ᐅ Heating system, something isn’t working correctly here. The hallway is always at 22°C (about 72°F).

Good morning everyone, I have a question and hope you can help me. We have been living in our newly built house with underfloor heating for three years now. Our heating system is a heat pump.

Basically, the radiators in our hallway are turned off, yet the temperature in the hallway is constantly around 22°C (72°F). Our bathroom, on the other hand, only reaches about 20.5°C (69°F) at the current supply temperature, so we always have to turn on the towel radiator; otherwise, it’s too cold in the bathroom in the morning, especially with a baby.

I just can’t understand why our hallway is so warm. When someone visits and opens the front door, the first comment is always: “It’s really hot in your hallway.” I agree, but what could be causing this? If energy is being wasted here, that would be a serious issue.

The valves embedded in the walls for the hallway heating are set to a minimum, and the manual controls for each area are also turned down to zero. Still, the hallway is very warm. It’s driving me crazy… Do you have any ideas?

Other rooms where we have the controls turned down to zero are pleasantly cool as expected.

Thanks.

Just a quick guess...

Probably the heating manifold in the hallway? It releases heat. Additionally, all the pipes to the individual rooms run from it. Most likely, the pipes are undamped up to that point. So if you turn the valve for the bathroom fully open, some of the heat is already released in the hallway before it reaches the bathroom.
That would be a classic situation.

face26 schrieb:

Just a quick guess...

Probably the heating manifold in the hallway? It releases heat. In addition, all the pipes run from it to the individual rooms. Likely undamped up to that point. So if you have the pipe to the bathroom fully open, some of the heat is already released into the hallway before it reaches the bathroom.
Probably the heating manifold in the hallway? It releases heat. In addition, all the pipes run from it to the individual rooms. Likely undamped up to that point. So if you have the pipe to the bathroom fully open, some of the heat is already released into the hallway before it reaches the bathroom.
That would be a classic case.

That could certainly be part of the explanation, but then the floor in the hallway should be warm, right? I don't really notice that. Of course, we have manifolds built into the wall there, but can they really generate that much heat?

Well, heat is relative. You mentioned 22 degrees compared to 20.5 degrees in the bathroom. Still, combined with other factors, this can indeed be the case. The bathroom likely has many exterior walls relative to its volume and a small floor area. The corridor leading deeper into the building has mostly interior walls and few exterior walls. Then there is the mentioned effect of the heating manifold, which acts like a radiator. Try placing a small thermometer nearby. Also, consider the pipes for the other rooms. Naturally, the pipes are hottest within the first meter (3 feet).

Edit: You can’t really do much about the pipes running through the corridor, but to suggest a possible solution, you might try insulating the heating manifold. However, I can’t say how much this would help.

chewbacca123 schrieb:

Good morning everyone, I have a question and hope you can help me. We have been living in our newly built home with underfloor heating for three years. Our heating system is a heat pump.

Basically, the radiators in the hallway are turned off, yet the hallway temperature is consistently around 22°C (72°F). In contrast, our bathroom only heats up to about 20.5°C (69°F) at the current supply temperature, so the towel radiator always needs to be switched on; otherwise, it’s too cold in the bathroom in the mornings, especially with the baby.

I’m simply puzzled as to why our hallway is so warm. When someone visits and opens the front door, the first comment is always: “You have a lot of heat in the hallway.” I agree, but what could be causing this? If unnecessary energy is being used here, that would be a serious issue.

The valves in the wall for the hallways are set to a minimum, and the manual knobs for the individual zones are also turned to zero. Still, the hallway is very warm? This is driving me crazy... Do you have any ideas?

Other rooms where the thermostatic valves are set to zero are appropriately cool.

Thanks

It’s possible the controls are mixed up, so the bathroom might be controlling the hallway loop and vice versa. Try turning up the hallway thermostat and observe what happens.

Hallway, probably completely internal except for the front door. What do the relevant flow rates at the heating circuit distributor (HKV) look like? And what are the exact temperatures? Entering the hallway with a jacket on is different from being in the bathroom in just underwear.