On 4 Dec 2005 12:12:00 -0800, wrote:

Hi Folks,
Just mumbling out loud here to see what others think:

Our builder has (unusually?) told us that he's happy to erect our new
conservatory
over the Christmas holiday period, providing that the brickwork can of
course be
put in place by then.

This has caused me to think seriously about heating the new space. I've
never owned
a conservatory before, so it's all new to me.

Present proposition is to add three wall radiators to the dwarf-walled
conservatory
and run these off my mains gas wet central heating system.

Being careful with the pennies, I was thinking of adding a two-port
valve to the feed
for these radiators, and then controlling this valve from (say) some
sort of timer
such as an immersion-heater-booster device as per shown on the TLC web
site
he
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Ind...s_2/index.html

Prior to using the space, I merely press the button for (say) a
two-hour duration and this
opens the valve for that time.
I'll leave the house stat to decide whether the boiler needs fired, and
also I'll add
Thermostatic Radiator Valves to the three radiators too.

Of course, this arrangement does not guarantee that the boiler will
fire when the
conservatory needs it, but I'm hoping that that will not be a problem
(fingers crossed;
this is where your opinion is sought).

This meets the building regulation requirements in that there is
separate control for the conservatory.

In effect here, you are connecting the new zone valve in series. I
can see that it might be easier than running pipes all the way back to
the existing diverter or zone valves.

You might get away with this approach (mostly) if you arrange for the
conservatory to reach temperature before the rest of the house.
This could be achieved by oversizing the conservatory radiators (may
not be possible in the space) or by deliberately distorting the system
balance so that the bulk of the heating water goes to the conservatory
radiators and then to the house when the conservatory is warm. The
trouble is that the time for the house to warm up may then be quite
long and variable.




Instead of fancy Frost Stats I was thinking of adding an electric panel
radiator to
the conservatory whose thermostat is set quite low.
Thus when the outside temperature plummets and there is a risk of the
conservatory
radiators freezing, the electric panel cuts in and lifts the
temperature to avoid this.

Perhaps another immersion-heater-booster switch could be wired to
override the
thermostat to kick the electric panel in if required.

Any problems with my scheme?

Any source of an electric-booster switch with more flexibility than
that shown on
the TLC site?

Advice requested; thanks in advance.

Mungo

--

..andy