Reducing Energy Consumption in a Large Home: A Step-by-Step Guide 

You have no hydraulic seperation for a system with ufh and radiators on low temperature controls. This will cause underflow in the ufh circuits when in operation. The llh needs to be refitted and a separate pump used for the radiator circuit from the distribution header. This is standard Vailant and Viessmann design. Hydraulic seperation has rules for when and when not it is required. This design you have done is subject of many of my design videos and causes regular winter call outs for me. It's very easy to rectify the issue. Ask Vilizar at Vailant to do a system schematic for you. This is as much of a hydronic no no as ccts at the ufh manifold.

What is truly amazing is that Urban Plumbers took on such a massive job and did not force the client to buy a whole bunch of new equipment to solve their issue. Instead, he deleted inefficient kit, redesigned and rewired the system and invested only time. Syzmon is the highest caliber of professional! Well done!

Never met a plumber/ heating guy with half the knowledge, and ability of this guy, unreal 👍

Finally a heating plumber who puts into his job more thought than I put into my hobbies.

raw talent and whats even better is you do really go above and beyond to try to make your customers systems as efficient as possible , well done Simon

With these levels of competency and professionalism you should be running the entire country. Absolutely fantastic Mr Urban

Wow, what a difference. Plumbing and heating genius. As a DIY'er i'm in complete awe :)

I would happily endorse your ability as a real engineer unlike many of the so-called gas/boiler fitters that like to think they are! Well done on a) taking on the job, b) being tenacious and knowledgeable enough to fault find it and c) resolve it without resorting to a ‘rip it out and start from scratch’ attitude 👍

Hopefully young apprentices are watching this channel and seeing a great example of what professionalism and skill looks like. It will certainly help them in their future careers.

Love to see the original plumbers face who obviously thinks he’s the bees knees over designing such a complex system. Awesome job!

It seems you have to be as much an electrician, plumber and boiler engineer - all at the same time. This is a huge, complex job that could completely fry your brain. Hat's off to you.

Your knowledge is incredible. You were certainly born to do this job!

You are an artist and this heating system is a work of art

You are a master of your craft and I’m addicted to watching vids now about plumbing and heating…😂😂

Chanced upon one of your videos, I was impressed by the content, presentation and professionalism - now a subscriber - excellent job my friend.

really excellent video! Everything explained so a layperson like me can understand, delivered with humility and a sense of humour too! You sound like a true professional, not some blagging shyster (can you tell I've had a couple of those in the past?) Your customers are lucky to have you. Subscribed, and please keep the videos coming!

Great explanation of the system and the changes you made.

Brilliant video as always. As a heating engineer myself, I can appreciate what an amazing standard you work to 👌 Keep up the good work & keep the awesome vids coming 👍

You are a heating genius that can simplify overcomplex systems and remove all that's not needed leaving the heating system more efficient and the customer very pleased.

Brilliant ! Mesmerising watching a true professional at work..

I like that you tried without knowing it would work. Glad it did, smart work.

I love your channel. Your style of presenting is really natural as opposed to some on RU-vid. Your knowledge is excellent and your problem solving skills really creative. Well done.

I love it when a plan comes together 👍👍👍

Knowledgeable at its best, very good video for who is in the game and not only. Thanks

No idea or understanding , but it is amazing to see someone so professional and easy to understand, that he knows what he is doing and also, takes some risks to test himself. Thanks for your knowledge!

We can summarize that in order to save a fortune on heating costs we should call a competent and knowledgeable plumber :D very good video I quite enjoyed it, thanks for sharing!

I have not a clue but am fascinated by the skill of Mr Urban and his unique approach to home heating that really effects us now.

Well..Simon..you have nailed it... bravo and keep on going...greetings from Rotterdam ..thanks for sharing .

Brilliant work! Super interesting and well explained 🙌

I love wiring heating controls, looking to be working with you soon.

Another great video of your work.. your depth of knowledge is incredible. I don't know how you learned all that but your customers are lucky to have such a top professional on the job.

