Rayburn over heating need to add another rad, is this the way to go?

[Hububalli]

Hello,
I have found loads of great info on this site that has get us pretty far! I just want to confirm what we want to do is the best option.

So we have a tempory heating system running off a rayburn, this will be replaced by a large solid fuel burner in the shed next year proffesionally. The rayburn and rads that we have work fine but the system is overheating so we want to add another rad in the cold bathroom.

I have done a little drawing of the basics of what we have. The new rad is going to be 7m away from the feed and return pipes above the rayburn. We thought it would be best to have the new 22mm rad pipes come in from below running at a slight angle upwards towards the rad as in the picture (blue lines)

Is this our best option? We cant really go under the floorboards in the room with the cylinder in and as it is temporary astetics are not that important. The other option was to have the feed for the radiator going along the wall above the cylinder and door and the down the wall and through into the bathroom and keeping the return from the rad where it is in the picture going down into the room below and along.

Any advice would be greatly appriciated.

 

[Dickie]

I think you'd better fitting a single drop feed loop system to the extra radiator.

 

[SimonG]

It's not the rayburn overheating, it's the poor system it's attached to.

 

[Hububalli]

It's not the rayburn overheating, it's the poor system it's attached to.

Please don't take the drawing as an exact schematic of the system. It's the basics of whats going on. It is a massive old house that we need hot water for and a few radiators for this winter. Most of the heating is wood burners. I agree that there is nothing wrong with the rayburn, maybe I should have been more specific with the title. There is not enough in the system to deal with the heat generated and the tank in the loft is insuffient.

I think you'd better fitting a single drop feed loop system to the extra radiator.

I see, could you explain that a bit as it is not a term that I am familiar with. It would be really appriciated

Thanks,

 

[lame plumber]

if yor running a solid fuell rayburn on a gravity feed system youll probably find that your hw cyl is not big enough as reccommended by rayburn to absorb the bulk of the heat coming off the rayburn. you should only need a couple of rads to act as a heat sink on your system. adding more will just mean come the winter you have no hw as the rads are nicking all the heat if they actually circulate at all! go to the rayburn site and look up your model of rayburn and see what you should be doing with it to operate it efficiently and safetely, you need installer/technical data

 

[lame plumber]

forgot to mention the better option is to not through n so much fuel and run the rayburn at a lower temp it about running it sensibly and not at max chat all the time.

 

[AWheating]

is the cylinder grade 1 with a coil suitable for gravity? most modern cylinders coils are not great for gravity circulation.

also may be better to stick a few rads (longer runs) on a pump hooked up to pipe stats to get rid of the heat and make the rads work better.

 

[Dickie]

Please don't take the drawing as an exact schematic of the system. It's the basics of whats going on. It is a massive old house that we need hot water for and a few radiators for this winter. Most of the heating is wood burners. I agree that there is nothing wrong with the rayburn, maybe I should have been more specific with the title. There is not enough in the system to deal with the heat generated and the tank in the loft is insuffient.



I see, could you explain that a bit as it is not a term that I am familiar with. It would be really appriciated

Thanks,

With respect mate, correctly installing gravity systems is not something for a DIYer or course cowboy. The appliance output would be required, pipe sizing & gradients would need to be calculated. Deffo not something for the 'Plastic Plumbers'.

 

[Gray0689]

With respect mate, correctly installing gravity systems is not something for a DIYer or course cowboy. The appliance output would be required, pipe sizing & gradients would need to be calculated. Deffo not something for the 'Plastic Plumbers'.

Agree it's not a DIY job unless you know exactly what your doing
Lol and your not a plastic plumber then
Most new builds where your from are not done in plastic then?

 

[Dickie]

Agree it's not a DIY job unless you know exactly what your doing
Lol and your not a plastic plumber then
Most new builds where your from are not done in plastic then?

Can I please inquire, are you addressing me Gray dear boy??

