or more loft insulation or what? Thanks for replies in advance.
Dogwatch said:
Are the downstairs rads pinching most of the heat so that the upstairs ones never get really hot? In other words has the installation been balanced properly?
Don't rush into paying out money for new rads until you are sure there really is an undersize rad problem!
What he said, the second valve on the radiator (the one you don't adjust) is used to create a pressure drop across the radiator this helps regulate the temperature of the radiator, if the system is out of balance some radiators will be much hotter than others.Don't rush into paying out money for new rads until you are sure there really is an undersize rad problem!
Secondly as the thermostat is probably downstairs, then if the radiators upstairs don't get hot enough the system will shut down without heating the upstairs.
Ferg said:
Ferg said:
If the radiators are achieving 80 degrees-ish, but the room isn't reaching 19 degrees, then I'd say you have a problem. Possibly insulation, worth checking first, if not bigger radiator.
THIS is what you need to check FIRST.Edited by Ferg on Sunday 31st January 21:10
Edited by dfen5 on Sunday 31st January 21:54
dfen5 said:
Ferg said:
Ferg said:
If the radiators are achieving 80 degrees-ish, but the room isn't reaching 19 degrees, then I'd say you have a problem. Possibly insulation, worth checking first, if not bigger radiator.
THIS is what you need to check FIRST.Edited by Ferg on Sunday 31st January 21:10
Edited by dfen5 on Sunday 31st January 21:54
Simon Brooks said:
Are the rads upstairs getting as hot as the down stairs, if your room stat is located downstairs in a fairly warm room, the boiler will think it has done its job when that room reaches the right temp and therefor only kick in again to bring the temp up in the general location of the room stat i.e. downstairs
have you tried hiking the temp up high to see if this then affects the temp upstairs
we have the opposite problem at home, stat is located upstairs therefore downstairs tends to be cooler
I had a similar problem in out new house - downstairs hot upstairs much cooler. Simple fix - leave upstairs rads at max temp 6 and turn downstairs ones to 3 or 4, leave thermostat at 20-21.have you tried hiking the temp up high to see if this then affects the temp upstairs
we have the opposite problem at home, stat is located upstairs therefore downstairs tends to be cooler
Eco home - I love that term ... no such thing, houses today are struggling to be as efficient as the early first man made houses made from mud, s
t and straw.
Dont worry too much about the heating, wrap the little one up warm on a night and leave heating off if you can , you will have a much healthier baby
t and straw.Dont worry too much about the heating, wrap the little one up warm on a night and leave heating off if you can , you will have a much healthier baby
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