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Planar wet water heaters


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Musing over ideas and swmbo comes up with the statement of :

if we had a planar heater can this be switched over just to heat the calorifier in summer , but still run the central heating in winter .?

my befuddled brain ( which loathes plumbing) started to think of change over valves etc etc 

Am I missing the obvious .....

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No you are not missing the obvious and yes it needs at lesat one valve. Depending upon exactly how the plumbing is done either a single ordinary valve or a T port valve. With a T port you could have just hot water, just heating or heating and hot water but I can't see the point of just heating.

 

Not talking specifically about the Planar but that type f boiler do not seem to take kindly to running at anything but full power so be prepared to manually turn it off when it has heated the hot water only and reduces its power.

  • Greenie 1
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Basically keep the existing plumbing and join the hot outlet from the Planar to the existing C/H circuit by a T port valve between the pipe that links the first rad and calorifier so its output can be directed either way or both ways.

 

Alternatively use an ordinary T connection and fit a lever valve on the feed to the rads.

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Be sure to buy full-bore valves when you are doing the fitting.  Many lever and T port valves are reduced bore, which slows circulation and  does not help with the boiler running at half-half-power problem.

N

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How many sources of hot water supply are we talking about here and how many c/h & hot water systems are we connecting them to? If it's just two supplies to one system then isn't an L-port valve required rather than a T-port valve? Sorry I'm a bit confused about what you're trying to do?

 

On the diagrams below with the L-port valve you'd have both supplies coming in from left and right feeding one c/h & hot water system in the centre and the two supplies can't be connected.

 

 

 

t-port-l-port-diagram.jpg

Edited by blackrose
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On our Eber system I just close the thermo valves on the rads, they dont heat up and the calorifier and the one rad in the bathroom that doesn't have a thermo valve get hot, simple system has worked on the last two boats I have had.

You will need more than a calorifier to stop the heater cycling.

 

On the central heating system at home we have

https://www.bes.co.uk/drayton-motorised-diverter-valve-3-port-22mm-23018/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwuJz3BRDTARIsAMg-HxUPTvth0UR8KNCzcy_k-AupX8vX1-CpMSXgUfmAWf9ghS-4N4yTga8aAmp2EALw_wcB

Which allows heating, hot water or both. another simple system that works.

Edited by Loddon
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41 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

Don't at least some professional installers and manufacturers say this type of heater shoudl not be used with thermostatic rad valves?

Yes!

It all depends on how you set  up and run the system, a bit of intelligence is needed running it.

My system always has  the bathroom rad  and the calorifier on so the heater has a minimum dump at all times, stat valves  shut off and on elsewhere but there is always a minimum load. Been doing this way for best part of 20 years as a live aboard and no problems related to cycling so far.

I did have one eber destroy itself when the charger died and the batterys went flat over Christmas one year.

 

 

Edited by Loddon
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