Well, the three radiators that Seamus plumbed in, the small one in the hall remains totally cold after a professional boiler installation. The 1600 x 300 one in the livingroom heats reluctantly and I got a larger new one installed on two points left by Seamus which also does not work properly. The plumber thinks that the pipework is connected to itself, because it is only warming slightly, and the electrician commented that it looks like it is only warming from conduction, rather than a flow of water – which is consistent with what the plumber speculated. However, the pipes are in the ground, which Seamus did and then put a poured concrete floor on top. So I don’t know what way the pipes have been connected and will need to excavate.
Which reminds me, the water pressure to taps in the old bathroom is really low. I don’t know why, but the hot is connected to the immersion tank, which has changed location and the pipework was not done. I attached a likely unterminated pipe and it worked but slowly. The cold should not have been affected. I can’t see where the connection to the storage tank upstairs is. I think I will need to do new pipework.
Update 28 August 2024
In relation to the two main radiators in the extension, I have decided that they need to be replumbed directly to the boiler, as all the pipework is in the poured concrete floor and the radiators are not heating up (hardly at all, and this much is probably due to convection of water, rather than flow of water through the pipes). There is 100mm of insulation in the walls, so I have made channels from one rad along the internal wall, and through the block wall to the new shower room, into the immersion cupboard and out to the garage where the boiler is hung for direct connection to the flow from the boiler. Drilling through concrete block was difficult, luckily I had a kango hammer. Cutting the channel in the insulation was done with a multi-tool.
For the second radiator that does not work, I channeled up the wall to the attic and will connect copper through the attic (around a 90 degree corner), then down above the shower to the immersion tank and out to the garage.
The old radiators work but the new rads in the front porch does not work very well. It is difficult to balance with the hall radiator, which is previous in the chain. I looked under the floor boards and see that the pipe work is in PVC flexi pipe, and there may be air blocks or other restrictions on flow. I will try to sort this out later.
Another problem is that the pressure in the system still falls to zero from one day to the next, especially if the heating has been run. I am not sure why this is, as I have already had a leak specialist in to look at it. But I cannot see the pipes within the poured floor. There are two zones and they are connected at some point. The point where they split is not accessible. I can foresee doing new pipework starting from the garage to the front room, so avoiding the under-floor buried pipework, so that is all becomes visible. However, I am busy doing the above work first.
