setting regula of by stand radiator/central gas combi system Help and information on all topics relating to your central heating, air conditioning and ventilation issues.

[claudiafm]

I had my central gas heating system (combi boiler) serviced last year and everything was working fine. I remember the engineer saying that the bathroom radiator doesn't have a TVR as it is a bystand radiator (might not remember this term correctly), and that the setting of its valves regulates the rest of the system. Unfortunately a guest changed the setting of the regulators of the bystand/bathroom radiator, trying to switch it off. There are regulators on both sides of the bystand/bathroom radiator and the heat seams to come in from the left. I haven't managed to find the original setting again - this radiators doesn't get very warm now and the rest of the radiators in the house seem not to get as hot as before. Is there a rule how to set the regulators on the bystand radiator to get best efficiency out of the system?

[DONFRAMAC]

It sounds as if this rad. is the "ONE" rad. in the house which is supposed to take almost full flow, to protect the pump. You need to restore flow, by removing the plastic cap, by removing the securing screw. Then use a cap borrowed from another, IRV, or a spanner, to open the valves. If the rad. is too hot, just close-off the input side enough to achieve a reasonable temperature. Replace the tamper-proof caps, and tell your guests to stop meddling.
The system may need the rads. bled of gas. To do this, the boiler has to be off. Bleed each rad. of gas, then restore system pressure to 1.2 bar, using the filling-loop, so that it will run at about 1.5 bar. My combi won't run below 0.5 bar, and needs reset after a fault condition eg low pressure or high pressure relief (>3bar ).
Balancing the rads. using their IRV's, may help restore normal radiator temperatures.