Long time prepper but new to this site-Northumberland

[FireTube]

Hi All,

I started being interested in prepping and self-reliance around 2010. That went off the boil a bit but came back strongly in the last few years for obvious reasons. I live in rural Northumberland a bit North of Hexham. It would be good to connect with like-minded folks.

Day to day I am a self-employed heating engineer working with gas, oil and LPG appliances. Me and my wife are on the same page thankfully but no one else around seems to be of a similar mindset. (Though I get it can be difficult with OpSec!!)

Last year (Dec 2021) we lost electricity for 9 days due to storm Arwen. That was a good exercise!

Nice to join, I'll check out some threads.

[Frnc]

Hi welcome to the forum. We've had a lot of discussion about central heating, not sure it that's what you do. Christmas day my bathroom radiator did an impersonation of a pneumatic drill! I thought next door was doing DIY! Yes the TRV is on the wrong side.
Anyway, I look forward to your posts.
I think we all upped our preps after Covid started.
9 days in December with no power, wow, that's bad.

[FireTube]

Thanks.

Yes, that's what I do. Central heating, fires, and cookers not advertising lol. Happy to answer anything if I can. TRV's these days are supposed to be 2 way or bi-directional but yes they can make a noise if fitted in a certain orientation. Certain brands anyway, and actually the more expensive ones surprisingly. I had a customer who had a hearing aid recently, the certain pitch was driving him mad but I couldn't hear a thing!! (my tinnitus)
They used to be one way and would not flow at all if fitted the wrong way.

[diamond lil]

Hi from a wee bit north of you (near Jedburgh)

[FireTube]

Awesome,

Jedburgh is about 45 mins from me.

[diamond lil]

Actually Ancrum but same thing

[pseudonym]

Hello and welcome to the Forum.

[Arzosah]

Welcome to the forum! Those are great skills for any prepper to have, good for you. And so glad to hear your wife is on the same page.

[jennyjj01]

Thanks.

Yes, that's what I do. Central heating, fires, and cookers not advertising lol. Happy to answer anything if I can.

Hi and welcome to the forum. Nice to have another expert here. We'll shamelessly shake you down for trade secrets.
FRNC, Myself and a few others have been tussling with getting maximum efficiency from our central heating.
Stats down, timers adjusted, flow temp adjusted, Stats moved.

So, I'll throw in a starter question...
Flow temperature on a Vailant Combi system. It was on 70. I dropped it to 60, then lower. Some sites advise even lower. Result seems to be that it takes longer to get rooms warm, but costs less. How low can I go before the condenser thingy stops being able to condense and boiler efficiency drops off the charts?

[FireTube]

Thanks.

Yes, that's what I do. Central heating, fires, and cookers not advertising lol. Happy to answer anything if I can.

Hi and welcome to the forum. Nice to have another expert here. We'll shamelessly shake you down for trade secrets.
FRNC, Myself and a few others have been tussling with getting maximum efficiency from our central heating.
Stats down, timers adjusted, flow temp adjusted, Stats moved.

So, I'll throw in a starter question...
Flow temperature on a Vailant Combi system. It was on 70. I dropped it to 60, then lower. Some sites advise even lower. Result seems to be that it takes longer to get rooms warm, but costs less. How low can I go before the condenser thingy stops being able to condense and boiler efficiency drops off the charts?

HIya,

Thanks jennyjj01,
I wouldn't go below 60 myself, there won't be any benefit in terms of heating your house and you will still be using fuel.

For example, the air source heat pumps that are expected to do the heavy lifting of replacing fossil fuels only get to 55 deg C on the flow pipes. And that isn't suitable for the vast majority of homes. To compensate for this the dwelling needs a very high level of insulation and also much bigger radiators than the normal spec for a room. It can be of use to an underfloor heating system however where temps are best served lower.

The best solution in my humble opinion would be to have someone develop an infrared heater. It's much more efficient than radiated heat which heats up the general area. So if you stand outside on a cold day and it's a sunny day with no wind, it may be 4 or 5 C or whatever but when you stand in the sun you can feel the warmth on your skin.

Best to run the boiler at 60 and use different rooms as zones so you can reduce the size of the heating system. Thermostatic radiator valves in spare rooms can be turned down to "1" for example. That will stop heat from being wasted but also stop dampness. Then the boiler will run shorter cycles keeping the rest of the zones warm.

There is lots of conflicting advice and the theory seems to change re leaving the heating on all day or switching it off when at work and going full-on when you get in. It depends on lots of factors. Also for the boiler to condense the system should be balanced so that the radiators are consistent temps across the whole system. And the return used to be optimal for a condensing boiler if it was approx 15/20 deg c lower than the flow temp.

Sorry for late response it's a bit manic this time of year!