direct feed rads..

crackcrack30

Hi guys,

I have a 2200ft bungalow with 13 rads of various sizes. the rads are seperatly/ individually piped from two central manifolds (living area & sleeping)...attached to a island iii multifuel stove. - backed up by oil

Is this a standard setup ? what are the drawbacks to this setup i.e individual rad plumbing with regard to balancing rads ect.

Are their improvements that could be made to this setup?

& re pipestat on stove outlet - is it better to have it set low & running frequently or hotter at 65/70 ? for rads to heat up

Micky Dolenz

You have a lot more water in your system then a branch system. More water to heat = more expensive to run. You do however, have the advantage of not worrying about leaks under ground.

Balancing a manifold system is the same as any other. To improve performance you could add a pump for each manifold zone.

crackcrack30

its just not working......stove on all day...little or no heat to rads... cylinder hot ok, .........but rads only hot under oil heating, :rolleyes:
the individual rads run the lenght of the house underground from hotpress.
so I'm suspecting Ya that theres too much water in the system......

If i could heat the cylinder, the 4 bedrooms/& 2 x ensuites from the stove + bathroom id be happy which equates to 5 full rads & 2 half rads + cylinder. i should be getting 9k to the heating and 9k to the room from the charnwood 3

IM thinking of replumbing solid stove by... running 1inch from stove up into attic lag them in a loop and dropping 1/2 inch copper to the rads and taking them off the individual setup.

the reason id have to go up (to attic) is that the layout of the bungalow dosent lend its 'self to pipe routing due to crossing halls ect

The pipe work would be unsigtly i know but at least i'd have a working system.

any thoughts/help or suggestions..............tanx....

Carlow52

Isl 3 is 9kw to room and 9 kw to water so I'd say its doing the best it can.
http://www.charnwood.com/range/stove/island-iiib.aspx

shut down 5 or six rads and see what happens the balance.

How are the direct feeds controlled from the mainfolds, ie how do u isolate a rad or 2

If the oil heats the rads then the plumbing works, u may have a problem with a non return valve or a conflict with different circulation pumps or the manifolds plumbed the wrong way

Stove Fan

crackcrack30 wrote: »

its just not working......stove on all day...little or no heat to rads... cylinder hot ok, .........but rads only hot under oil heating, :rolleyes:
the individual rads run the lenght of the house underground from hotpress.
so I'm suspecting Ya that theres too much water in the system......

If i could heat the cylinder, the 4 bedrooms/& 2 x ensuites from the stove + bathroom id be happy which equates to 5 full rads & 2 half rads + cylinder. i should be getting 9k to the heating and 9k to the room from the charnwood 3

IM thinking of replumbing solid stove by... running 1inch from stove up into attic lag them in a loop and dropping 1/2 inch copper to the rads and taking them off the individual setup.

the reason id have to go up (to attic) is that the layout of the bungalow dosent lend its 'self to pipe routing due to crossing halls ect

The pipe work would be unsigtly i know but at least i'd have a working system.

any thoughts/help or suggestions..............tanx....

Hi, a 9kw boiler stove isn't very big at all for your bungalow and may only run 5 double rads. I think the boiler output is way undersized for the 13 rads:( You would be getting heat loss as the pipes are probably buried in concrete and probably not lagged at all.
What size are the 7 rads you would like to heat? Are they doubles or singles?

Try only having so many radiators on. In my opinion though the stove boiler output isnt big enough for the job.

Stove Fan:)

crackcrack30

cheers guys.

Theres just 2 manifolds in the hotpress - one to the living area and one to the beds area, oil connection on/to one side of manifolds and boiler connections on the other

Id like to heat 5-6 standard double rads with the stove ...(bed/ bath area) therefore disconnecting the living area altogether.......

Ill try (as advised) knocking off all down to 5 rads and see what happens - barely had a fire on tonite as its mild..... thank god.

ta............

Carlow52

crackcrack30 wrote: »

cheers guys.

Theres just 2 manifolds in the hotpress - one to the living area and one to the beds area, oil connection on/to one side of manifolds and boiler connections on the other.

This sounds like conflict within the manifolds.


As asked earlier

How are the direct feeds controlled from the mainfolds, ie how do u isolate a rad or 2

Where are the circulation pumps fitted?

crackcrack30

thanks c52

The rads are individually fed from the manifolds in the hotpress but the only way i can isolate individual rads is to manual turn off each rad at the rad.

The circ pump for the oil boiler is outside in the firebird, the circ pump for the boiler is on the return to the stove. there are two manual shutoff lever valves on the return side of these manifolds prior to the stove circ pump.

I think this is where the crux may be as ..(bear with me) ...even if i isolate the living area using one of the above mentioned lever valves the circ pump can draw/return water from the isolated manifold via the copper pipe joining the manifolds on the oil heated side making it impossible to isolate the manifolds when on stove heating

i prob need a lever valve on both sides of the manifolds to isolate them completly

please stick with me ill try to get some pics up...(tomorow)

crackcrack30

http://s1135.photobucket.com/albums/m639/boards2/


I'm confused

KoolKid

Images opening fine for me. There are always adverts on Photo Bucket, but I wouldn't call it spam.

KoolKid

Off topic posts deleted. A reminder:
Do not get into discussion re mod decisions on thread.
I am more than happy to discuss via PM.

Micky Dolenz

The installer seems to have done a good job there to be fair.

Even with one zone off, as seen in pic 5. There still is no sufficient heat?

Your stove may not be powerful enough to heat that much water.

DoneDL

OP make sure that the pump is running properly, the pipework either side of the pump should be equal in temperature when the stove is up to temperature. I would be tempted to try a Grundfos pump to see if the existing pump might not be up to the job.

crackcrack30

Am i right in saying guys

a) That the circ pump draws the water back from the on circut / mainifold that is on for the purpose of drawing the heated water into this system?

b) If the above question is correct/right then.... there should be a valve located on the copper pipe shown between the thermostatic (red)valves on photo 6 to prevent water being drawn from the lower manifold thru the required upper manifold by default - therefore the manifolds are infact not seperable by the lever valves...http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m639/boards2/autumn2011069.jpg


As always thanks for replys / insight and happy new year....

cc30...........