ᐅ Gas valve and handbrake of the heating system: Is this explanation correct?
Created on: 22 Nov 2020 15:05
V
vaderleHello everyone,
I have been living in my new house for four months.
Our house (16cm (6 inches) aerated concrete precast walls + insulation) has underfloor heating on both the ground and first floors, as well as a heating system (air-to-water heat pump) from Vaillant.
In every room, I have individual temperature controllers, and at the location of the heating system (utility room), there is a separate control panel from Vaillant where I can set the general desired temperature as well as time-limited temperature adjustments (for example, lowering the desired temperature by 4°C (7°F) at night).
At first, I set the temperature in many rooms to around 21°C (70°F), 19°C (66°F) in the bedroom, and 22°C (72°F) in the bathroom. The central control panel was set to a desired temperature of 23°C (73°F).
Since it was almost always warmer in the rooms than the temperature set on the controllers due to good insulation and outside temperatures, heating was almost never activated. Only in the utility room did it seem like continuous heating took place during the day. As a result, the temperature there was around 24-25°C (75-77°F). This was clearly too warm for me because food is also stored there. Both the separate room controller (set to 18°C (64°F)) and the central control panel (with the central desired temperature of 23°C (73°F)) in the utility room were set lower. I therefore spoke with the heating engineer.
He explained the following:
The central control panel is like the gas pedal of a car, and the individual room controllers are like handbrakes.
So I was always “driving with the handbrake on” (individual room controller set lower than the central control panel in the utility room). This caused the warm water in the underfloor heating system to accumulate in the utility room.
He advised me to set all the room controllers to a higher temperature (for example, 25°C (77°F))—in other words, release the handbrake—and then slowly lower the central desired temperature setting (the gas) until the desired effect is achieved. This way, the air-to-water heat pump would run continuously because the actual temperatures in the rooms would never match the set values, and the utility room would no longer experience this accumulated heat. He also said that in a house with insulation and an air-to-water heat pump, it is good for the system to run continuously.
Is this explanation using the gas pedal and handbrake analogy correct?
I have been living in my new house for four months.
Our house (16cm (6 inches) aerated concrete precast walls + insulation) has underfloor heating on both the ground and first floors, as well as a heating system (air-to-water heat pump) from Vaillant.
In every room, I have individual temperature controllers, and at the location of the heating system (utility room), there is a separate control panel from Vaillant where I can set the general desired temperature as well as time-limited temperature adjustments (for example, lowering the desired temperature by 4°C (7°F) at night).
At first, I set the temperature in many rooms to around 21°C (70°F), 19°C (66°F) in the bedroom, and 22°C (72°F) in the bathroom. The central control panel was set to a desired temperature of 23°C (73°F).
Since it was almost always warmer in the rooms than the temperature set on the controllers due to good insulation and outside temperatures, heating was almost never activated. Only in the utility room did it seem like continuous heating took place during the day. As a result, the temperature there was around 24-25°C (75-77°F). This was clearly too warm for me because food is also stored there. Both the separate room controller (set to 18°C (64°F)) and the central control panel (with the central desired temperature of 23°C (73°F)) in the utility room were set lower. I therefore spoke with the heating engineer.
He explained the following:
The central control panel is like the gas pedal of a car, and the individual room controllers are like handbrakes.
So I was always “driving with the handbrake on” (individual room controller set lower than the central control panel in the utility room). This caused the warm water in the underfloor heating system to accumulate in the utility room.
He advised me to set all the room controllers to a higher temperature (for example, 25°C (77°F))—in other words, release the handbrake—and then slowly lower the central desired temperature setting (the gas) until the desired effect is achieved. This way, the air-to-water heat pump would run continuously because the actual temperatures in the rooms would never match the set values, and the utility room would no longer experience this accumulated heat. He also said that in a house with insulation and an air-to-water heat pump, it is good for the system to run continuously.
Is this explanation using the gas pedal and handbrake analogy correct?
T
T_im_Norden22 Nov 2020 15:50It can be explained in a simplified way like this. However, it is better to perform a proper thermal balancing where the volume flow is adjusted. For that, more detailed information about the system would be necessary, such as the hydraulic diagram, etc.
HausiKlausi23 Nov 2020 00:35Correct. And this actually applies to all types of heating systems: ideally, only as much heat as necessary should be emitted at the bottom so that as little as possible, but as much as needed, reaches the top. Simply put – if everything is set to "5," the ideal temperature should be reached. Of course, this is often not possible in practice. But even with gas condensing boilers, this principle is what makes heating effective. If you have to turn down the heat at the top because it is too strong at the bottom, that is not ideal.
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