ᐅ How to Perform a Hydraulic Balancing of a Radiant Floor Heating System Yourself?
Created on: 2 Jan 2026 12:31
J
Jschm88
Hi,
we have been living in our newly built house for a year now, so I thought it was time to optimize the underfloor heating for this second winter.
There are two heating manifolds on two floors, each with several heating circuits. Some of them are controlled by actuators and electronic radiator regulators (ERR), others are not. Overall, the ground floor tends to be slightly too warm, and the upper floor a bit too cool.
I understand the basic concept of balancing: open everything, lower the heating curve, and then fine-tune. But how do I do this precisely?
we have been living in our newly built house for a year now, so I thought it was time to optimize the underfloor heating for this second winter.
There are two heating manifolds on two floors, each with several heating circuits. Some of them are controlled by actuators and electronic radiator regulators (ERR), others are not. Overall, the ground floor tends to be slightly too warm, and the upper floor a bit too cool.
I understand the basic concept of balancing: open everything, lower the heating curve, and then fine-tune. But how do I do this precisely?
- Topic "Opening everything": Where I have room thermostats, I set them to the maximum. This causes the associated actuator on the heating manifold to open the circuit. But I also have circuits without actuators. Do I need to open these as well? Do I just remove the orange cap and loosen the screw with a wrench (see photo)? Do I need to do anything with the flow meters in this process?
- Topic heating curve: How do I handle this for the two floors? There is only one heating curve. Do I turn everything up at both heating manifolds on ground and upper floors at the same time, or do I proceed floor by floor?
- Topic fine-tuning: In the end, do I close the circuits where necessary that I opened under point 1), or do the circuits stay open, and the adjustment is done via the flow meters (this would make more sense to me)? So, at the end, do I have permanently open circuits that I adjust with the flow meters / flow rate? Can anything go wrong if I open everything fully?
Thanks a lot!!
No worries, I’m working on it and have also finished the ground floor. Here, the rooms maintain a consistently (too warm) temperature with the circuits open. This means that lowering the heating curve later would make it perfect. Currently, it’s running at 34 degrees flow temperature at 0 degrees outside. I can well imagine reducing it by 1-2 degrees later on.
Upstairs, I’m still balancing the rooms. The hallway is still too warm, and the children’s room is too cold. I think I’ll manage to get a good overall distribution in the end, but lowering the heating curve would probably make it too cool upstairs.
Overall, this would mean, if things develop upstairs as I expect, that I need to leave the heating curve where it is. Right?
Upstairs, I’m still balancing the rooms. The hallway is still too warm, and the children’s room is too cold. I think I’ll manage to get a good overall distribution in the end, but lowering the heating curve would probably make it too cool upstairs.
Overall, this would mean, if things develop upstairs as I expect, that I need to leave the heating curve where it is. Right?
R
RotorMotor4 Jan 2026 09:31You cannot consider the top and bottom separately.
One house, one heating system.
You are only finished downstairs when it matches the upstairs...
So keep working downstairs!
One house, one heating system.
You are only finished downstairs when it matches the upstairs...
So keep working downstairs!
RotorMotor schrieb:
You cannot consider the top and bottom separately.
One house, one heating system.
So the bottom is only finished when it matches the top...
So keep working on the bottom! Will reducing the flow at the bottom affect the top? In other words, would that leave more flow available at the top? They are two separate heating circuit manifolds.
If not, I would have even less chance in the end to achieve my goal of a lower heating curve.
R
RotorMotor4 Jan 2026 10:09The heating circuit manifolds may be separate, but not independent.
So, if you reduce the flow at the bottom, but the flow at the radiator remains at 1300 liters per hour (l/h), the flow will naturally increase at the top (unless it passes through a bypass valve).
But even here: just try it out. Close the valve at the bottom and see if you can read a higher flow at the top!
So, if you reduce the flow at the bottom, but the flow at the radiator remains at 1300 liters per hour (l/h), the flow will naturally increase at the top (unless it passes through a bypass valve).
But even here: just try it out. Close the valve at the bottom and see if you can read a higher flow at the top!
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