Balancing Act
Achieving a balanced central heating system is imperative if our goal is to achieve performance and efficiency simultaneously.
​
Balancing involves controlling the flow of water into each radiator individually. Too much flow to the first radiator, and radiators on the end of the system wont achieve their full heating potential, leaving some rooms cold. Too little flow to the first radiator and the problem is reversed.
​
There has always been this idea surrounding central heating systems that more water flow equals hotter radiators, but this is not the case. Having too much flow through a radiator can actually allow the water to pass through the radiator entirely, before the radiator has had time to sufficiently absorb the heat from the water,
​
This can create a situation where the water returning to the boiler is still at a high temperature, in most cases causing the boiler to either modulate its output or switch off entirely, until the temperature of the returning flow is cool enough that the boiler fires up and repeats this process. This constant on/off process can be highly inefficient and very hard wearing on your boiler.
​
Imagine the difference between accelerating your car as hard as possible, then stopping, and repeating that for your entire journey, as opposed to maintaining a steady speed for the same journey and you get an idea of the inefficiency and unnecessary wear being caused.
​
To truly achieve a balanced heating system, the flow and return temperatures at each individual radiator need to be closely monitored and fine adjustments need to be made until the best performance is achieved at that radiator, while ensuring that those adjustments do not have a negative impact on other radiators within the system.
​
Balancing can be a long and sometimes tedious process, as each adjustment can impact a radiator that was previously balanced, but when done correctly, balancing helps your home heat up equally, meaning no more cold rooms and warm rooms (or warm rooms and furnaces, as is often the case) and helps your boiler work in a more steady and efficiently manner reducing your gas bill as well as potential repair costs.
​
The basic principle of radiator balancing is that we are trying to achieve the perfect amount of heat transfer from the water to the radiator.
This is typically agreed to be a 12 Degree Celsius drop from water entering the radiator (flow), and water exiting the radiator (return).
​
These images give you an idea of the process we use to achieve this. The Analyser (in this case a Kane 458s) takes readings from two temperature probes and displays them both, along with a temperature differential.
​
Our engineers will fine tune your radiator until a consistent 12 degree difference is achieved.
In recent years a method of balancing radiators by completely closing the lockshield valve, then reopening it a quarter turn began circulating, and as is the case with most porkies, this one was half way around the world before the truth was even out of bed, but after testing this 'method', we've come to the conclusion that its wildly inconsistent.
​
With radiators available in every conceivable shape and size, as well as single panel, double panel, and endless BTU ratings, we thought the possibility of a 'one size fits all' method of radiator balancing sounded too good to be true, but we tested it anyway, and we found that while in some cases, the quarter turn was forgivably close to the 12 degree mark, in other cases is achieved a 20, sometimes 25 degree drop in temperature.
We found that larger radiators absorbed considerably more heat, creating lower return temperatures, making the boiler work harder to reheat the water, using more gas.
We also found that flow rate within the system had an impact on the results, so radiators with restricted flow rate due to sludge or radiators furthest from the pump would lose more heat, whereas new radiators with higher flow rates would lose less. This meant that, with the typical household having a variety of different size and shape radiators, readings were 'inconsistent' to put it politely.
​
In short, we found that the 'Quarter turn' method just wasn't consistent enough to achieve anywhere near to optimum efficiency, and in a world of energy bills that seem to go up quarterly, and with the average cost of heating one radiator by a single degree, equating to roughly £50 annually, (£55 by the time you've read this far) achieving maximum efficiency really is the goal.
If this sounds like something that your home could benefit from, get in touch at info@essexboilercare.co.uk and have one of our engineers help you unlock your heating systems full potential.