Quick Question Thread

[Derry Alli]

@TxRover. Do your thing.

[Boghead ranter]

1 hour ago, Florentine_Pogen said:

You should be able to inspect the drainage layout drawings for your / your neighbours houses at your local council Building Control Dept.

In Edinburgh, this info is available online.

I'm in the FK postcode, so I'll just hotspot Michael Matheson's iPad and get what I need.

[TxRover]

3 hours ago, Derry Alli said:

@TxRover. Do your thing.

Well, with an address, a name, a bank routing number and their mother's maiden name...

[welshbairn]

On 17/11/2023 at 12:53, Left Back said:

The TRV's don't control the heating and only slightly control the efficiency.

In a typical system you have a wall thermostat someone, often in the coldest room you want to heat (like the hallway).  When that determines it's too cold it calls for heat and fires the boiler.  Typically the radiator in that room won't have a TV and will essentially be fully open (to ensure when the boiler is heating and therefore the pump is running there is somewhere for the water to actually flow through).

When the thermostat decides it's hot enough there (at whatever temp you've set it to) it stops calling for heat.

The TRV's on all the other radiators are used to set how hot you want that room to be so when the wall thermostat in the hallway calls for heat if the TRV in the living room detects the living room is colder than its setting water will flow through the living room radiator and heat the room.  If it decides it's OK the living room won't be heated.  This is how TRV's can make heating efficient.  If all TRV's are switched off hot water only flows through the radiator where the thermostat is and doesn't incur heat loss anywhere else.  the hallway (for example) then heats up quicker and switches the boiler off quicker.

If you have the TRV's full open then that radiator will be accepting water for longer (and therefore incurring heat loss making the system less efficient as there's less heat going to the hall radiator.  You could also be putting more heat into that room than you need making it less efficient there also.

You want the TRV in each room set to whatever is a comfortable temperature in that room (higher for living areas than bedrooms) but not higher than that.

As to the boiler temperature that's different and there is no right or wrong answer.  the higher the temp the quicker the rads will heat up and therefore the thermostat will stop calling for heat.  Some engineers will tell you to have it as high as possible and some as low.

I've just left my house unoccupied for a month and was in a bit of a rush, so instead of following @Zen Archer (Raconteur)'s advice and turning all the TRVs down I just turned the wall thermostat in the hallway down to about 12c. Will I come back to a flood from frozen pipes or an exploded boiler?

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

5 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

I've just left my house unoccupied for a month and was in a bit of a rush, so instead of following @Zen Archer (Raconteur)'s advice and turning all the TRVs down I just turned the wall thermostat in the hallway down to about 12c. Will I come back to a flood from frozen pipes or an exploded boiler?

That'll work.

[Bairnardo]

5 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

 Will I come back to a flood from frozen pipes or an exploded boiler?

Yes

[Derry Alli]

I'm surprised your house isn't Grimbo'd being at 24°c constantly.

[Left Back]

7 hours ago, alta-pete said:

Thanks for this. All a very detailed explanaion of the TRVs but i still think the unknown answer to my question lies in the bit where no-one seems to want to offer a definitive position! 

Trial and error.

 If you think the rooms are heating up quick enough you could turn the boiler down until you think they aren’t heating up quick enough.  You could also balance the system by tweaking the lockshields if some rooms are heating up quickly and some not.

There is a scientific method to balancing the system by measuring the heat loss across each radiator individually.  Sod that though.  Stick your hand on each rad a few minutes after firing the boiler.  Turn the lockshield down on the hottest one to send more flow to the others.

It sounds like a load of fannying about but it really isn’t.  Tweak some things over a couple of days to get the rooms heating how you want them and that’s the best efficiency you’ll get.

[BFTD]

I love how @Zen Archer (Raconteur) is our plumbing contact. There used to be a thread for people to post their skills for people to pick their brains; shame it didn't really take off. You're all welcome to message me about...erm...alright, I'll let you know if I'm ever good at anything.

Anyway, now the World Cup qualifiers have started kicking in, what's the best site or app for keeping track of international football? FIFA's website is dugshite and keeps getting worse. I'd just like a place to easily see upcoming fixtures and look at current tables/results without much faffing about. Something that notifies me of games within the next 24 hours might be nice too.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

On 20/11/2023 at 17:03, welshbairn said:

I've just left my house unoccupied for a month and was in a bit of a rush, so instead of following @Zen Archer (Raconteur)'s advice and turning all the TRVs down I just turned the wall thermostat in the hallway down to about 12c. Will I come back to a flood from frozen pipes or an exploded boiler?

And possibly your hoose tanned and a big shite on your living room rug.

[welshbairn]

2 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkay said:

And possibly your hoose tanned and a big shite on your living room rug.

Thankfully my house is a long way from Dundee, that's the only clue you're getting.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

13 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Thankfully my house is a long way from Dundee, that's the only clue you're getting.

I have a stock of Tena men and a tank full of petrol.

[scottsdad]

21 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkay said:

I have a stock of Tena men 

Not even remotely surprised

[Miguel Sanchez]

Wonder if @Flybhoy is jealous about people going somewhere else for plumbing advice.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, welshbairn said:

Thankfully my house is a long way from Dundee, that's the only clue you're getting.

That's all the info we need.

@Hedgecutter do your thing.

[Soapy FFC]

On 17/11/2023 at 11:43, alta-pete said:

seeing as we have your attention, @Zen Archer (Raconteur), I've asked this question many places elsewhere and have yet to get an answer I understand:

To run the gas central heating in the most efficent (cheapest) manner, should I have the boiler turned up high and the thermostatic valves on the radiators turned down low, or should I have the thermostatic valves wide open and the boiler running at as low a temp as possible? If it of relevance, I'm in a fairly modern new build house.

  Reveal hidden contents

And for the pish patter thread, I've already tried it with the windows wide open and that doesn't seem to work.

 

Lots of info on this page.

https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/thermostats-and-heating-controls/

I don't think there is a simple straight answer

 

[Flybhoy]

On 20/11/2023 at 17:03, welshbairn said:

I've just left my house unoccupied for a month and was in a bit of a rush, so instead of following @Zen Archer (Raconteur)'s advice and turning all the TRVs down I just turned the wall thermostat in the hallway down to about 12c. Will I come back to a flood from frozen pipes or an exploded boiler?

If you have an actual room thermostat, either a manual one that turns round or a digital display one, have your heating on constant at the boiler but have the roomstat at something like 10 or 12°  , that will keep the house at a temperature that will keep the chill out the place and prevent frozen pipes etc whilst not giving you a motherfucker of a gas bill  

Another wee tip for you and anyone else this time of year, most frozen/burst pipes occur in the attic   

If it gets close to 0° on the weather forecast remove or, half open the loft hatch if you have a tank and/or water pipes up there to get a bit of heat circulation to prevent a disaster  

[Flybhoy]

2 hours ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

Wonder if @Flybhoy is jealous about people going somewhere else for plumbing advice.

Like someone else piping your wife in front of you. 

 

The kind of thing I'm certain Douglas Ross gets his rocks off to.

[coprolite]

I have an occasional commute that involves a decent walk to and from train stations. I have started taking my work shoes in a bag and wearing trainers for the walk. Does this mean i am a woman? 

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

2 hours ago, coprolite said:

I have an occasional commute that involves a decent walk to and from train stations. I have started taking my work shoes in a bag and wearing trainers for the walk. Does this mean i am a woman? 

The feedback from the WhatsApp group are not encouraging.