Radiator issue change or not

[lollypop909]

Hi all,

We have 3 big double bedrooms which has single p1 radiators of 450x2400 size each (see the attached photo). All radiators are burning hot and does not have any cold patches. A few months ago I did a chemical (fernox) flush amd system is running fine. But the problem is when we turn the heating on, our downstairs become hot so quickly but bedrooms are only warm. For example after 2 hours of heating starting from 17c, downstairs reaches 21 but upstairs is only 19. After 3 hours, downstairs reaches to 22.5 and upstairs is 20.

We do not have a cavity wall, no draughts and have recently put new loft insulation up to 270mm.

I have recently spoken to plumber who have advised me to change the radiators to type 21 500x1800 panels. He beleives that they will give more heat. He said dont pit type 22 as they are suited for downstairs, not the bedrooms. Our boiler is Glow-worm easicom 28k only 3 years old. They system is pretty clean and all radiators heat up so hot that you cant touch them and there is no air in the system, but still upstairs is cooler than downstairs.

I am really lost as what should I do? Should i change the radiators as they are not throwing enough heat out or ...?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks

 

[Riley]

Did the rads get suitably warm before?? Sounds more like a balancing issue

 

[lollypop909]

Did the rads get suitably warm before?? Sounds more like a balancing issue

Bought the house in summer and have turned heating on a couple of months ago. I have tried balancing by turning the downstairs to low. The downstaira valves are open only 1 point yet burning hot and upstairs are burning hot too. Yet upstairs dont become hot.

We know there is no draught because when the heats up, it stays like that for sometime.

 

[Riley]

That’s not balancing that just turning down the downstairs rads.

 

[lollypop909]

That’s not balancing that just turning down the downstairs rads.

Could you advice me with balancing please?

 

[Chuck]

I have recently spoken to plumber who have advised me to change the radiators to type 21 500x1800 panels.

Did this plumber check the flow and return temperatures on the upstairs radiators? If so, I'd probably take their advice.

 

[Ric2013]

If I understand correctly:

ALL radiators are getting really hot.
Bedroom radiators are heating up but the bedrooms themselves are not getting as hot as you like.

If so, I agree with your plumber. Get radiators with a higher heat output and (provided your pipework is sufficient to get more flow to them which I'll leave to your plumber to assess) it should solve your problem.

On an aside, are you aware that the risk of cot death goes up above 20°C? The safest room temperature for babies

 

[lollypop909]

If I understand correctly:

ALL radiators are getting really hot.
Bedroom radiators are heating up but the bedrooms themselves are not getting as hot as you like.

If so, I agree with your plumber. Get radiators with a higher heat output and (provided your pipework is sufficient to get more flow to them which I'll leave to your plumber to assess) it should solve your problem.

On an aside, are you aware that the risk of cot death goes up above 20°C? The safest room temperature for babies

we have 3 double and 1 single rads downstairs.
we have 3 single and a towel rail upstairs.
We have glow-worm 28kw boiler
We have 15mm pipe work.
The plumber suggests to replace 3 old (upstairs) radiators of 400x2400mm to 500x1800mm and instal a new 500x100 upstairs landing area which had no radiator and is always cold.

We do not have any small babies and I am not trying to achieve anything more than 21c upstairs. we'd be lucky to have 20c upstairs after 4 hour of heating with 70c set on boiler.

 

[lollypop909]

Did this plumber check the flow and return temperatures on the upstairs radiators? If so, I'd probably take their advice.

He didn't specifically checked temperatures other than feeling the pipes and then radiators and straight away pointed that, "although they are hot but they are not giving much heat because they are very old" and recommended that i should change them to new type 21's

 

[Ric2013]

we have 3 double and 1 single rads downstairs.
we have 3 single and a towel rail upstairs.
We have glow-worm 28kw boiler
We have 15mm pipe work.
The plumber suggests to replace 3 old (upstairs) radiators of 400x2400mm to 500x1800mm and instal a new 500x100 upstairs landing area which had no radiator and is always cold.

We do not have any small babies and I am not trying to achieve anything more than 21c upstairs. we'd be lucky to have 20c upstairs after 4 hour of heating with 70c set on boiler.

We can't tell from over the internet whether your pipework is sufficient or not as there is a lot more to it than that, but since in the UK we tend to work to the nearest pipe size, and we only really use 22 and 15mm, there is usually some over-engineering involved so you're probably okay.

It's nothing to do with the age of the radiators. The point is that your system was probably designed to give 16 or 18°C in bedrooms as this was formerly considered more than enough. As such, the installer will have selected radiators with a heat output sufficient to maintain 16 or 18°C and you want 21°C. A modern type 21 radiator will give out MUCH more heat for a similar size because of the 'better' design of modern radiators.

Your plumber seems to know what s/he is doing. And I have nothing more to add (I think).