Communal heating - scorching pipes even when thermostat is off

[Joseph2023]

Hi all,

Our flat has communal heating and our thermostat is set so low so the heating should never be coming on.

However over the last 10 months or so we've noticed the pipes under the floor, particularly in the bathroom, which are under the concrete floor and tiles, have become incredibly hot - at times too hot to stand on. A radiator in the hall doesn't have a value to switch it off, and it's blasting out heat too even though the thermostat is off. In all other rooms we've turned off the valves on radiators, but if we turned them on - even with the thermostat set low/off hot water will pass through them and blast out heat. Already hot in summer, it's just heating the flat further and making the bathroom unbearable (and also just generally such a waste of energy!)

We're convinced somethings wrong because it can't be right that it gets so hot that it's unbearable to stand on the bathroom tiles - although we had a plumber dismiss it as normal several months back (he bled the radiators and left, did nothing to resolve the issue).

Anyone any experience / knowledge of these sorts of issues, and can provide any advice? Happy to share more details or photos of the systems if helpful!


Thanks in advance
Joe

 

[Deleted member 120897]

I don’t have a great deal of experience with these, but IIRC - these act upon the thermostat being on to bring the heating on, however they’ll be operating using a motorised valve or similar - this could be passing.

 

[Joseph2023]

Thanks - you're right, we had a plumber round yesterday and he said that it was because of a build up of pressure in the system (particularly as everyone had their heating turned off over summer), and our proximity of our flat to the boiler room, the pressurised ystem was pumping water through the heating system into the flat, heating the pipes and that radiator - despite the thermostat being turned off . He turned off two values into the heat exchange unit, and that's done the trick.