I have been watching the advice about balancing radiators with great
interest, an easy thing to do with great benefits. I have a 3 story
house and the ground floor is much hotter than the top floor. I am
definitely going to spend some time in doing this. Where can I get
the radiator thermometers from?

TIA

Angela

Angela

I couldn't find the clip on thermometers anywhere, so I bought the digital
thermometer recommended here from CPC (part number IN0229366) at £30
(http://tinyurl.com/s9aq) and followed the advice on balancing at the FAQ ..
http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/plumbing/pl...html#balancing

Firstly I found huge variations in temperature across the radiators, some
were 2-3 degrees (indicating very fast water flow) and some 25 degrees. The
boiler pipes showed a 20 degree drop until I switched the (Grundfos 15/50)
pump to it's maximum speed.

I could get readings easily from the radiator pipes as they were all
painted, but the brass/copper fittings of the boiler in/outs made it hard to
get a stable reading (the non contact thermometer doesn't like shiny
surfaces). I sprayed a blob of matt black paint onto the pipes and solved
that problem.

I went around the house carefully setting everything, and as indicated in
the FAQ, nothing really happens to the flow rates until the valve is wound
down less than half. My valves had two and a quarter turns lock to lock and
I found the radiators that had the lowest drops needed to be wound to about
1/3 or 1/2 turn from closed to have any effect.

Once the 3-4 radiators with low drops were restricted down, the other slow
radiators started coming closer to the 11 degree drop. As the valves were
getting close to their final settings, I found the boiler drop was down to
6-7 degrees and I could set the pump back to "2".

Finally I found some other useful comments on the www.eco-hometec.co.uk site
here http://tinyurl.com/k0rx The comments here about the operation of the
thermostatic valves has made me think about replacing my pump with the
Grundfos Alpha + which electronically modifies the flow to suit demand as
the thermostatic valves open and close. A few of my rooms are in irregular
use, so I tend to leave them on minimum, this causes other valves (bedroom
particularly) to whistle a little as they modulate the temperature. It might
be the new pump could supply a lower pressure in this case (talking myself
into another DIY task).

The only hassle I found was the house getting up to temperature (even with
25 on the stat!) or the boiler taking thermal rests after a couple of hours
of running. You need to make sure the boiler has been supplying hot water to
the rads for at least 5-10 mins before you take a reading. The digital
thermometer was a much better way than waiting for clip on stats to
stabilise.

Good luck. It looked a bag of worms when I started but to run round the
house and see 10/12 degrees across all the rads and boiler was a job well
done. Thanks to the group and faq for help.

Colin

PS Tiny URL was broken by the time I finished typing this, the Grundfos pump
info is he
http://www.grundfos.com/web/homeUK.n...ag/DMAR-4QHJ4E

Angela wrote:
definitely going to spend some time in doing this. Where can I get
the radiator thermometers from?

Plumbworld, and they're quite nice actually. Get a pair, so one for each
end.
Go to Plumbworld.com Tools Gauges Thermometers
http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/acb/show...ctGroup_ID=135

Clip on bi-metallic thermometers are £4 each plus delivery at £3 for orders
under £300.

Personally I like their combination temp/pressure units for use in the
boiler cupboard.

--
Toby.

'One day son, all this will be finished'

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 11:14:43 +0000 (UTC), "Colin M"
wrote:


I couldn't find the clip on thermometers anywhere, so I bought the digital
thermometer recommended here from CPC (part number IN0229366) at £30
(http://tinyurl.com/s9aq)

The non contact thermometers are much better than the pipe clip ones
for doing this job. The bi metal pipe ones take ages to work and if
not positioned exactly on unpainted pipe work can be very inaccurate.

--
Peter Parry.
http://www.wpp.ltd.uk/

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 17:29:14 +0000, Peter Parry
assembled some random characters on their keyboard which said:

The non contact thermometers are much better than the pipe clip ones
for doing this job. The bi metal pipe ones take ages to work and if
not positioned exactly on unpainted pipe work can be very inaccurate.

I agree Peter, although I didn't try with conventional thermometers,
the instant readings of the IR device made the job much faster than
clipping and unclipping thermometers and waiting for readings to
stabilise.