You pal are a very clever chap. Mind is blown again

And to think I had trouble wiring a Y plan, with cylinder, and room stat, you my friend are on a higher plain, enjoy the content, well done Simone

Your work ethic is fantastic, as others have commented. Fine tuning and efficiency - simplifying and optimising powered by thought, not excess and compensation powered by laziness and incompetence. Re the softened water thing - base exchange softened water does indeed dissolve scale deposits, you're right. However when this occurs on a large build-up, sludge can form in lower-flowing areas, or restrictions, such as strainers, filters, and aerator fittings at the end of taps, so something to look out for in a situation like this. It can also dissolve 'cleanly' over time though and eventually pass through to drain without much issue.

Great work . Thanks for sharing all that valuable information .

Amazing work, loved how you have worked everything out first and problem-solve - wish you are closer to us in (Bath) as it is a pain to find a good plumber to install a new boiler for us at the moment!

Well done. These are great to watch.

Knowledge and skill off the scale. 👏

Great video thanks and salient in late 2022 in Europe. Also good seeing you discussing theory and practice in the comments.

I will say the Vailant/Gloworm ebus stuff is quite handy, we had a new glowworm compact fitted at the place we are renting and no controller or even a room thermostat was fitted (the previous boiler being an ultracom with the built in programmer). Absolute pain to turn the heating on/off so ended up getting a ClimaPro2. Installed in seconds using the plug under the boiler and so much easier than having to take the front cover off to wire something internally.

You're amazing, managing to sort out all that wiring. I was impressed with the condition of the hot water cylinders, no limescale at all. After seeing that I went and bought an industrial water softener to fill my 4,000 litre buffer tank. I'm planning on linking an annexe and have some insulated underground water pipe, it's 32mm so I'm going to thread 16mm through to get my flow rate correct. It's only a 10 mtr. run so I think it should be fine. I'm leaving the hot water on Economy 7 as long as my contract allows. I find with a properly insulated large tank there's very little loss over the day. Some people complain about heat loss from a store but what I've found is you have to make sure there's no parasitic convection going on. Another thing I don't think people realise is that their heat store isn't fully up to temperature to start with. I can see heat stores will be very useful when smart grid pricing comes along. John.

Very good video, for 30 years I fit weather compensator, the old honeywell AQ6000 was a fab weather compensator controller with optimum on and optimum off. If HMG wanted to improve efficiency they could get rid of bimetallic stats, thermistors are so much better.

Simon strikes again. As always covers every detail as it should have been in the first place.

Wow, so many wiring centres, my mind is blown. What a superb job you've done there, most impressive!

Thanks for taking the time!!

Another well explained interesting video. Great stuff

Another great video! Love to see these

It’s mental how much knowledge you keep stored in your brain. Incredible

That’s amazing mate, good work 👍

Fantastic really enjoyed this as a gas engineer thank you

They hired you for a reason. Tons of houses out there like this. Keep up the good work

I watch these videos even though I have no idea what he's talking about. What a guy.

It's a rarity to find someone so knowledgeable.

Lovely work mate. What a massive difference that will make to their gas bills this year!

Excellent video, don't think most electricians could have worked that out.

Love these videos, such a clever guy.

Brilliant job!!! 👍👍👍👍

You.are.a.good.plummer! Very good video. Thank you!

Awesome plumbing man. Would love to understand the electronics side to your level one day.

You should open that bottle of champagne to celebrate a job well done

Just found your channel and really impressed. You may still have a bit to learn but could be the time to ease of on the tools and make your fortune in consulting. ie How to do a proper job or correct what 'heating engineers ' have botched up and over charged on. ( only applies to some, you know who you are ) Your knowledge for your age far exceeds what an average guy knows and your videos and knowledge is truly inspirational. Well done and keep the videos coming.

I have always thought commercial heating engineers have been lured by over complexity for technical one-upmanship. It appears that the clients budget usually determines the system size. In a house of this size I would expect a second boiler to be in position just to prevent inconvenient heat failure. I am amazed that all those zones work on one built-in boiler pump.

You are doing an excellent explanation with the limited time and complex installation that you have. You did not tell us if the boilers were set up to fire properly to maintain the needed space and hot water temp. You stated that energy consumption was high with not enough heating but you did not share your findings as to what caused the situation of the high energy bill. Good luck.

Very good brother.. great work.

Decent looking boilers those. They look similar to the range topping Ideal Vogue or System boilers inside and out. Not cheap!

