Central Gas Heating BARELY reaching 18C

Domicio

Hey all, I'm not originally from Ireland and my wife and I bought our first home in Dublin but it is so cold.

We originally thought the problem was the old Gas Boiler, so we replaced with a brand new one (2.5k). We have also installed a new 3 zone system and insulated the attic with 300mm of coverage. They also bled the radiators and installed a new filter.

However, even after 6 hours with the heater on, it barely reaches 18C downstairs and I'm wondering if it is normal. I'm not sure if the issue is the gas central heating the problem or the lack of insulation in the house (build in 2004).

Every night we turn off the heater downstairs and in the morning it is around 12 degrees when we turn the heater on again.

I know the last couple of days have been freezing in Ireland and we are really struggling to keep our home cozy.

Should I leave the heater on all day (24hrs)?
Do you think there is an issue on the heaters or insulation?

Thanka in advance

Lenar3556

Sounds like the heating system isn’t delivering the required output, either because of a fault or because aspects of it are undersized.

What size is the house?
Are the radiators getting hot? Can you keep your hand on them?
What size is the new boiler?

Alkers

Lenar3556 wrote: »

Sounds like the heating system isn’t delivering the required output, either because of a fault or because aspects of it are undersized.

What size is the house?
Are the radiators getting hot? Can you keep your hand on them?
What size is the new boiler?

18 down to 12 overnight currently doesn't sound terrible given the current overnight temperatures. Maybe it's more of a case of the heating not working as expected rather than heat loss. How long does it take to get back up to 18? Where is the thermostat located (assuming that the heating is on a thermostat and not just a timer). Are all the rads warm when the heating comes on? Can you turn off rads in rooms your bit using?

Atlantic Dawn

What is the BER rating of the house?

L1011

What is the boiler itself set to for output temperature? This will be significantly higher than your internal air temperature.

Domicio

Lenar3556 wrote: »

Sounds like the heating system isn’t delivering the required output, either because of a fault or because aspects of it are undersized.

What size is the house?
Are the radiators getting hot? Can you keep your hand on them?
What size is the new boiler?

What size is the house? 92 sq m with 8 radiators in total (including two in the bathrooms upstairs)
Are the radiators getting hot? Can you keep your hand on them? They are getting hot and I can't keep my hand on them
What size is the new boiler? 18kw, model: It is Ideal Logic Max S18 System Gas Boiler

Alkers wrote: »

18 down to 12 overnight currently doesn't sound terrible given the current overnight temperatures. Maybe it's more of a case of the heating not working as expected rather than heat loss. How long does it take to get back up to 18? Where is the thermostat located (assuming that the heating is on a thermostat and not just a timer). Are all the rads warm when the heating comes on? Can you turn off rads in rooms your bit using?

How long does it take to get back up to 18? +6 hours... I would say that it takes 2 hrs to be back to 16 and then struggle a lot to get any higher value than 17
Where is the thermostat located (assuming that the heating is on a thermostat and not just a timer). We have one Google Nest thermostat in the kitchen (downstairs) -- we don't do a heavy use of the kitchen appliance - and other Nest thermostat is in the landing area upstairs.

Are all the rads warm when the heating comes on? Can you turn off rads in rooms your bit using? They are getting warm. When we turn on the central heating downstairs, it only kick off 3 rads

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

What is the BER rating of the house?

BER is C2. We are waiting for the new BER survey as it was done with the old Gas Boiler with + 15 years.

L1011 wrote: »

What is the boiler itself set to for output temperature? This will be significantly higher than your internal air temperature.

The output is set as 68C, temp marked as efficient by the boiler manufacturer (Ideal Logic).
Recently I set it to 80C (max) and it doesn't make too much difference and my m3 uses went to the roof!

DublinDilbert

What is the construction of your house? Semi detached? What type of windows/walls/doors? How much insulation is in the attic?

18C isn't great, but it wouldn't be unusual for an older house to struggle to get up to temperature and maintain heat. You are going to need to look at retro fitting insulation and general improvements. Some things like attic insulation will be quite simple and will give a nice return. Each snall update will give you a small gain.

If you want simple solution to the house retaining its heat, go for external wall insulation and good quality doors/windows, but neither of these are cheap.

Domicio

DublinDilbert wrote: »

What is the construction of your house? Semi detached? What type of windows/walls/doors? How much insulation is in the attic?

