Underfloor heating, some rooms freezing cold

Cherrycola

Just moved into a new property and it has underfloor heating downstairs. Never used it before, LL maintained it was all running fine and we didn't need to adjust anything, but two of the bedrooms are freezing, and the living room.
We noticed three of the actuator heads were not clicked into place, and thought maybe that was the issue, but after a bit of googling maybe they are faulty and were left off for a reason?( do faulty actuators cause the whole system to stop working if they are clicked in? Does leaving them off allow a constant flow or something? Rooms don't seem to be heating either way)

I've attached a pic of what we're working with. Any input at all would be appreciated before we start hounding our LL.

It's the one on the right labelled Bedroom 1 that is like an ice block. Actuator head doesn't pop up when clicked into place.

Cherrycola

Bumping this for some help please!
We thought we had it sorted, house was finally warming up, then our oil ran out, 170L gone in one week!!! Wtf?!
Can anyone tell us how we are meant to run this system efficiently?! And without bankrupting us!

Czhornet

Have you checked the thermostats in the rooms, sometimes there is an off switch on the side of them. Happen to me, and it cuts the power to the actuator on the manifold.

Also oil is a very expensive method to use for underfloor heating. it takes hours of running at night rate for my electric heat pump to heat the house. If it running for hours constantly then that wont be long burning your oil!

Cherrycola

Czhornet wrote: »

Have you checked the thermostats in the rooms, sometimes there is an off switch on the side of them. Happen to me, and it cuts the power to the actuator on the manifold.

Also oil is a very expensive method to use for underfloor heating. it takes hours of running at night rate for my electric heat pump to heat the house. If it running for hours constantly then that wont be long burning your oil!

Yes so I'm finding out after googling! We even asked when we viewed the property if the heating was expensive to run and they said not really, depends on how much you use it!
We've had it on 2hrs in the morning, and same in the evening. Apart from the first day trying to heat the house up when it was on longer.

I'm confused about how the whole system works, and why it burns more oil than rads? We have rads upstairs too, which im reading complicates things even further.

We have two small kids home all day so need the house warm, but we can't afford to be using almost 200L of oil every week! How is that even possible?! Is that normal?!
we have only just moved in but I'm already thinking we will need to move again by the end of the summer if the heating is this expensive, we can't afford to go through winter paying for this much oil.
We are paying more rent than our last place but thought moving from gas heating to oil would save us money there, how bloody stupid were we!

Czhornet

There is 1.5 kilometers of pipework in my house which is both upstairs and down stairs, with such a volume of water in those pipes, even to raise that temperature by 5 degrees it would have the oil on full time to reach the higher temperature. In the case of rads when the temp is reached the oil turns itself off while circulating the water and when it drops by a few degrees it comes on again for a few mins to top it up.
Our Heat pump is on from 11 pm to 7am every night and it keeps the house nice and warm, but it needs all that time to keep it warm.

Who ever was tell you that oil is efficient was telling porkies esp when it comes to UFH. Its best suited to rads.

Also a point to note, that each time a room is heated it will be taking from all the other rooms to be heated, that why our spare bedroom and front room are turned off until needed.

froshtyv

Cherrycola wrote: »

Just moved into a new property and it has underfloor heating downstairs. Never used it before, LL maintained it was all running fine and we didn't need to adjust anything, but two of the bedrooms are freezing, and the living room.
We noticed three of the actuator heads were not clicked into place, and thought maybe that was the issue, but after a bit of googling maybe they are faulty and were left off for a reason?( do faulty actuators cause the whole system to stop working if they are clicked in? Does leaving them off allow a constant flow or something? Rooms don't seem to be heating either way)

I've attached a pic of what we're working with. Any input at all would be appreciated before we start hounding our LL.

It's the one on the right labelled Bedroom 1 that is like an ice block. Actuator head doesn't pop up when clicked into place.

Looks like a cheap UFH manifold along with the actuators.
I would be pretty sure that the feed to manifold is tee'd off the boiler and a mixing valve stuck on the line somewhere, along with a pump or two for good measure.
Underfloor with oil should be used with a buffer tank, system link or a low loss header for a correct mechanical set-up.
Your oil boiler is more than likely "cycling" which is why you are going through the oil.
Running UFH for 2 hours is a waste of time. Its not on long enough for it to make a difference it needs to be on longer.

There is nothing you can do that will fix your issues im afraid. A plumber with a good knowledge of how an underfloor system should be mechanically setup is on the only person that can help you here.