This is perhaps a long shot, but anyway...
I live in a block of flats in Beijing, and the heating is provided by a metropolitan heating system. The block's system seem to be split into two - top 10 floors and the lower 10 floors are heated separately. My flat is on the 10th floor, and our radiators are at the top of the lower half's system. On our roof are the pipework for the bottom of the upper half's system.
That's about all I know for sure. The rest is somewhat guesswork on my part.
Anyway, the problem is that one of the flats above us is complaining that one of their radiators is cold.
It seems that the radiators in the flats are all lines up vertically, and there's one pipe flowing directly down through a series of radiators. I can't be sure of that because the only radiators I can actually see are our own ones, and we're at the top, so the pipes for the radiators both come up through the floor. I imagine that the pipes for the radiators in other flats have one pipe that comes through the roof from above, through the radiator and then out through another pipe in the floor. So, on our roof, we have single pipes coming through at the various places where the radiators are positioned around the flat; and they join into a single pipe that is presumably a 'drain'. Each one of these pipes that comes from above has a valve to stop the flow.
So, if the valve on the drain pipe corresponding to the chain of pipes/radiators that has no flow - if it was turned off - that would explain it.
However, it seems like it isn't turned off, so we're not sure that is the problem.
It could be a block anywhere up that chain to the roof where the water is supplied.
The thing is....there has been a leak developing over the past few years, so, over the summer, we badgered the people who run the system (they own the pipework and are responsible for its maintenance) to repair it...and they did so....and it is this very same 'chain'.
They had to do some reasonably major work to replace the bits of pipe that had (presumably) rusted from the inside. It was all ancient pipework, so not really a surprise.They had some problems finding replacement pipework that would fit to the same pipes as the pipes that were removed. They ended up putting in an additional valve there, and that seems to be 'main suspect'.
This valve seems to be one that you screw in to move a plug up/down to plug a hole inside the valve, or not. I half wonder if it has broken or become stuck...perhaps the pressure of 10 floors of water above it means it won't open - presuming they fitted the valve with the high pressure on the top of the plug. Perhaps some gunk was flushed down and is blocking the hole irrespective of if the valve's plug is plugging the hole or not.
...or perhaps I'm wrong about that valve type (I notice it has no flow direction arrow on it ((that I can see anyway)), which seems to be typical of that type).
The old valve that is part of the old pipework seems to be a 'ball' one, but I'm not 100% about that either. I am pretty sure, though, that it hasn't been opened or closed for quite some time...I certainly can't move it and it seems to have been painted. So, I presume that one is fixed in the 'open' position (since there was flow ok last year).
However, I am only really suspecting this valve, and the new pipework too, because it is what I know to have changed since the system was last working (last winter - they switch it off and drain it in the summer). There's nothing to say that other flats haven't also had new pipework fitted, or indeed radiators (we actually had ours replaced too this summer, but there are no complaints about the system they're a part of, and they're all nicely warm).
It would be nice to be able to tell if there is flow at all. When I feel the temperature of the pipes, I can tell that the pipework that is closer to the drain, which has hot water in it from another radiator chain it shared it with, it hotter...the pipework further from that is colder. I imagine this would be conduction through the metal of the pipes, though I suppose, if the valves are open, there might be some convection and conduction in the water itself....though, I suppose the hot water in the drain pipe would surely flow up simply because it is hotter(?)...not sure, and even if it did, would it be significant enough to be able to tell simply from the temperature of the pipes?
The people in the flat(s?) somewhere above us are complaining to the management about radiators not working, and the management are blaming the pipes/etc on our roof.
The thing is, it wouldn't be a problem normally, since any work would be done on an empty system, with minimal potential of flooding. But the system is actually on, and we have to assume that the pipework above our roof has 10 floors of water in it and corresponding pressure...in my mind, that's a lot of potential for flooding. ...and there's no way to empty the system since that would be done through the suspect pipes/valves.
I say 'no way to empty the system', but of course there is a 'plug' that can unscrew...but quite how they would prevent that from poring all over the floor, I don't know. Perhaps there's a valve in the flat directly above us that can be turned off so as to reduce the amount of water to just a few feet of pipes? Oh, the people in the flat directly above are away, so we don't (afaik) have access to those radiators/pipes...which adds to the problem. Sigh.
So, that's the situation.
Any advice and/or ideas on how to tell what might be blocking the flow? Is it typical for these valves to break in the closed position? Any comments on my guesswork of the pipework configuration. Remember, this block of flats is pretty old...the radiators we had replaced were the originals and they looked almost Victorian; big cast metal (looked 'silver' and were extremely heavy, so I wonder what metal it was).
My wife doesn't want to let them do anything until they've basically proved it is this pipework that is the problem. I'd imagine that could be done by bleeding the radiators at the top of the chain to prove there is flow, then the flat below, and so on - essentially allowing some flow....actually, if they could do that in the flat directly above us, it might give some clues...or the one above that since the flat above has no one home.
