Make use of this checklist for residents of district heated detached houses and carry out the necessary inspections during the heating season.

Autumn:

Before the start of the heating season, visit your heating substation to check that everything is working properly. The first thing on the agenda is checking the pressure of the heating system. If the pressure is too low, increase it in a controlled manner. It is important to monitor the pressure in the heating system, as sudden changes can indicate a compensator fault or a leak in the system.

Also make sure the circulator pump is working. Open the summer stop valve or made sure it is open. Ensure that the heating substation equipment’s control characteristics are suitable for the heating method; you can check the default setting values in the manual.

Also check that the thermostats are working and are set to the desired temperature. Radiator expression should also be performed regularly, especially if there is noise in the radiator system or the radiators won’t heat up. Before expression, make sure that there is enough pressure in the heating system.

If you also use fireplaces to get ready for the heating season, make sure that your fireplace is properly swept. In a permanent residence, fireplaces should be swept every year, and in a secondary residence, the interval may be three years.

Heating substation

Winter:

During the heating season, it is enough to visit the heating substation about once a month to visually check that there is enough pressure and everything works as desired. There should be no leaks or unusual noises anywhere. However, if you detect any, contact an accredited specialist.

If, in addition to district heating, you use another heat source such as a fireplace to heat your property, it is not necessary to turn off the district heat or lower the level of heating. When they properly function, the thermostats recognise the ambient room temperature and automatically reduce the heat generated by district heating to maintain the default temperature set for the room. As the heat produced by the fireplace slowly decreases, the thermostats instruct the water circulation to open again.

Spring:

The need for heating decreases with the arrival of spring. When you can manage at home without heating, you can, if necessary, stop the supply of district heating by using the summer stop valve.

The summer stop valve only turns off the supply of district heat to the heating circuits, it does not interrupt the supply of hot domestic water. If necessary, you can decrease the power output of the circulator pump, but the pump should not be turned off for the summer period. However, should this be done, the pump should be used regularly to prevent blocking.

Oulun Energia’s heating services HPAC engineer Sami Karjalainen has acted as the specialist in this article.