18C isn't great, but it wouldn't be unusual for an older house to struggle to get up to temperature and maintain heat. You are going to need to look at retro fitting insulation and general improvements. Some things like attic insulation will be quite simple and will give a nice return. Each snall update will give you a small gain.

If you want simple solution to the house retaining its heat, go for external wall insulation and good quality doors/windows, but neither of these are cheap.

The house was built in 2004, end of terrace with PVCs windows and backyard doors. Attic insulation upgraded to earthwool 300mm at the same time we replaced the Gas Boiler last Dec.

I'm about to get a heat survey from SnugHome to have a better understanding where the issue is but they are asking for e500... at least it is better to pay it before doing a massive investment like outside wall insulation.

Domicio

After leaving the central Gas Heating (downstairs only) on from 12 to 16h30, the living room was at 17C (from 13 to 17C). Is normal to take that long?

We decided to turn off the central heating and turning a small electric heating it it on 19C after an hour.

John.G

What are the dimensions roughly of the room, also the dimensions of the rad, WxH, double or single panel and the output of the electric heater and we might be able to figure something out.

Domicio

John.G wrote: »

What are the dimensions roughly of the room, also the dimensions of the rad, WxH, double or single panel and the output of the electric heater and we might be able to figure something out.

Rad on the living room is 120cm W x 50cm H. Double panel with single layer of convector.
Room is about 2.85m vs 5.30m
Electric heater is 1200w only (actually it is 2000w but it was running in a low setting)

Samuel T. Cogley

Something is not right there. My place is a C1 (C3 with the old boiler) and I have the same boiler. I'd get the place upto 20C in less than half an hour or so in the morning with the boiler set to 68C.

I do notice its slower when trying to heat the hot water at the same time, but not that much.

Just over 100sqm end of terrace. 2002 build.

Wearb

You say radiator is too hot to keep your hand on. Is it the same if you feel bottom centre?

John.G

Domicio wrote: »

Rad on the living room is 120cm W x 50cm H. Double panel with single layer of convector.
Room is about 2.85m vs 5.30m
Electric heater is 1200w only (actually it is 2000w but it was running in a low setting)

The rad output is ~ 1350 watts practically the same as your electric heater so should heat the room as fast once up to temperature but I would think a 2.5 to 3 kw rad would be required to get the temperature up to 20/22C.
As asked above, is the rad hot all over as it should still get the room up to 19c in ~ 2 hrs IMO.

Domicio

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Something is not right there. My place is a C1 (C3 with the old boiler) and I have the same boiler. I'd get the place upto 20C in less than half an hour or so in the morning with the boiler set to 68C.

I do notice its slower when trying to heat the hot water at the same time, but not that much.

Just over 100sqm end of terrace. 2002 build.

wow! 20C in less than half an hour sounds like a dream to me. Thanks. It shows that something is really wrong... :mad:

Wearb wrote: »

You say radiator is too hot to keep your hand on. Is it the same if you feel bottom centre?

Yeap, all of the rad is warm, around 80C. I've never had a central heating before powered by Gas Boiler... should it also "expel" a strong air? It expel just a little bit.

John.G wrote: »

The rad output is ~ 1350 watts practically the same as your electric heater so should heat the room as fast once up to temperature but I would think a 2.5 to 3 kw rad would be required to get the temperature up to 20/22C.
As asked above, is the rad hot all over as it should still get the room up to 19c in ~ 2 hrs IMO.

The rad is around 80C and it is hot all over.

Question: Who should I contact to review the issue? The company who installed the gas boiler, right?

Thanks!

Wearb

Is it beneath a window. Make sure there is good air circulation around it. Something near the bottom interfering with the air circulation can be almost as much of a problem as something on top.

Edit. If the rad is 80 all over. What temperature is your boiler set to?

Lenar3556

That boiler should really have no difficulty heating the house.

It sounds like the solution may involve increasing the size of some of the radiators combined with an assessment of where the heat loss is occurring - and consider the benefit of more insulation measures.

A good plumbing and heating contractor is who I would bring out in the first instance - see what his thoughts are.

In the meantime you could experiment with an electric heater of known output - see does adding another 2kw make much of a difference.

Domicio

Hi all, a quick update to keep the thread useful to other people.

I've replaced the type 11 rads downstairs that were generating 9000ish BTUs in total for type 22, generating now about the triple: 27000ish BTUs

It looks like to have fixed the majority of the issue, while of course, expending more gas than before.