Radiator divert advice

[Tonga1507]

Hi we have recently had new rads and combi boiler and fit the Drayton wiser smart TRVs we brought with us from our old house (i.e. each rad has a thermostat and can call for heat independently). We have the hallway radiator without a TRV at the moment as recommended by the installers that one rad was needed to divert heat from boiler overrun. The issue is that the hall gets pretty warm, almost uncomfortable.

Could we switch the hall rad onto a TRV and have the bathroom towel rail to divert the heat from boiler (it also doesn't have a TRV) or would that not be sufficient? The towel rail is much smaller, around 2000btu Vs the hallway rad 6500btu.

 

[Aquarius]

Radiators like this are generally just used to dissipate the heat, usually when no bypass was fitted, and also when room thermostat’s were positioned in hallways. I can’t see any issue with swapping it around unless you have the wiser thermostat in the hallway?

 

[Ben-gee]

I hope you left the new owners some light bulbs at least.

 

[Tonga1507]

I hope you left the new owners some light bulbs at least.

Ha ha, we left them a programmer and full set of standard TRVs. We actually removed it before putting the house on the market so they were none the wiser. The full system of controls was quite a big investment and we liked it enough to want to bring it with us.

 

[Tonga1507]

Radiators like this are generally just used to dissipate the heat, usually when no bypass was fitted, and also when room thermostat’s were positioned in hallways. I can’t see any issue with swapping it around unless you have the wiser thermostat in the hallway?

Thanks. We do have a wall thermostat in the hallway but the TRV and thermostat would link together and work as one room.

Are there any other ways to reduce the heat output of the hallway rad when other rooms are calling for heat? Can I close down the valves a bit to restrict the flow, ore would this defeat the object of having it to dissipate the heat?

 

[Knappers]

All the radiators should be balanced with valves full open.
If you use a rad for bypass then it should be the one in the room where thermostat is.
It's best practice for that to be the living room rather than the hall.
Make sure thermostat is well positioned (not on external wall or near doors/windows/heat sources).
If you want to use valves throughout then get an automatic bypass fitted by boiler altho
It would probably be fine to use bathroom rad if not a new install, aslong as main room stat and that rooms actuators are paired like you suggested, don't open towel rail right up, it still needs to be balanced on system.