Central Heating

[minniemoo]

Hi everyone, we had a new central heating system installed when we moved into our house 4 years ago. Every radiator has a valve on it that enables you to turn the heating up or down except for the downstairs hall one. This is the hottest radiator and has turned our white painted hall to an awful pale brown colour. Is there any way of us putting a valve on it so we can turn it down or even off as we have to keep re-painting our hall and it's becoming a pain not to mention costly. Thanks.

[The Builder]

It's conventional to have one rad without a Thermostatic control valve Minnie. It's a "heat leak" rad . It's there to kind of get rid of excess heat if all the TRVs are closed.
There may be other solutions, but you could fit a TRV to that particular rad, and remove the TRV from another rad. It's difficult to say which one should become the heat leak without seeing your system though. You might need to get someone to look at it to decide.

[minniemoo]

Thanks so much for your answer - I think we will get someone out to have a look.

[The Builder]

.............. could have made that clearer .......... TRV is a Thermostatic Radiator Valve ..................

[woofgang]

the best place to have the heat leak rad is in a bathroom so you get dry towels.

[terence7556]

minnie the bypass rad has no trv to save resistance on your pump. you need one rad to circulate the water through the system. if every rad had a trv then it could not do this.its normal to use the rad in the bathroom or the hall. i think its better in the hall because the trv, if fitted , would compete against your thermostat.in warmer weather i turn down the boilerstat to position number 3 instead of say 5 or 6. can you try this on your boiler?

[minniemoo]

Thanks for all your advice - we are going to get someone in to have a look for us.