It was possible to work from one radiator to the next quite rapidly
whereas the analogue method would not have been so easy.

Colin M

I agree Peter, although I didn't try with conventional thermometers,
the instant readings of the IR device made the job much faster than
clipping and unclipping thermometers and waiting for readings to
stabilise.

Fully agree, I got mine from Maplin when it was reduced, and I love it.

There was a thread not long ago indicating even more reasonably priced
ones from one of our standard suppliers. Ain't it always the way? (

Go get one

mike r

"Toby" wrote in message
...
Angela wrote:
definitely going to spend some time in doing this. Where can I get
the radiator thermometers from?

Plumbworld, and they're quite nice actually. Get a pair, so one for each
end.
Go to Plumbworld.com Tools Gauges Thermometers

http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/acb/show...&ObjectGroup_I
D=135

Clip on bi-metallic thermometers are £4 each plus delivery at £3 for
orders
under £300.

Never mind that - have you seen the offer they've got on what looks like the
Sol thermostatic shower mixer valve? Cheaper than BES, and they're throwing
in a shower head too!

http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/acb/show...ObjectGroup_ID
=450



--
John Stumbles
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-|-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
-+
procrastinate now!

"John Stumbles" ] wrote in message
...
"Toby" wrote in message
...
Angela wrote:
definitely going to spend some time in doing this. Where can I get
the radiator thermometers from?

Plumbworld, and they're quite nice actually. Get a pair, so one for each
end.
Go to Plumbworld.com Tools Gauges Thermometers


http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/acb/show...&ObjectGroup_I
D=135

Clip on bi-metallic thermometers are £4 each plus delivery at £3 for
orders
under £300.

Never mind that - have you seen the offer they've got on what looks like
the
Sol thermostatic shower mixer valve? Cheaper than BES, and they're
throwing
in a shower head too!


http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/acb/show...ObjectGroup_ID
=450

Cheaper? over £6 more expensive.


---
--

Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.538 / Virus Database: 333 - Release Date: 11/11/2003

On Wed, 19 Nov 2003 00:45:44 -0000, "IMM" wrote:


"John Stumbles" ] wrote in message
...
"Toby" wrote in message
...
Angela wrote:
definitely going to spend some time in doing this. Where can I get
the radiator thermometers from?

Plumbworld, and they're quite nice actually. Get a pair, so one for each
end.
Go to Plumbworld.com Tools Gauges Thermometers


http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/acb/show...&ObjectGroup_I
D=135

Clip on bi-metallic thermometers are £4 each plus delivery at £3 for
orders
under £300.

Never mind that - have you seen the offer they've got on what looks like
the
Sol thermostatic shower mixer valve? Cheaper than BES, and they're
throwing
in a shower head too!


http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/acb/show...ObjectGroup_ID
=450

Cheaper? over £6 more expensive.


---
I presume with the speed of getting a reading with the IR Thermometers, you
only require one for this task?

Cheers

On Tue, 02 Dec 2003 19:26:13 GMT, Moonshine
wrote:


I presume with the speed of getting a reading with the IR Thermometers, you
only require one for this task?

That is correct.

--
Peter Parry.
http://www.wpp.ltd.uk/

Moonshine wrote in
:

---
I presume with the speed of getting a reading with the IR
Thermometers, you only require one for this task?

Cheers

Yes, you read both ends in about a millionth of the time it takes clipons
to stabilise ie about a second each

mike r

Yes, one is all that is needed.

With the IR device I could tell within a few seconds that the boiler had
switched off as the inlet temp dropped by a couple of degrees between
measurements. I doubt you could see that with the mechanical devices and
their inertia.

Colin

On Wed, 3 Dec 2003 10:20:32 +0000 (UTC), "Colin M" wrote:

Yes, one is all that is needed.

With the IR device I could tell within a few seconds that the boiler had
switched off as the inlet temp dropped by a couple of degrees between
measurements. I doubt you could see that with the mechanical devices and
their inertia.

Colin

Great thanks guys that's one for my Christmas Present list :-)

Sad but true...