On Fri, 2 Apr 2004 16:54:52 +0100, "Set Square" wrote:

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Phil Addison wrote:

On Fri, 19 Mar 2004 13:59:00 +0000, Alistair
wrote:

Shabs wrote:
I have read about a central heating system being balanced. I
recently removed all radiators to flush the gunge out of them.
Whilst doing this I had to close both sides of the radiator valves.
Upon rehanging the radiators I have opened fully the valve on the
opposite side to the thermostatic valve, ie the water inflow to the
radiator. How should these inflow valves be set as i have
radiators over 3 floors with 2 on the bottom, 4 on the 1st, and 2
on the 2nd. Any advice greatly appreciated in getting the balance
back.

Look at
http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/plumbing/pl...html#balancing

Describes the process.

For an alternative view see
http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/plumbing/rad-balance.html


For future reference, it is a good idea to note the position of each
lockshield valve (by counting the number of turns required to close it) when
turning it off. Then you can restore it to more or less the same position.

Already there. "3. Record initial LSV positions in case you want to return the
system to what it was."

I suspect that, even then, a further bit of fine tuning would be required.

When performing the balancing operation, it helps *enormously* to have a
non-contact IR thermometer (costing about 30 quid) - which enables you to
zoom round all the rads and to record the flow and return temperature of
each very quickly. This makes the iterative process (of progressively
restricting the flow to the rads with the lowest temperature drop) much
faster than it would otherwise be.

Quite so. In fact I added the following to that part of the Balancing FAQ a
few weeks ago :-)

Quote
* Since writing the above I have obtained a non-contact (infra-red)
thermometer and this makes the task VERY much easier and quicker. As the
reading from this type of instrument depends on the emissivity of the surface
being measured, the reading will vary slightly depending on whether it is
pointed at a dark copper pipe, chrome fittings or white radiator paint. I
found the easiest way to overcome this was to fix a piece of black PVC tape on
each of the points I wanted to measure. That gave me consistent results which
agreed well with my old thermo-couple thermometer. The instrument I have is a
model IR-88 Pocket InfraRed Thermometer obtained from CPC
http://www.cpc.co.uk/ for £35, part number IN02293.
END QUOTE



--
Phil Addison
The uk.d-i-y FAQ is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/
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