Rayburn Radiator Setup

[Strang]

Afternoon all. I have a theoretical issue and wondered if it would work. I have a Rayburn burning wood and anthracite, gravity feeding a hot water cylinder then there is a pump that kicks in to circulate water to the radiators (4 of them upstairs). These can barely handle the amount of heat that the Rayburn kicks out and so I wanted to add another radiator into the mix, but this one would be downstairs. Due to the layout of downstairs, it would be difficult to feed a pipe through from the Rayburn and the pipework to the intended radiator so I would like to go to the furthest radiator upstairs, then shoot a pipe straight downwards, then have it returning back up again, then back along the existing circuit. Is there a technical barrier to having an extra rad on the end which would have a pipe going down, in then back up again?

 

[craigy]

How many rads in total do you already have? In theory what you propose would be ok. Take a note of the flow and return pipe bore and the bore of the pipes which connect to the radiators. Use the same bore pipe for the new rad and tee them into your flow and return overhead. I am working off the assumption is a two pipe system, main runs in 22mm and rad tails in 15mm. If it is micro bore pipe(8,10,12mm) check whether these are plumbed into a manifold, if so, is there spare outlets on it? If not connect to the main flow and return if poss. Once this is done you will need to rebalance the system so all rads get equal temp rise. People do come unstuck when adding another rad to an existing system as the heat source may be at its limit already and so balancing nightmare and Luke warm rads ensue. Sounds like you don't have that issue so far.