 

[Hububalli]

All I wanted to know is if I fit that radiator will it work. As far as I can work out it will work fine but I wanted a second opinion from people that know about this kind of thing as gravity systems as not something that I have had much dealing with. No I am not a qualified plumber but I have done huge amounts of work over the last 10 years including total system replacements, all rads and pipe work replaced and properly sized all done in copper and self soldered. All my work is always checked by qualified plumbers and it is always fine. I take a huge amount of pride in what I do and do it properly. I am far from a bodge it together and hope it works kind of DIY'er. I do my research and do it as it is supposed to be done. Just because I dont have some official bits of paper with my name on doesnt mean I cant do it. I have worked with young "qualified" plumbers that seem to know nothing. Everybody here has had to learn their trade at some point the same way anybody else learns anything in life, through work, experience, and education.

This house is huge, it was built in 1909 and has over 15 rooms. We are trying to sort out the basic system that had already been fitted here which we know isnt perfect so it will get us through the winter with heat in a couple of rooms and some hot water. Then next year the pro's will come in and sort us out with a completely new system running off a gaint solid fuel system. What we have works great (apart from when someone over fills the rayburn! that we are fixing with educating people how to use it properly) and all the rads get hot. We want to heat the bath room as its unbearable in the winter.

There isnt the money to waste on trying to update and correct all the previous mistakes that have been made in fitting the system in the past. It is all going to be ripped out in 7 months anyway. The budget is very tight.

Thanks for the suggestion Lame Plumber & AWHeating, I check their website and the cylinder is fine. We replaced that with a better one that we found that was gravity compatible and much larger a while back.

I appriciated all the advice you have all given so far and can understand why you erge caution with these systems, and thats why I am here to get advice from the people that know about it.

 

[lame plumber]

lets not bicker on an interesting thread, for once its something of interest to the old style plumbers.

 

[Gray0689]

Can I please inquire, are you addressing me Gray dear boy??

It was your post I was replying to so what you think

 

[SimonG]

All I wanted to know is if I fit that radiator will it work. As far as I can work out it will work fine but I wanted a second opinion from people that know about this kind of thing as gravity systems as not something that I have had much dealing with. No I am not a qualified plumber but I have done huge amounts of work over the last 10 years including total system replacements, all rads and pipe work replaced and properly sized all done in copper and self soldered. All my work is always checked by qualified plumbers and it is always fine. I take a huge amount of pride in what I do and do it properly. I am far from a bodge it together and hope it works kind of DIY'er. I do my research and do it as it is supposed to be done. Just because I dont have some official bits of paper with my name on doesnt mean I cant do it. I have worked with young "qualified" plumbers that seem to know nothing. Everybody here has had to learn their trade at some point the same way anybody else learns anything in life, through work, experience, and education.

This house is huge, it was built in 1909 and has over 15 rooms. We are trying to sort out the basic system that had already been fitted here which we know isnt perfect so it will get us through the winter with heat in a couple of rooms and some hot water. Then next year the pro's will come in and sort us out with a completely new system running off a gaint solid fuel system. What we have works great (apart from when someone over fills the rayburn! that we are fixing with educating people how to use it properly) and all the rads get hot. We want to heat the bath room as its unbearable in the winter.

There isnt the money to waste on trying to update and correct all the previous mistakes that have been made in fitting the system in the past. It is all going to be ripped out in 7 months anyway. The budget is very tight.

Thanks for the suggestion Lame Plumber & AWHeating, I check their website and the cylinder is fine. We replaced that with a better one that we found that was gravity compatible and much larger a while back.

I appriciated all the advice you have all given so far and can understand why you erge caution with these systems, and thats why I am here to get advice from the people that know about it.

Check your feed and expansion tank. If you are having trouble dissipating the heat you could find very hot water in there. Would hate to think it's over a bedroom and not able to withstand the said heat.

 

[Hububalli]

Check your feed and expansion tank. If you are having trouble dissipating the heat you could find very hot water in there. Would hate to think it's over a bedroom and not able to withstand the said heat.

If someone over feeds the rayburn in can get pretty hot in the tank you are right! When used right the tank stays pretty cool. It is located in the hall way on the top floor now so if anything did happen it would flow down the stairs. It was originally an old plastic tank that someone put in a while ago but we have changed it to a metal one for that exact reason.

 

[SimonG]

Metal float and metal overflow?

 

[Hububalli]

Metal float and metal overflow?

Yeah the over flow is all copper and goes back down to the ground floor and in to an old sink. I didnt really want hot water shooting out the side of the house roof!

Yeah it is an old brass float