I recently moved into my studio and I'm super confused about floor heating, was hoping someone could shed some light on it.
I have these 4 pipes:
Last week each day I experimented with by turning various knobs on before work in the morning, and seeing the result after work in the afternoon:
- I turned all of them up, all 4 pipes were warm.
- I turned all of them off, all 4 pipes were cold.
- I turned only the rightmost on, nothing happened, all pipes were cold.
- I turned only the 2nd from right on, pipe was warm, bathroom floor was warm.
- I turned only the 3rd from right on, all pipes were cold, all floors were cold.
- I turned only the leftmost on, all pipes were cold, all floors were cold.
I assumed each pipe was assigned to a part of the house.
Maybe the system is not working properly? I could accept the explanation that 3 of them are not working, but I found it weird how all pipes were warm when I turned all of them on.
PS: I'm not freezing even without heating, so that's good
The wrapped, vertical pipe in the middle is the warm water feed, the one on the right hand side is the return to the boiler.
Those valves are just shut-off valves, you probably have a(t least one) thermostat somewhere.
As they are shut off valves, not tstats, then proceed as follows:
Find the thermostat (bathrooms often have none), set it to mid range.
Open 3 of the valves, leaving one on the left side closed: one zone should be cold that evening - the valve which you had closed is the feed to the zone which is now cold.
Close the now open valve on the left, and open the now closed one - your other zone should now be warm.
By "warm water feed" I mean the heat source for the heating. Heating and hot water are usually separate here. Heating is a closed system, water for the sinks etc is an open system.
Are you too hot or cold, or just hopelessly curious?
Water for sinks and bath are one system and for heating on another though the water likely comes from the same boiler. Thermostats set centrally.
Hot water comes in likely via knob 1 (far right), knobs 2,3 and 4 control heat to different parts of the flat. As the water exits the heat loss is measured and this is how the heating bill is calculated.
Knob 1 leave fully open all the time.
All other knobs closed.
Turn on knob 2 and see what zone heats up
then repeat 3 & finally 4.
Then adjust by turning down 2,3, and 4 completely. The start to open each with a quarter turn and if not enough then another quarter till you find the right level for each zone.
The black lines were probably put by another tenant as a guide.
If you go away for a few days just turn off knob 1 completely and leave the others and the heat will stop. Otherwise you'll be forever adjusting.
If you want a small amount of heat to keep the chill of when away then turn knob 1 right down and leave open just a quarter turn.
If away just for the day then leave alone, as it takes 3 - 4 hours to cool down, and the same if not longer to heat up again.
With mine the bathroom seems to be the main entrance, not regulatable. I was also told something like that (11 years ago, LOL).
Of course it can be regulated but not turned off completely when others are supposed to be on. Seems the same with yours (from your list).
As I alsways fiddle for weeks with these things when I move, I suggest:
Turn bathroom (second from the right) on. Then turn the others half way/quarter way/what ever you want to start with. As you obvously already know - taking from operating it in the morning, checking in the evening - the system is terribly slow.
Once you have the basics set to your liking, you can additionally adjust via the thermostats in the rooms (which you don't have at all?) but in my experience it is not very sensitive. And yes, as Jagh said, the bathroom doesn't have a thermostat.
Good luck. It takes some fidgeting but once it's done, it's fine until the day you move out
You might want to label the pipes/valves so that you know.
Is there another similar looking set of connections (called a manifold in the jargon) where the pipes return the water after it's been through the house? Also you should have a pressure gauge somewhere on the circuit too which tells you if there's enough water in these pipes, something that can affect the system's ability to heat evenly. As long as the pressure stays even when the system is off, eg same pressure in May and then September when you have it switched off there should be little to worry about with the pipes, it doesn't need an annual service etc.