@hydros Thanks

I did have a problem with a "snoring" noise and this was resolved by the installer by moving that black valve from 0.3 to 0.5 (i.e. closed I think).  The plumber said the snoring was caused as some water went forward through the system (high noise) but some went via the valve into an overflow pipe (low noise).  Now it is consistently noisy (though it got a bit quieter when they moved it from 0.4 to 0.5)!

However the main issue I have is with the noise of the water circulating round the pipes and volume tank in the airing cupboard and into the towel rail in the bathroom next door to the airing cupboard.  When the flow rate goes up to 30 l/min it sounds like I've got a tumble dryer going in both the bathroom and the airing cupboard.  I can hear water moving a bit in other radiators upstairs, but not so that it's a disturbance.

I need it to stop going round at 30 l/min.  Its fine noise-wise at anything around 21 and under, but a consistent flow would give a consistent sound.

The ASHP has been retro-fitted into a 1970's house which had an oil boiler and conventional radiators.  If I shut or alter the valves on the towel rail it starts "snoring" again.

I posted the flow rate behaviour yesterday where it gets to 30l / min, then drops down as the temperature rises gets down to 10 l/min, drops to 0 and then fires up to 30l/min again with the timings if you want to go back a page on the thread and read that. (a lot of the rest of the thread was helping me to do WD heating to see if that helped with the noise).

The picture below shows how the pipes go into the heating system.  The junction off to the left and right on the narrower pipes is in to the towel rail and back out.  The rest of the heating circuit seems to be going from under the floorboards at the bottom.

I think we have also concluded that I have a back up heater but that is in the outdoor unit.

At a later date I will need to add underfloor heating to the system downstairs and add in some radiators in rooms which didn't have them / have enough even with an oil boiler.

Hope the info helps.

For those of you who care about our planet, 'Moving Zeitgeist Forward' is a thought provoking documentary.

@bridgetjohn can you get a photo of the top of the grey volumiser tank in your cupboard please? There should be an automatic air bleed valve on the top. 

Another thing I suspect needs doing is balancing the radiators. This will even out the pressure through your system and reduce noise. 

If you can check out Heat Geek on YouTube, they have several good videos aimed at consumers to help get the best out of our heat pumps. 

Another thing. Keep your heating schedule simple and keep the set back temperature difference small. For example, 18C from 00:00-06:00, 19C from 06:00-22:00, 18C from 22:00-23:59. Bump up a degree if 19C isn’t warm enough. 

Hot water is also most cost effective if managed from a schedule, with reheat. An afternoon heat is best, and 50C max should be sufficient. Set the reheat threshold at 39-40C 

@hydros 

 photo of automatic air bleed valve you requested.

I don't think I've got a set back going.  All I did was set the WD curve as instructed by @heat-pump-newbie and @derek-m.

I have followed up on the heatgeek site on youtube thanks.

Whilst I have had no joy on the heating noise to date (and no the installer didn't balance the radiators nor run through any settings, fill in the table etc) I have another question for you all please.

I think the installer disabled the disinfection function on last visit - would you agree?

 So I've set this to yes and asked it to run at 15:00 today (Thurs).  

I was going to set up the tank to schedule + reheat as you all advised, when I discovered this.

Could you also please advise if I go for schedule + reheat and set it to run at 3pm as heat-pump-newbie advised, what time should I run a disinfection?

It is set to go at 60 degrees for 40 mins as you can see.  The tank is set at a fixed not weather dependent of 50 degrees with hysteresis of 10 so that it starts to reheat at 40.

I think the max tank temp on a setting somewhere is 60 degrees - is that right?

Thanks for your help as ever.

@bridgetjohn as you have a third party thermostat (the Honeywell unit) the heating schedule will be set on that. 

Morning Bridget

In the Tank menu you can set these hot water temps, Comfort and Eco (mine are 49 and 44).

Then go to Tank > Schedule and set the times you'd like the water to heat to those temp. If you have cheap rate electricity and good tank insulation you may prefer to heat to the hotter temp at night, but then it's more efficient when the outside air is warmer at around 3-4pm, so it's swings and roundabouts. You just need to  bear in mind that the space heating will go off while the hot water is being heated.

I run my disinfectant cycle at 3pm too, so that overrides the hot water schedule. I only hold it at 60 deg for 10 mins. There's some debate as to whether it's even necessary so I thought I'd do it for the shortest time and lowest temp. (Actually it didn't work for months as there was a problem with my immersion thermostat)

Why don't installers say what they've done 😡 ?

ps the photo is an old version of my schedule - I've altered it to Eco at 3am and Comfort at 3pm.

@bridgetjohn 

Set the disinfection to run to 60C for 10mins, it doesn’t need to be longer than this. I would also set this to run at 3pm on the day of the week of your choosing. This will coincide with your scheduled tank heat if you follow the previous suggestions, rather than an additional reheat. 
Tank heating should not usually be set the weather dependant enabled, stick with the fixed setting for the DHW. 

@bridgetjohn 

Hi Bridget,

So that I can assess what level of assistance you required, could you please clarify if your intention is to identify, and if possible, rectify the problems yourself, or if you expect some level of assistance from your installer?

@derek-m Hi, I had hoped that my issues with noise were a setting and that I could therefore rectify them myself.

I feel fobbed off by my installer and I'm not confident they know what they are doing.  There have been a number of rookie errors.  The experience of all of you in all this is invaluable and a really useful check.

It has been useful to validate that noisy pipes and airing cupboards are not normal and shouldn't be making that noise.

As a result of all your help I now have the heating settings working better and I'm about to work on the tank settings.

I'm learning a lot, but plumbing and electrics is not my expertise so I suspect that, if there isn't a simple fix, I will have to get the installer and/or the manufacturer in to rectify.

Does that help?

@bridgetjohn 

Can you confirm that all the TRV's are fully open, except the ones in bedrooms that are used, and that your thermostat is set at least 1C above the desired indoor temperature?

Check that all the radiators are achieving approximately the same temperature.

Do you have a reasonably accurate thermometer?

Hi Bridget,

Have you resolved your noise problem yet?