I may be having my regular open vented boiler soon replaced (see my
earlier thread). I have several thermostatic valves, which I bought
some 10 years ago with the intention of fitting them, when we last had
a new boiler installed and the system drained and flushed, but the
boiler was replaced when I was working far from home - so it never got
done.

I am thinking this time I will be home and could install them, but with
no working boiler there is no easy way to work out which is the flow,
which is the return at the rads. How can I work out which is which,
without a working boiler and without lifting lots of floors?

I cannot remember how many such valves I bought, but assuming I have
less than enough for the entire building, where are the best places? It
is a semi- detached. I will find and count them up later.

1. Hall, which is where the stat is, so a valve should not be fitted.
2. Living room, close to the above.
3. Kitchen
4. Downstairs toilet, close to back door of an unheated foyer, so
always cool unless the door is left closed.
5. Utility room, again off the above foyer and never really gets to
comfort warmth due to poor insulation and a cool foyer.
6. Bathroom/ toilet upstairs.
7. Back bedroom
8. Front main bedroom
9. Small bedroom, used as a small work area/ office.

The living room gets too warm maybe on an evening, if the door to the
Hall is closed, too cool when it is left open.

Sometimes the front bedroom can be too cool on going to bed, sometimes
it is fine. It seems to depend on the weather/ when the boiler last
fired.

Likewise the bathroom.

I am thinking thermostatic valves will help divert the heated flow
better, to where heat might be needed. None of my radiators are
presently balanced, they are just all wide open.

On Sun, 25 Mar 2018 12:07:54 +0100, Harry Bloomfield
wrote:

I may be having my regular open vented boiler soon replaced (see my
earlier thread). I have several thermostatic valves, which I bought
some 10 years ago with the intention of fitting them, when we last had
a new boiler installed and the system drained and flushed, but the
boiler was replaced when I was working far from home - so it never got
done.

I am thinking this time I will be home and could install them, but with
no working boiler there is no easy way to work out which is the flow,
which is the return at the rads. How can I work out which is which,
without a working boiler and without lifting lots of floors?

I cannot remember how many such valves I bought, but assuming I have
less than enough for the entire building, where are the best places? It
is a semi- detached. I will find and count them up later.

1. Hall, which is where the stat is, so a valve should not be fitted.
2. Living room, close to the above.
3. Kitchen
4. Downstairs toilet, close to back door of an unheated foyer, so
always cool unless the door is left closed.
5. Utility room, again off the above foyer and never really gets to
comfort warmth due to poor insulation and a cool foyer.
6. Bathroom/ toilet upstairs.
7. Back bedroom
8. Front main bedroom
9. Small bedroom, used as a small work area/ office.

The living room gets too warm maybe on an evening, if the door to the
Hall is closed, too cool when it is left open.

Sometimes the front bedroom can be too cool on going to bed, sometimes
it is fine. It seems to depend on the weather/ when the boiler last
fired.

Likewise the bathroom.

I am thinking thermostatic valves will help divert the heated flow
better, to where heat might be needed. None of my radiators are
presently balanced, they are just all wide open.

Can't help with the valves, mine are in a toolbox dedicated to the
task of storing them. I bought a load from Screwfix a couple of years
ago with the idea of fitting them when time allowed.

It didn,t :-(

My radiators were all fully open, or off if I wasn't using a room for
a long period.

A couple of months back I did tweak the flows, trying to even things
up. It's like having a different system. I was going to put another
radiator into one room to back up the double 1.6 by 1m under the
window, but it's not needed.


AB

Harry Bloomfield wrote:

with no working boiler there is no easy way to work out which is the
flow, which is the return at the rads


Some TRVs (e.g. Myson 2-way) are marked with a double-headed arrow to
indicate they can be fitted either way round, maybe yours are too?

That said, I still try to fit them so it's flowing in via the TRV, just
in case it helps cut down on annoying whistling.

Can you tell by which end of the rads have the lock-shield valve being
the return, I suppose that's only a convention, no guarantee.

Andy Burns explained on 25/03/2018 :
Harry Bloomfield wrote:

with no working boiler there is no easy way to work out which is the
flow, which is the return at the rads


Some TRVs (e.g. Myson 2-way) are marked with a double-headed arrow to
indicate they can be fitted either way round, maybe yours are too?

