Vaillant weather compensation

[ChrisG]

First post here so firstly hello all

Onto business though, Im just about to have a new Vaillant Ecotec 618 installed and whilst we're at it I'd like to go the whole hog with a VRC430 weather compensation controller to maximise the energy savings and (admittedly) fulfil my desire to keep up with technology and have some funky toys to play with.

We have a 3 bed end of terrace house of 1960's vintage with cavity wall and good loft insulation, and although getting on a bit, from a few basic calculations our existing radiators seem to be generally over sized for the room sizes, which I understand is a slight benefit with a WC setup? We also have a suitable N/NW facing wall easily accessed from the boiler which I believe is a requirement of the external temperature sensor

The slight "issue" I have though is that we're getting the boiler installed by a family friend who's an RGI, I trust him to do a good job on the install but he's rather "old school" so when it comes to controllers he has a preference to keep it simple, which means he hasn't got any experience of setting up something like a VRC430.

My question therefore would be, is a VRC430 something that we'd be able to set up and optimise between us given his lack of "techy" knowledge and my lack of heating install knowledge? Reading the install/user instructions I can't see anything that looks unfathomably complicated, but I've heard mentions on other forums about the installer "plugging in his laptop" eek and I wasnt quite sure on setting up the heat curve and whether it needed anything more complicated than a bit of trial and error following a semi-educated guess at a suitable curve given the spec of the house, so I'm looking for a bit of advice one way or other as to whether we should go down this route or not.

Thanks in advance
Christopher

 

[Mike Jackson]

Vaillant may be able to provide a commissioning service for it. Worth checking with them.

Mike

 

[CharterGAS]

unless you have proper knowledge about weather compensation and modulating controls you will not be able to make the real benefits

You need to speak to vaillant about a local installer who is competent on the 430 (there are no vrc 430's in the uk until December 1st )

You will need to decide what heating curve to set , set you r maximum flow temp balance the radiator system so that there is a 20 degree temperature differential
set any offsets on the weather sensor if required etc etc


If you need an installer i suggest you look at

www.ecotechnitians.co.uk(find an installer)
and

argi (find an installer )

 

[ChrisG]

Cheers for the links, unless you're in London though there doesnt seem to be any/many on those listings or am I looking at the wrong sections of the website?

I also take on board about getting in someone who has the relevent experience, unfortunately Ive already gone through the "getting quotes" process from local RGIs, and I've yet to find one who does have that experience/knowledge and given the timescales we're working to (we're currently having an extension built and re-doing the kitchen), I've had to draw a line under the search. I even had one RGI that was listed on the Vaillant website but he was no better, as with the others he dismissed the WC Vaillant system and pushed me towards going for a Ferroli with bog standard controls instead! All of them came out with comments like "keep it simple otherwise it will go wrong", "weather compensation is a gimmick and doesnt save any energy" or "Vaillants are no better than XYZ, they just charge for the name", none of which instilled me with any confidence that they actually knew what they were on about.

Because of this, we've settled with the family friend RGI who admittedly has no more Vaillant / WC experience than the others we've had round, but at least he's happy to install my preferred choice and just as importantly is significantly cheaper than any of the other quotes we've had despite more a costly boiler.

I did actually speak to a Vaillant tech today who seemed to paint a reasonably clear picture about setting them up though, saying we shouldnt have too many issues. He said there's recommended settings based on whole house heat loss etc which Ive already calculated, after that its a matter of tweaking the curves by trial and error if it doesn't feel comfortable straight off.

Interesting what you say about the lack of supply though, as long as they were available again at the start of next week that should be soon enough for us.

thanks
Chris

 

[CharterGAS]

If you want a lsit of th etop engineers in london regarding energy efficient heating system and specifcally weather compensation go to

www.ecotechnicians.co.uk

find an installer!!

 

[ChrisG]

Thanks, if I was looking for a London based installer that would be breat, but it's not a lot of use to those of us who live outside of London!

My choice may have been made for me anyway as Vaillant still haven't got any stock and they're now saying as late as mid January for deliveries!