2 zone CH but 1 zone heats whole house

[PeteLiggins]

I’d really appreciate some advice.

We moved into a new build 3 story town house last Monday. It’s got a Worcester boiler & 2 wireless thermostats (one by the front door, the other on the first floor landing).

When the downstairs thermostat asks for heat (to warm up the kitchen & lounge) every radiator in the house on all 3 floors gets hot. The upstairs thermostat is definitely not asking for heat.

I’ve checked in the boiler room and there are 2 RF receivers which seem to be paired correctly with the thermostats.

We’ve had the plumber who installed the system & the developer round - but when I tried to explain the problem, they both went straight upstairs and set the upstairs thermostat to ask for heat. The upstairs radiators started warming up (which they should do) and they turned the upstairs thermostat down again.

When I turned the downstairs thermostat up and took them back upstairs to show them the warm radiators, they explained this away as ‘residual heat’ from when they had just turned the upstairs thermostat up.

I’ll definitely be getting both the developer & plumber back again and demonstrating the fault to them properly.

My question is - why is this happening? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated to help me have it out with them!

 

[Bibbs118]

Does the other rad get hot when you use the upstairs room stat?

 

[Joe mossman]

Does the other rad get hot when you use the upstairs room stat?

Yes upstairs rad does get hot when using upstairs, with the downstairs cold and i turn the upstairs on the system works as it should just warming the upstairs

Thanks

 

[Bibbs118]

Changing the valve will do absolutely nothing, it may not be visiblly moving over but its bringing the rads on so its working fine.

You have a piping issue, namely its been piped up incorrectly.

That level is there to manually move the valve if the motor inside fails, its not a visual tool to tell you its moved over.

It you push it over when the stat is calling for heat it will be slack, turn the stat down and you will need to push it fairly hard to move it.

 

[Joe mossman]

Changing the valve will do absolutely nothing, it may not be visiblly moving over but its bringing the rads on so its working fine.

You have a piping issue, namely its been piped up incorrectly.

That level is there to manually move the valve if the motor inside fails, its not a visual tool to tell you its moved over.

It you push it over when the stat is calling for heat it will be slack, turn the stat down and you will need to push it fairly hard to move it.

Thanks Bibbs, you have confirmed what i suspected regarding it is the pipework.

Now im no plumber but i assume to rectify this the builder will have to start lifting floor boards and ripping the house apart to find the issue as to where the downstairs pipework is meeting the upstairs?

Thanks for your help so far

 

[Riley]

Not necessarily show a picture of your airing cupboard. Cylinder pipework and valves

 

[Joe mossman]

Not necessarily show a picture of your airing cupboard. Cylinder pipework and valves

Picture as requested.

Hope this helps

 

[Riley]

Is that the only visible pipework? Do you have a cylinder

 

[Joe mossman]

Is that the only visible pipework? Do you have a cylinder

That is the only visible pipework around the valvr system.
Only other pipework i can see is going in/out of the combi boiler itself?

Thanks
Joe

 

[Bibbs118]

A thermal image camera may be required.

It may be something a simple as moving the cylinder return so that it's the last return to the boiler, but yes, it may need some serious mess making then making good .

 

[Joe mossman]

A thermal image camera may be required.

It may be something a simple as moving the cylinder return so that it's the last return to the boiler, but yes, it may need some serious mess making then making good .

Thanks Gibbs, your help is much appreciated and certainly given me half a chance to blag the builder into thinking i know what im talking about. It seems they will take any oppertunity to avoid snagging on our site and have pulled the wool over many of the owners eyes but not me.

I will update the thread once the plumbers have visited

 

[Riley]

Don’t mention a cylinder though if you don’t have one

 

[Bibbs118]

Just ask him to read my posts. Including this one.

Building regs require 2 heating zones, having one rad come on upstairs does not constitute a heating zone, it constitutes a pipework installation problem that MUST be resolved for the builder to comply with building regs.