Joining the Renewable Heating Hub forums is completely free and only takes a minute. By registering you’ll be able to ask questions, join discussions, follow topics you’re interested in, bookmark useful threads and receive notifications when someone replies. When choosing your username, please note that it cannot be changed later, so we recommend avoiding brand or product names. Before registering, please take a moment to read the Forum Rules & Terms of Use so we can keep the community helpful, respectful and informative for everyone. Thanks for joining!
Does turning down radiators preserve the heat in the water?
Hi all,
Sometimes - for no reason I can find - the rooms get uncomfortably warm, even though theres no change in outside temperature. My question is: If I turn down the radiator in the room Im currently in, will that preserve the heat in the water so it doesnt have to be heated os much when it goes round the house again? So - in effect - I havnt wasted any energy by turning the radiator down?
Thanks
In my opinion, the water that doesn’t flow through the radiator but wends its’ way along the flow, will be losing a small amount of energy from the surface of the pipework and the rest will be available to the flow input of the next emitter in the line.
One facet of balancing radiators is that when one emitter has its’ flow restricted, this makes more of the energy available to the next emitter and, as a result, more than one round of emitter tweaking is required via the lockshield valves.
As to whether you have ‘wasted’ any heat or energy, most internal pipes within the heated envelope of the house will be emitting some heat and being uninsulated, this contributes towards the overall heating. The emitters will (or should) be ensuring that the energy radiates or convects mainly from them but the pipework will contribute (or leak!) some energy - hopefully in useful areas. The return pipe run water will still have energy and the higher the temperature of this return flow, the less energy will be needed to return it to the desired flow temperature.
The Delta T (often designed to be 5 degrees C) is usually controlled by the heat pump adjusting flow speed and heat pump energy output, so the less energy that is needed, the lower the output needs to be from the pump; lowering flow temperature normally improves efficiency and reflects better COP figures. That’s my pennorth anyway! Regards, Toodles.
Toodles, heats his home with cold draughts and cooks food with magnets.
South facing rooms with large windows can experience high solar gain. Is this the case? Solar gain is one factor that external weather compensated control cannot compensate for. Even in winter, the energy from the sun striking even double glazed windows can transmit high radiant heat energy into the room. Most ASHPs use an external air temperature sensor and control software to regulate heating supply temperature according to outdoor air temperature. If not solar gain, then it could be your heat emitters into the rooms prone to overheating need rebalancing to provide a little less output.
Some systems control heating capacity using indoor room temperature sensing, which is a slightly different method called load compensation, it's quite rare however as a control method, and is better suited to large open plan living single zone open spaces rather than traditional UK homes with multiple rooms.
For rooms with radiators that do get a little warm due to solar gain, TRVs can help, by setting them to a slightly higher temperature than you normally want to room to be, just to prevent it overheating.
- 27 Forums
- 2,539 Topics
- 59.1 K Posts
- 287 Online
- 6,818 Members
Join Us!
Worth Watching
Latest Posts
-
RE: Octopus Cosy 12 Heat Pump Regret: Incredibly Loud, Poor Heating & Constant Hum - Help!
Balancing is a long process and its possible to mess th...
By JamesPa , 4 hours ago
-
RE: Daikin Altherma 3 LT compressor longevity question
Up to a point yes. However every heat pump (and every ...
By JamesPa , 5 hours ago
-
Thanks everyone for the help, Havenwise now diasbled. q...
By Boycey , 7 hours ago
-
RE: Advice needed after a successful "leftfield" experiment.....
@pauli Depending on whether you can get an EV tariff, I...
By ChandyKris , 8 hours ago
-
-
RE: New Build ASHP Defects - Looking for Advice, Support & Shared Experiences
Is that a single pair only? If so it may be part if th...
By JamesPa , 10 hours ago
-
RE: Solar Power Output – Let’s Compare Generation Figures
@technogeek I think you are correct, but, it didn’t inf...
By Papahuhu , 10 hours ago
-
@batpred, you’re quite right; it does work well. I don’...
By Majordennisbloodnok , 10 hours ago
-
@Mars at the time of writing heating oil is £1.28 / ltr...
By TechnoGeek , 11 hours ago
-
RE: Ecodan Cylinder Possible Weeping Around Thermostat Port
Update: Mitsubishi sent an engineer around. It was li...
By Gruff2001 , 14 hours ago
-
RE: A Smarter Smart Controller from Homely?
@benson Agreed. I believe the COP gains with homely, i...
By Papahuhu , 14 hours ago
-
RE: Samsung Gen 7 16kW Integrated unit Modbus monitoring
The setup for this is a Samsung Modbus card. Connected ...
By antonical , 15 hours ago
-
RE: Forum updates, announcements & issues
@davidalgarve, if the emails are more than roughly a mo...
By Mars , 16 hours ago
-
How to Find All Your Posts and Topics on the Forum – A Quick Guide
If you’ve ever posted something on the forum and then s...
By Mars , 16 hours ago
-
RE: If a heat pump can only heat DHW to 50C then what? Issue with 18KW Heliotherm heat pump
Sorry to hear that but I'm not surprised TBH. Stratifi...
By JamesPa , 17 hours ago
-
RE: Say hello and introduce yourself
@pt151 welcome to the forums, and looking forward to he...
By Mars , 1 day ago
-
RE: Setback savings - fact or fiction?
The answer was in two parts in my reply, the second par...
By RobS , 1 day ago
-
Samsung Gen 7 16kW Integrated unit Modbus monitoring
Looking for some assistance to get modbus monitoring wo...
By antonical , 1 day ago
-
Ecodan control return to Melpump from Havenwise trial. settings check
Hi, Just got control back after being on the hav...
By Boycey , 1 day ago
-
RE: Refrigerant R32, is it now banned in the EU from 1st Jan 2027 for monobloc ASHPs?
I wonder if heat pump manufacturers will tone these sit...
By JamesPa , 1 day ago
-
RE: Who’s Caved and Switched the Heating On Already?
@editor yesterday we used 12kW of electricity for heat,...
By Judith , 2 days ago
-
RE: Rate the quality of your heat pump design and installation
Loss assessments can be a very serious case of GIGO. I...
By JamesPa , 2 days ago
-
RE: Who's your electricity provider and what's your tariff?
@jamespa Just bizarre. This is our data. I really don't...
By antonical , 2 days ago
-
RE: Mitsubishi Ecodan 11.2kW review
I think you said its an 11.2kW model and your house is ...
By JamesPa , 2 days ago


