Plumbers/Electricians One House Nil
We’ve finally got somewhere today in my battle with the killer central heating system.
The team of expert electricians and plumbers have just left and they found the following.
The pump that controlled the hot water to my showers was jamming, which explained the occasional non-hot water problems.
The room thermostats have no effect on controlling the hot water to the underfloor central heating. So if the master switch for downstairs is set to warm that part of the house, you get full flow upstairs. Hence the top floor just gets hotter and hotter.
I’ve now switched the heating off upstairs permanently and it is still holding at 23.5°C, which is a bit hot.
But at least we’ve won the first battle against Jerry.
What I can’t understand is why he didn’t fit underfloor electric central heating. We had that in the flat in the Barbican in the 1970s and it was as reliable as the finest Swiss watch.
This Heath Robinson system of pipes should never have been installed. I must say I’m tempted to rip it all out and replace it with an electric one.
The only thing against this is the running costs. On the other hand the house is so well insulated, that fixing the current faults in the system will probably be enough to make the house comfortable.
The Anonymous Widower 
These days electricity is a bit expensive and so it can be difficult to sell a property that uses it for heating. Electricity is the cheapest and easiest to install, and the simplest to control, but at 15p per Kwh instead of 4.8p for gas it has over 3 times the running cost. If you get a modern thermostat and use it to control the upstairs underfloor heating, I am sure you will be very happy with the result. You can select the right temperature for up to 4 periods per day, with the same or different settings for different days. Wireless devices are available to simplify installation, and there are those that can be connected to your network to provide access via the web to allow the system settings to be changed remotely.
Comment by John Wright | October 26, 2012 |
I’m an electrical engineer myself and my only problem is that one hand isn’t too good. But we’re winning, except that it seems to get worse. At the moment, I’ve got the system switched off and am relying on the solar gain, the insulation and the air conditioning to keep warm. It’s a nice pleasant 21 degrees with the window open.
Comment by AnonW | November 8, 2012 |