ᐅ Underfloor heating is not warming up – 20,000 kWh energy consumption
Created on: 24 Nov 2017 07:46
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BrosBrosBros
Hello everyone,
I am writing on behalf of my parents-in-law, who are having problems with their heating system and underfloor heating. It is a single-family house built in 2005 with a Buderus boiler/water storage and underfloor heating. The house is 130 sqm (1400 sq ft) and has only one story. I was shocked to find out that the two of them used 20,000 kWh of gas last year... However, I don’t find the house to be really warm. For example, 2-3 rooms (office, bedroom) are not heated at all... So the consumption seems really high...
In fact, a heating technician visits once a year to perform maintenance. They have a proper maintenance contract. But when asked questions like "why doesn’t it get properly warm," he doesn’t give a clear answer and just says, "We didn’t install the heating system..." They are lucky if the maintenance costs only 300 € (about 320 USD), often it’s more expensive... He recently suggested replacing the heating system, with an estimated cost between 5,000 € and 8,000 € (about 5,300 to 8,500 USD)...
Currently, a few things are confusing me and maybe I can get some help here:
1) They have to refill water in the heating circuits every 5-6 weeks... We also sometimes need to add water to our heating system about once a year, which I understand... but every 5-6 weeks?? They used moisture meters to check for damp areas... everything was dry.
2) In the photo of the heating circuit manifold, it’s clearly visible that all flow meters are almost at zero... Since I don’t have anything like that on my underfloor heating, I don’t know what it means... but zero doesn’t sound like much.
3) The pipes all remain cold to at most lukewarm. With my system, when heating is running, you can feel the pipes warm up. Also, I can read the position of the actuators on my valves. That doesn’t seem possible with their system. The small valves can be easily pressed down with a knife or something similar.
4) They also "wonder" at our place how our tiles are always nicely warm... noticeably warm enough to walk barefoot comfortably (and with three of us we use 12,000 kWh). Their tiles remain cold... you don’t freeze but they don’t get warm either. Is there a way to check if perhaps too much screed was used or if the heating loops are simply installed too deep?
So many questions despite having a maintenance contract... Thanks in advance for your tips and advice...
Good luck, BrosBrosBros
I am writing on behalf of my parents-in-law, who are having problems with their heating system and underfloor heating. It is a single-family house built in 2005 with a Buderus boiler/water storage and underfloor heating. The house is 130 sqm (1400 sq ft) and has only one story. I was shocked to find out that the two of them used 20,000 kWh of gas last year... However, I don’t find the house to be really warm. For example, 2-3 rooms (office, bedroom) are not heated at all... So the consumption seems really high...
In fact, a heating technician visits once a year to perform maintenance. They have a proper maintenance contract. But when asked questions like "why doesn’t it get properly warm," he doesn’t give a clear answer and just says, "We didn’t install the heating system..." They are lucky if the maintenance costs only 300 € (about 320 USD), often it’s more expensive... He recently suggested replacing the heating system, with an estimated cost between 5,000 € and 8,000 € (about 5,300 to 8,500 USD)...
Currently, a few things are confusing me and maybe I can get some help here:
1) They have to refill water in the heating circuits every 5-6 weeks... We also sometimes need to add water to our heating system about once a year, which I understand... but every 5-6 weeks?? They used moisture meters to check for damp areas... everything was dry.
2) In the photo of the heating circuit manifold, it’s clearly visible that all flow meters are almost at zero... Since I don’t have anything like that on my underfloor heating, I don’t know what it means... but zero doesn’t sound like much.
3) The pipes all remain cold to at most lukewarm. With my system, when heating is running, you can feel the pipes warm up. Also, I can read the position of the actuators on my valves. That doesn’t seem possible with their system. The small valves can be easily pressed down with a knife or something similar.
4) They also "wonder" at our place how our tiles are always nicely warm... noticeably warm enough to walk barefoot comfortably (and with three of us we use 12,000 kWh). Their tiles remain cold... you don’t freeze but they don’t get warm either. Is there a way to check if perhaps too much screed was used or if the heating loops are simply installed too deep?
So many questions despite having a maintenance contract... Thanks in advance for your tips and advice...
Good luck, BrosBrosBros
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chand198624 Nov 2017 11:56Joedreck schrieb:
Water loss can come from a broken membrane expansion vessel. Water expands when heated. If the vessel is damaged, the excess is simply released. That’s why water is missing from the system.That sounds logical. I didn’t know the exact cause, but something like that has to happen if water is missing every 5–6 weeks.
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HilfeHilfe25 Nov 2017 06:22Have the plumbing installed,
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Knallkörper25 Nov 2017 09:43I would focus on the question of why such a low flow rate is showing. Either the pump is delivering too little, or the balancing valves in the distribution manifold are throttled too much for the hydraulic balancing.
Hello,
maybe I missed it, but my first question is:
what flow temperature is being used? Tiles feeling cold is basically normal at low flow temperatures. With the current outdoor temperatures, we run just above 30°C (86°F) here; the floors don’t really get warm, more like "not cold."
Secondly:
constantly having to refill water is definitely not okay. In my experience, you might need to top up during the first year because there was still an air bubble after filling.
After that, it should only be necessary every few years at most. Even doing it yearly is far too often!
Thirdly:
you should definitely try the tip about the heating circuits; that sounds like the heating system is poorly adjusted.
But:
20,000 kWh initially sounds like a lot. For a bungalow from 2005 with 130 sqm (1,400 sq ft) and the unfavorable ratio of volume to wall surface, it’s not that unreasonable. If they shower or bathe a lot, heat generously, and perhaps live in a cold area, that could add up.
We used about 10,000 kWh in a semi-detached house with 130 sqm (1,400 sq ft) from 2011, which had better insulation and a much better volume-to-wall ratio. But we are “light users” in terms of heating—21°C (70°F) in the living room and only 18-19°C (64-66°F) in the bedrooms.
I think it’s unlikely to get below 15,000 kWh with that kind of building.
Best regards,
Andreas
maybe I missed it, but my first question is:
what flow temperature is being used? Tiles feeling cold is basically normal at low flow temperatures. With the current outdoor temperatures, we run just above 30°C (86°F) here; the floors don’t really get warm, more like "not cold."
Secondly:
constantly having to refill water is definitely not okay. In my experience, you might need to top up during the first year because there was still an air bubble after filling.
After that, it should only be necessary every few years at most. Even doing it yearly is far too often!
Thirdly:
you should definitely try the tip about the heating circuits; that sounds like the heating system is poorly adjusted.
But:
20,000 kWh initially sounds like a lot. For a bungalow from 2005 with 130 sqm (1,400 sq ft) and the unfavorable ratio of volume to wall surface, it’s not that unreasonable. If they shower or bathe a lot, heat generously, and perhaps live in a cold area, that could add up.
We used about 10,000 kWh in a semi-detached house with 130 sqm (1,400 sq ft) from 2011, which had better insulation and a much better volume-to-wall ratio. But we are “light users” in terms of heating—21°C (70°F) in the living room and only 18-19°C (64-66°F) in the bedrooms.
I think it’s unlikely to get below 15,000 kWh with that kind of building.
Best regards,
Andreas