Balancing Central Heating along with Indirect Hot Water....

Mizuno Man

Can anyone give me an idea how to balance radiators alongside an indirect hot water coil with balancing valve?

I'm happy enough working through the rads and can find heaps of help in this regard in internetland. But there's nothing about setting the balancing valve on the HW coil!

My system currently is a gas fired, sealed system. At the moment I have no zone valve for the HW so if the heating is on, the HW is supplied at the same time.

Any hints appreciated....

Pete67

Assuming the balancing valve is a standard gate valve, close it fully and then open it one and a half turns. keep an eye on the hot water for a couple of days, if it heats up in reasonable time then leave well enough alone. If it takes a long time to heat the water and the radiators are heating well, then open it a little further. If you open it too much you will struggle to get sufficient circulation to the radiators, and they won't heat properly. A little trial and error may be required.

Dardania

In theory...it should be based on the same flow / return temperatures as the radiators. Old school systems presumed F/r of 82C/71C (or therabouts...) so if you had a way of comparing the flow & return temps, that'd be the way to do it

Pete67

Dardania wrote: »

In theory...it should be based on the same flow / return temperatures as the radiators. Old school systems presumed F/r of 82C/71C (or therabouts...) so if you had a way of comparing the flow & return temps, that'd be the way to do it

Agreed, as long as the flow and return temperatures are monitored when the cylinder is cold. Once it is hot there will be no appreciable difference between them regardless of flowrate through the coil.

Dardania

Pete67 wrote: »

Dardania wrote: »

In theory...it should be based on the same flow / return temperatures as the radiators. Old school systems presumed F/r of 82C/71C (or therabouts...) so if you had a way of comparing the flow & return temps, that'd be the way to do it

Agreed, as long as the flow and return temperatures are monitored when the cylinder is cold. Once it is hot there will be no appreciable difference between them regardless of flowrate through the coil.

Ah, didn't think of that nuance, but makes sense indeed that the cylinder should be cold (or hot tap left running).

Mizuno Man

Thanks everyone. Gets me started at least.

Wondering should I set the balancing valve first and then fiddle with the rads or does it matter?

agusta

set the balancing valve on the cylinder first

Mizuno Man

Thanks for the help guys and sorry for the tardy response time.

The balancing valve was open two full turns which seemed way too much. We had a radiator that wasn't heating in an extension (new house to us) and I was guessing we had balancing problems of some sort. The lockshield valve on the nearest rad to the extension was wide open also. Turned the HW valve back one full turn as well as setting the lockshield to one turn open and we still get fairly rapid hot water but now have full heat in the extra rad too.

Seems to be such a hit and miss process but it looks like I got lucky first time around!

Thanks again!