Installing zoned heating in a house

beldin

Has anyone installed zoned heating into an existing system.
House is approx 5 years old with gas heating.

On the face of it seems simple:)
Feed and return exit boiler and both go into T pieces , one way feeding downstairs and other way feeding upstairs rads and cylinder.

Can the T-piece be replaced by a motorised valve which would could be changed for downstairs only , upstairs only and both.

Would you need a valve on both feed and return...

The exisiting digital time would have to be upgraded to connect to this valve..
Anything else or is the whole idea wrong??

rooferPete

Hi Beldin,

I would think the valves would have to be fitted on the return both sides of the tee piece.

Items to take into consideration would be the water feeding the system, the balancing of the radiators, effects on the circulating pump, possible effects on the supply to the cylinder.

I think it might be an easier and possibly cheaper option to fit thermostatic rad valves.

.

dingding

I installed it in an oil fired system when I moved into my house about 10 years ago.

Basically, I wired the timer to open the valves. When the valved open the hit an internal switch. This is wired to turn on the boiler and pump. It is not possible to turn on the boiler and the pump without a valve been opened. I have 3 zones, hot water, upstairs heat and down stairs heat. I have also wired a thermostat into the circuit so when the room reached the programmed temperture the valve closes and turns off the heating.
:cool:

beldin

Thanks for the replies . I am going to put in thermostatic valves, I bought 3 today to get started on it. Trouble is I didn't realise I would have to take the old valve body out of the radiator. Ah well , better noticing now than when I have the system in bits.

I will have to think a bit more about getting the zoned heating in as well. There is someone in the house most of the day so it would be nice to be able to heat downstairs only, then do upstairs at night. I just have to try and get a plumber in who knows about this stuff.

JamesM

dingding wrote:

I installed it in an oil fired system when I moved into my house about 10 years ago.

Basically, I wired the timer to open the valves. When the valved open the hit an internal switch. This is wired to turn on the boiler and pump. It is not possible to turn on the boiler and the pump without a valve been opened. I have 3 zones, hot water, upstairs heat and down stairs heat. I have also wired a thermostat into the circuit so when the room reached the programmed temperture the valve closes and turns off the heating.
:cool:

This makes for quite an economicial system.
The only problem I can see with your system is the delay and drop in temperature before the system kicks in again.
If the thermostat closes the valve, which is "wired to turn on the boiler and pump", then this turns off the boiler and pump. This means that when the thermostat opens again and calls for heat, the boiler, which has gone cold, has to start up again and will take some time to reach a sufficient temperature to heat the room. This means that there will be quite a drop in temperature before the room returns to the desired temperature.

dingding

It is a very economical system as I don't generally heat the water by the oil fired boiler, I have electric showers and a wilis heater.

Use the thermostat and I would not really have noticed that effect. The thermostats are electronic so the respond fast. You need to power the boiler from the thermostats because IMO it would be dangerous to have the boiler on and all the valves closed.

Should have installed thermostatic valves at the time but the builder was looking to extort me for them. Will install them sometime.

davelerave

if you want 3 zones including a seperate h/w zone thats 3 5-wire n/c valves
usually and then stats .you can fit individual timers or a 3-channel timer then and the valve for the h/w might need to go beside the cylinder if the upstairs is all one circuit which means extra cabling .you'd need to get the work done professionally then.the same as what dingding said.the timer activates the mvs which then fire the boiler after they open

dingding

I used 2 of 2 channel timers. 3 chanels as above, upstairs, downstairs and hot water from the oil boiler. I wired the fourth timer to bring in a relay in the fuseboad which brings on the imersion (willis heater).

Well worth the effort of zoning the systems as you can have the upstairs at a lower temperature and also you save a lot of oil.

JamesM

dingding wrote:

Use the thermostat and I would not really have noticed that effect. The thermostats are electronic so the respond fast. You need to power the boiler from the thermostats because IMO it would be dangerous to have the boiler on and all the valves closed.

There is no problem running the boiler with valves closed. The water pump might not like it, but the boiler is fine - it has its own thermostat. The valves are only on one pipe (flow or return), so the water is able to expand. If you want a constant even temperature in a zone, the boiler must be kept up to temperature once the heating system is turned on.
Jim.

rooferPete

Hi Jim,

The systems we fitted where there were different zones meant allowing the boiler stat to control the the boiler, in winter the boiler may be on more often but using a lot less fuel because it's just topping up the water temperature.

While I had no problem piping the systems I did have a very good plumber on the jobs to look after the technical stuff like setting the stats and wiring them back to a control panel.

.

ismynametoolong

Beldin ! i recently installed a manual zone valve € 12 . Its great and i installed it for the same reason to provide heat down stairs during the day when the wife and kids are at home .i was pulling out an old fire place and the 3/4 hot feed ran up the inside of the same wall so i simply put the manual ball valve on the rising hot feed secured battened and re plastered the wall . Its a great job although i would have liked to install a second to allow for downstairs heat and hot water Its in place over a month now and no problems but it was on an oil fired system not too sure about gas . I also pulled up floor boards to ensure that the down stairs rads had ample access to the the return flow .