Hello,
I need some advice from the experts please.
As part of a full refurbishment of our house we had a completely new heating system installed: Vaillant Ecotec Plus 630 system boiler (30kW), three heating zones (loft = 2.5kW total radiator output, first floor = 6kW, ground floor = 10kW) plus a 210l hot water cylinder, new heating pipes and radiators everywhere.
The plumber has fitted a 22mm gas pipe from the meter to the boiler (distance is around 6m), 4 zone valves (3 heating zones plus hot water tank - S style) with a 22mm pipe between the boiler and the valves. Immediately after the valves the feed pipes are downsized to 15mm for all three heating zones.
Having the heating system up and running now it turns out that the first floor and loft radiators get hot but some of the ground floor radiators don't. The plumber claims that the first and loft floor radiators are getting all the heat effectively reducing the amount of heat available for the ground floor. To prove his point he shut down the valves for first and second floor which improved the situation on the ground floor but still not all radiators get properly hot. He is now suggesting to add a pump to the ground floor zone.
My thoughts and questions are:
(1) The boiler should be powerful enough to heat all three zones simultaneously (30kW boiler for 18.5kW of radiators plus hot water cylinder) even without the help of an additional pump. Am I asking for too much here or should this be possible (which would imply that the plumber did not design the run and size of the heating pipes correctly)?
(2) 15mm feed and return pipes on the ground floor seems too small for 10kW of radiator heat output, I would assume these should be 22mm. The plumber will probably not be keen to change this as some part of it is running in new screed (the largest part is running in the void underneath the house though and the floorboards are still open). Is adding an extra pump a reasonable solution to the problem (assuming it will solve the issue of the radiators not getting hot) or should I insist on the feed and return pipe being upgraded to 22mm on the ground floor?
Thanks for your help!
I need some advice from the experts please.
As part of a full refurbishment of our house we had a completely new heating system installed: Vaillant Ecotec Plus 630 system boiler (30kW), three heating zones (loft = 2.5kW total radiator output, first floor = 6kW, ground floor = 10kW) plus a 210l hot water cylinder, new heating pipes and radiators everywhere.
The plumber has fitted a 22mm gas pipe from the meter to the boiler (distance is around 6m), 4 zone valves (3 heating zones plus hot water tank - S style) with a 22mm pipe between the boiler and the valves. Immediately after the valves the feed pipes are downsized to 15mm for all three heating zones.
Having the heating system up and running now it turns out that the first floor and loft radiators get hot but some of the ground floor radiators don't. The plumber claims that the first and loft floor radiators are getting all the heat effectively reducing the amount of heat available for the ground floor. To prove his point he shut down the valves for first and second floor which improved the situation on the ground floor but still not all radiators get properly hot. He is now suggesting to add a pump to the ground floor zone.
My thoughts and questions are:
(1) The boiler should be powerful enough to heat all three zones simultaneously (30kW boiler for 18.5kW of radiators plus hot water cylinder) even without the help of an additional pump. Am I asking for too much here or should this be possible (which would imply that the plumber did not design the run and size of the heating pipes correctly)?
(2) 15mm feed and return pipes on the ground floor seems too small for 10kW of radiator heat output, I would assume these should be 22mm. The plumber will probably not be keen to change this as some part of it is running in new screed (the largest part is running in the void underneath the house though and the floorboards are still open). Is adding an extra pump a reasonable solution to the problem (assuming it will solve the issue of the radiators not getting hot) or should I insist on the feed and return pipe being upgraded to 22mm on the ground floor?
Thanks for your help!