I live in a block of flats in Beijing, and the heating is provided by a metropolitan heating system. The block's system seem to be split into two - top 10 floors and the lower 10 floors are heated separately. My flat is on the 10th floor, and our radiators are at the top of the lower half's system. On our roof are the pipework for the bottom of the upper half's system.
That's about all I know for sure. The rest is somewhat guesswork on my part.
Anyway, the problem is that one of the flats above us is complaining that one of their radiators is cold.
It seems that the radiators in the flats are all lines up vertically, and there's one pipe flowing directly down through a series of radiators. I can't be sure of that because the only radiators I can actually see are our own ones, and we're at the top, so the pipes for the radiators both come up through the floor. I imagine that the pipes for the radiators in other flats have one pipe that comes through the roof from above, through the radiator and then out through another pipe in the floor. So, on our roof, we have single pipes coming through at the various places where the radiators are positioned around the flat; and they join into a single pipe that is presumably a 'drain'. Each one of these pipes that comes from above has a valve to stop the flow.
So, if the valve on the drain pipe corresponding to the chain of pipes/radiators that has no flow - if it was turned off - that would explain it.
However, it seems like it isn't turned off, so we're not sure that is the problem.
It could be a block anywhere up that chain to the roof where the water is supplied.
The thing is....there has been a leak developing over the past few years, so, over the summer, we badgered the people who run the system (they own the pipework and are responsible for its maintenance) to repair it...and they did so....and it is this very same 'chain'.
They had to do some reasonably major work to replace the bits of pipe that had (presumably) rusted from the inside. It was all ancient pipework, so not really a surprise.They had some problems finding replacement pipework that would fit to the same pipes as the pipes that were removed. They ended up putting in an additional valve there, and that seems to be 'main suspect'.
This valve seems to be one that you screw in to move a plug up/down to plug a hole inside the valve, or not. I half wonder if it has broken or become stuck...perhaps the pressure of 10 floors of water above it means it won't open - presuming they fitted the valve with the high pressure on the top of the plug. Perhaps some gunk was flushed down and is blocking the hole irrespective of if the valve's plug is plugging the hole or not.
...or perhaps I'm wrong about that valve type (I notice it has no flow direction arrow on it ((that I can see anyway)), which seems to be typical of that type).
The old valve that is part of the old pipework seems to be a 'ball' one, but I'm not 100% about that either. I am pretty sure, though, that it hasn't been opened or closed for quite some time...I certainly can't move it and it seems to have been painted. So, I presume that one is fixed in the 'open' position (since there was flow ok last year).
However, I am only really suspecting this valve, and the new pipework too, because it is what I know to have changed since the system was last working (last winter - they switch it off and drain it in the summer). There's nothing to say that other flats haven't also had new pipework fitted, or indeed radiators (we actually had ours replaced too this summer, but there are no complaints about the system they're a part of, and they're all nicely warm).
It would be nice to be able to tell if there is flow at all. When I feel the temperature of the pipes, I can tell that the pipework that is closer to the drain, which has hot water in it from another radiator chain it shared it with, it hotter...the pipework further from that is colder. I imagine this would be conduction through the metal of the pipes, though I suppose, if the valves are open, there might be some convection and conduction in the water itself....though, I suppose the hot water in the drain pipe would surely flow up simply because it is hotter(?)...not sure, and even if it did, would it be significant enough to be able to tell simply from the temperature of the pipes?
The people in the flat(s?) somewhere above us are complaining to the management about radiators not working, and the management are blaming the pipes/etc on our roof.
The thing is, it wouldn't be a problem normally, since any work would be done on an empty system, with minimal potential of flooding. But the system is actually on, and we have to assume that the pipework above our roof has 10 floors of water in it and corresponding pressure...in my mind, that's a lot of potential for flooding. ...and there's no way to empty the system since that would be done through the suspect pipes/valves.
I say 'no way to empty the system', but of course there is a 'plug' that can unscrew...but quite how they would prevent that from poring all over the floor, I don't know. Perhaps there's a valve in the flat directly above us that can be turned off so as to reduce the amount of water to just a few feet of pipes? Oh, the people in the flat directly above are away, so we don't (afaik) have access to those radiators/pipes...which adds to the problem. Sigh.
So, that's the situation.
Any advice and/or ideas on how to tell what might be blocking the flow? Is it typical for these valves to break in the closed position? Any comments on my guesswork of the pipework configuration. Remember, this block of flats is pretty old...the radiators we had replaced were the originals and they looked almost Victorian; big cast metal (looked 'silver' and were extremely heavy, so I wonder what metal it was).
My wife doesn't want to let them do anything until they've basically proved it is this pipework that is the problem. I'd imagine that could be done by bleeding the radiators at the top of the chain to prove there is flow, then the flat below, and so on - essentially allowing some flow....actually, if they could do that in the flat directly above us, it might give some clues...or the one above that since the flat above has no one home.