You didn't explain what you had to do to that wiring centre, but my head had exploded already by then! Why do installers make things so unnecessarily complicated? It's a lovely big house, but I've worked in 50 room hotels with simpler control systems! Well done for improving things so much for the client with minimum outlay.

Amazing job! 👏

maybe you could see if vaillant will sponsor an Arotherm addition for the property next year! ;) would have been interesting to know more about the wiring, though I appreciate the brain frying nature of boiler wiring!

Very interesting job.

I love their choice in the heating system, I love how you have rationalised it all (BRILLIANT) and I really love their choice in paint 🤭 Farrow & Ball, they are superior producers of paint with a wonderful palette of rich colours (no I don't work for them). Such an daunting job you have taken on and you achieved it 😎

Very interesting thanks for sharing

I can't wait to see the results in a year!

It will succeed 👍. Have no doubt about it. I hate low loss headers when they are not needed. If in doubt I would put small buffer with buffer sensors wired to vr 71 instead.

Amazing work as always. Wish you were up in the North East so that I could get you to fix this little bungalow haha.

I always take my time to write numbers and rooms on the corresponding wires, plus I write it on a piece of paper and leave that on the boiler/heat pump. Sometimes it feels useless but seeing how much time it takes you figuring out, I’ll continue doing it lol

Fantastic A first class job

Great video

Very nice job. Sadly too many surveyors only look at what you already have and quote rather than asking what you need and would like to achieve and then quote. Sadly too many unskilled people don’t know how to work out what’s required so so just do a like for like swap. There’s plenty of big well named companies fitting systems like it’s the 90’s! And sadly customers love it because the rads get hot.

Now that's a real nice home

I need this dude to come and look at my house, if just i was not so far away xD

Fascinating video, bit mind blowing for a domestic installation, imagine a hospital!

I wish you were closer to Shropshire. I'd happily have you review and upgrade my system. If you have any recommendations for like minded installers, please share. Keep up the great work...

A heating engineer Wizard !!

Topman👍 wish you covered my area

Such great videos 👍

Guarantee the original installer looked at the house and thought, they have plenty of money, then over-specified the original system massively to make it a much bigger job than actually needed. You could run the place as a hotel on that original system, 50kW, total overkill.

I'm a Viessmann guy and have often used the boiler pump to handle full radiator loads but only when the pump is operating within its curve. The DHW 3 way valve is handled internally in the boiler so there is no question of having the wrong temp going to the tank. I can understand why the LLH is in place and if the DHW was sent to the tank bypassing the LLH, you would still have the benefit of the LLH for flow control through the secondary circuits.

Very satisfying 👍 Is there any sort of mixing valve on the underfloor? You mentioned 2 heating curves but without sensors and mixing stations the vr71 will run at the higher curve I believe.

Maximum respect!

Well done for taking on the challenge!!! Could you not have salvaged the second water cylinder with an endoscope camera? Remove the heating element and stick the scope in. Less time and effort consuming. Still many thanks for the video

Brilliant the outdoor sensor is the weak point imho at least if your weather changes fast.

Big respect, I'm a techie not a plumber but appreciated the erasure of stuff that wasn't adding anything valuable to the system. Goes to show that there's plenty of scope to reduce energy usage and waste. Please keep making more of these, and hope you aren't kidnapped :)

Love your vids

Yes a softener will slowly remove existing scale build up in any water using system or appliance

cool; makes me appreciate simple American plumbing systems.

Blimey this guy is a plumbing genius we’ll done

Amazing!

Not sure I agree with removing the LLH for such a system, however, real world testing is the best way to find out if it works, we can have all the theories we want and all the mathematical equations and all the manufacturers test rigs in test conditions, but these do not prove real working of an actual system, it’s great that you have a client willing to undergo a trial for a different approach and it will be very interesting to see how it turns out, I look forward to the follow up video with interest, it could prove a lot of theories wrong

I'm always fascinated by your videos and despite what is being said by some, your knowledge way surpasses any plumber I have ever met! I'm particularly interested to note that a 24 kw boiler can provide all the heat on a 4000 square foot property given that my 1800 ish property with 11 trv'd rads and 1 hw tank struggles on a 18kw boiler even when 4 rads are isolated and the respective room doors are closed. The only suggestion I have had from a plumber is to increase the boiler to 24 kw. BTW, double glazed and copious roof insulation.

Real skill👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