I think I've figured out what's happening, just not why.

I've used the highly scientific method of placing a food temperature probe
on top of the radiators - great! All other factors being equal though, I
think it's good enough.

All the radiators in the flat are registering around 48/49 degrees except
the one in the living room. When the heating kicks in after a period of
inactivity, that radiator reaches 48 and the room starts heating up but it
begins to cool when the boiler's been going for a while - then it drops to
about 38 or so and that's when the room stabilises.

Sounds like balancing?

So, my question is - given I don't have radiator thermometers to measure the
temperature drop across all the ones in the flat, is the best thing to open
them all and adjust them down 'til they're all equal?

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
steve wrote:

I think I've figured out what's happening, just not why.

I've used the highly scientific method of placing a food temperature
probe on top of the radiators - great! All other factors being equal
though, I think it's good enough.

All the radiators in the flat are registering around 48/49 degrees
except the one in the living room. When the heating kicks in after a
period of inactivity, that radiator reaches 48 and the room starts
heating up but it begins to cool when the boiler's been going for a
while - then it drops to about 38 or so and that's when the room
stabilises.

Sounds like balancing?

So, my question is - given I don't have radiator thermometers to
measure the temperature drop across all the ones in the flat, is the
best thing to open them all and adjust them down 'til they're all
equal?

It's *better* to measure the temperatures if you can - and you can get a
reasonable non-contact IR thermometer for about 30 quid.

However, you can also do *crude* balancing, based on 'feel'. Set any TRVs to
max, and start with the all the lockshields fully open. Turn the room stat
to max to make the system run continuously. Go round and feel the radiators,
and turn down the lockshields on the hottest ones. Leave a few minutes to
stabilise, and then repeat - aiming at getting all the rads to feel equally
warm. You should be left with at least one rad with its lockshield fully
open still.
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

"Set Square" wrote in message
...
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,

However, you can also do *crude* balancing, based on 'feel'. Set any TRVs
to
max, and start with the all the lockshields fully open. Turn the room stat
to max to make the system run continuously. Go round and feel the
radiators,
and turn down the lockshields on the hottest ones. Leave a few minutes to
stabilise, and then repeat - aiming at getting all the rads to feel
equally
warm. You should be left with at least one rad with its lockshield fully
open still.
--


Cheers. Just opened all the lockshields and the one in the living room went
up to 50 odd but it's now back down to 38 so tomorrow's task - call a
heating engineer!

Thanks for everyone's help over the past couple of days.

steve wrote:
I think I've figured out what's happening, just not why.

I've used the highly scientific method of placing a food temperature probe
on top of the radiators - great! All other factors being equal though, I
think it's good enough.

All the radiators in the flat are registering around 48/49 degrees except
the one in the living room. When the heating kicks in after a period of
inactivity, that radiator reaches 48 and the room starts heating up but it
begins to cool when the boiler's been going for a while - then it drops to
about 38 or so and that's when the room stabilises.

Sounds like balancing?

So, my question is - given I don't have radiator thermometers to measure the
temperature drop across all the ones in the flat, is the best thing to open
them all and adjust them down 'til they're all equal?

This may be a silly question... but if, as you say, you don't have a
radiator thermometer, how come you have just quoted the temperature of
your radiators?

"Matt Beard" wrote in message
ups.com...

steve wrote:

All the radiators in the flat are registering around 48/49 degrees except
the one in the living room. When the heating kicks in after a period of
inactivity, that radiator reaches 48 and the room starts heating up but
it
begins to cool when the boiler's been going for a while - then it drops
to
about 38 or so and that's when the room stabilises.


This may be a silly question... but if, as you say, you don't have a
radiator thermometer, how come you have just quoted the temperature of
your radiators?


Meat probe resting on the top. Professional nothing, but I claim points for
resourceful. I thangewe!