Radiator Question

Bendihorse

I have recently moved into a new house sharing with two others. It is a pretty huge 5 bedroom house and is hard enough to heat. Tonight i have heat on and fire down but i can feel a proper draft blowing through the room and its not heating up.

One of the housemates lived here before me and has a lot of the radiators in the house turned off like the one in the kitchen and main hallway, i presume to save money. I am wondering is it true that turning off radiators will save on heating oil? Im not sure of the science of heating systems but i presume the more radiators that are on the more water/fluid must be be heated by the boiler to warm them? Or is it a case that if it is turned on and heating 5 radiators as it is, that it may as well heat 8 or 10?

I am thinking of turning on a few as she has gone home for two weeks holiday, just to see if it makes a difference...

Pete67

You are right - turning on additional radiators increases the heat load on the boiler so it must burn more fuel to compensate.

An open fire will cause a lot of drafts as air is pulled into the room by the effect of the chimney draft. If the rest of the house is cold, then you will have cold drafts coming in under doors etc.

items

Bendihorse wrote: »

I have recently moved into a new house sharing with two others. It is a pretty huge 5 bedroom house and is hard enough to heat. Tonight i have heat on and fire down but i can feel a proper draft blowing through the room and its not heating up.

One of the housemates lived here before me and has a lot of the radiators in the house turned off like the one in the kitchen and main hallway, i presume to save money. I am wondering is it true that turning off radiators will save on heating oil? Im not sure of the science of heating systems but i presume the more radiators that are on the more water/fluid must be be heated by the boiler to warm them? Or is it a case that if it is turned on and heating 5 radiators as it is, that it may as well heat 8 or 10?

I am thinking of turning on a few as she has gone home for two weeks holiday, just to see if it makes a difference...

Their is no point in turning off rads if rest of house suffers, bit pointless really.

Open them up, the least used rooms should have rad flows barely open, just enough to let some water pass, flow is the pipe that heats up first.

Boiler uses most oil / works harder when heating water from dead cold, a boiler set at a lower temperature, running for longer will cost less to run than a boiler set at a higher temperature, running less. If you can make sense of that, have a look at setting up time clock along with some different programs, plenty of ways to cut down on oil use.

breadbin

so thats what them knobs are for, they limit the water going in and out but why two? surely if you let more water in the water out has to be the same? sorry to hijack but just interested:)

quinnthebin

breadbin wrote: »

so thats what them knobs are for, they limit the water going in and out but why two? surely if you let more water in the water out has to be the same? sorry to hijack but just interested:)

you'll find one of them is not adjustable and just has a cover cap on it. This one is set when the system is being 'balanced' - it regulates the flow to ensure the correct distribution of the hot water throughout the system. The other one is for turning on and off the rad (or for setting the individual thermostat if provided).

items

breadbin wrote: »

so thats what them knobs are for, they limit the water going in and out but why two? surely if you let more water in the water out has to be the same? sorry to hijack but just interested:)

Flow and return, heated water from boiler flows out to rads etc, then as it cools water returns to boiler to be heated again.

Your rad has a flow and return, flow can be adjusted by anyone, return is locked after adjusted by plumber.

Flow should be on the right, return on left but more times than not, its the other way around, to find out which is which, let heating go cold, then turn it back on, run around with a pencil and mark each rad at side that heats up first (feel pipe), change rad cap to match flow.

Rad valves on flow side turn rad on or off along with limiting flow (slowing). Rad valves on return side, restrict. Return side should never be open more than two turns from closed. The idea is to restrict the flow going out so heat in water can dissipate (give heat to room). If returns happen to be open more than two turns, water is flowing through rad to fast, not giving off heat efficiently.

Returns also act as a balance, a way to balance out rads so they all start to heat evenly. Might be handy to read back some old posts, one called luke warm rad, whole list of how to balance rads there.

Closing down rad flows in rooms of less use is the way to go, just crack them open a small bit, its more than enough to take chill out of room, leaves the house better overall while being efficient.

breadbin

this one
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055777248&highlight=luke+warm+rads