I have just dug them out and I must have bought 7 of them and they are
Drayton TRV4's. The instructions suggest they work in the flow or
return.


That said, I still try to fit them so it's flowing in via the TRV, just in
case it helps cut down on annoying whistling.

Can you tell by which end of the rads have the lock-shield valve being the
return, I suppose that's only a convention, no guarantee.

No, the valves at each end are identical, apart from the knob or
spindle cover and over the years, I have revised (swapped over) which
end the knob is on for easier access.

In article ,
Harry Bloomfield wrote:
I cannot remember how many such valves I bought, but assuming I have
less than enough for the entire building, where are the best places?

Generally, fit them everywhere apart from the most used room. Where the
overall stat should be fitted. This generally gives the best results -
apart from on the odd occasion where you have lots of additional heat in
that most used room like lots of people.

Never did understand why so many pros used to fit the main stat in the
hall. Just were opening the front door can lower the temperature of that
area.

--
*HOW DO THEY GET DEER TO CROSS THE ROAD ONLY AT THOSE YELLOW ROAD SIGNS?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) has brought this to us :
Never did understand why so many pros used to fit the main stat in the
hall. Just were opening the front door can lower the temperature of that
area.

Our stat is in the hall. During the original refurb many years ago it
was wired to be located in the living room, but I insisted it be placed
in the hall - just a matter of poking the cable through the wall.
Present stat is a wireless stat, so could be located anywhere.

The hall has the front door, but the front door is not often used, so
it is mostly an enclosed space with a radiator.

Dave Plowman wrote:

Never did understand why so many pros used to fit the main stat in the
hall.

If even the hall isn't cold, then every where else should be toasty?
From a different time when the controls were aimed more at comfort
rather than cost saving?

on 25/03/2018, Harry Bloomfield supposed :
Dave Plowman (News) has brought this to us :
Never did understand why so many pros used to fit the main stat in the
hall. Just were opening the front door can lower the temperature of that
area.

Our stat is in the hall. During the original refurb many years ago it was
wired to be located in the living room, but I insisted it be placed in the
hall - just a matter of poking the cable through the wall. Present stat is a
wireless stat, so could be located anywhere.

The hall has the front door, but the front door is not often used, so it is
mostly an enclosed space with a radiator.

I have just remembered why I was so minded....

The living room is the only room with a gas fire and faces south/west,
so it gets the suns heat. I had in mind that if the gas fire were in
use, or the sun was strong, it would warm that room, the stat and cause
the heating to go off in the rest of the house. The hall as the centre
of the house, gets a much better idea of the temperature of the whole
house.

In practice, we have never, ever used the gas fire apart from now. It
has sat there unused for over 30 years.

On 25/03/2018 14:09, Andy Burns wrote:
Dave Plowman wrote:

Never did understand why so many pros used to fit the main stat in the
hall.

If even the hall isn't cold, then every where else should be toasty?
From a different time when the controls were aimed more at comfort
rather than cost saving?

If you have the system well balanced so that the main stat operates an
an efficient boiler interlock (i.e. shutting off the boiler when the
whole house is warm), then having the hall balanced such that it is the
last room to get to full temperature is handy. So as the rooms get to
target temp and their flow reduces via the TRV, more is diverted through
the uncontrolled rad(s) in the hall. It also means that the coolest
space is one you are less likely to be sitting or working in.

--
Cheers,

John.

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On Sun, 25 Mar 2018 12:24:24 +0100, Andy Burns
wrote:

Harry Bloomfield wrote:

with no working boiler there is no easy way to work out which is the
flow, which is the return at the rads


Some TRVs (e.g. Myson 2-way) are marked with a double-headed arrow to
indicate they can be fitted either way round, maybe yours are too?

That said, I still try to fit them so it's flowing in via the TRV, just
in case it helps cut down on annoying whistling.

Oddly enough after balancing my system, I noticed this and I still
have the original valves fitted.

It isn't loud and as I have the TRV's to fit I didn't bother doing
anything.

Is this common, with a simple solution?

I assume its turbulence, but can't be bothered having another tweaking
session.

I wouldn't like to think that the TRV's are going to open up another
day or so of tweaking or problem solving:-(

AB





Can you tell by which end of the rads have the lock-shield valve being
the return, I suppose that's only a convention, no guarantee.