Radiator Balancing Dummy Questions

[John Scv]

Hello,

Would anyone be able to provide a dummy guide explanation to radiator balancing, not the process itself but in regards to:

Boiler type (combi/non-combi) if it bares any difference.
Boiler flow temperature (weather compensator not present)/what if one is present.
Radiator drop temp between lock shield and TRV.

A. What should the boiler flow temperature be set to (weather compensator not present)? Some guides state around 75 degrees although what if the system will be used at 60 degree flow mode?
B. Should one aim for a 12, 15 or 20 degree drop between the radiator valves?
C. How does the heat pump come into play/role? Should the setting be adjusted for this as well?

Basically how does one reconcile the figures or go for one thing or another? There are a lot of guides of the doing however nothing on the prerequisites or the prior setup which could impact the actual end goal?

Many thanks.

 

[gmartine]

Most of the guidelines are literally out the window nowadays.

Set the flow temp to 60 (or lower) on a cold day/night and expect the warm up to your desired room temperatures to be fairly even (balancing) and for it to take longer. If they aren't doing that you may have to play with pump speed and trimming the flow rate across the radiators.

Weather Comp (WC) is desirable as it'll continually match the correct boiler output to the heat loss of the building. On more basic boilers without WC you may have to resort to manually adjusting the flow temp but a lack of WC can be offset somewhat with intelligent control systems like Nest or Tado etc.

Combi's usually have a better modulation rate than regular or system boilers so they can trim their output right down which'll improve efficiency but have a look at the Heat Geek YouTube channel where he covers many of these topics in greater detail.

 

[John Scv]

@gmartine

Much appreciated for the reply.

In what sense are most the guidelines out the window nowadays if you could expand? I'm not in the industry/have awareness of it, just amateur DIY person. Are the guides generally outdated and based on older systems or something else?

I have had a look at my current boiler and manual however pretty certain I am unable to do anything with the pump speed/other pump controls unfortunately it's a Viessmann Vitodens 100-W B1KC 35 kW combi boiler.

Have watched some videos on weather compensation and I was just about to literally ask whether having a system without one and generally lets say adjusting the boiler flow temperature manually i.e. through December - February in say increments of 60 - 65 - 70 would essentially work as a manual weather compensation given the outdoor temperature drop. Of course won't be as accurate day by day but close enough?

Will have a look at Heat Geek YouTube channel. I have read some of their online guides and they are very thorough and full of theory, however application of it to my current system setup leads me here for questioning.

As another question:

Would running the boiler flow temperature at 80 degrees for 1 hour (constantly) use/have same cost implications as running the boiler at 40 degrees for 2 hours (constantly)? Just specifically in regards to its operating state, disregarding all other factors.

Many thanks.

 

[gmartine]

The lower flow temp the better (in terms of boiler efficiency) so aim for that. You have a boiler that can utilise WC and is very capable so rather than trying to manually adjust anything on the fly I'd get an engineer in to set up the WC, optimise your system and show you how to use it.

 

[DJKent]

C. How does the heat pump come into play/role? Should the setting be adjusted for this as well?

You have a gas boiler and a HeatPump?