How was your central gas heating commissioned?

Hi all,

We recently had a Braemar THM6X32 ducted gas heater installed and I am wishing to get feedback on your installation and confirmation on how a gas central heating should be commissioned.

A bit about the installation:
The installation was what I have come to expect of tradesmen; note this is not meant to offend those tradesmen here who take pride in their work and have a moral compass; but what was initially agreed would be at least a 3 day install was attempted to be done in 2 and ended up taking 4 days.

We had opted to have Westaflex Greenduct RT 1.4 installed and due to what I presume was a case of under estimating, they were short 4+ lengths of duct and were going to, without consultation install some other duct. Thankfully I was home and saw this before they went into the ceiling and advised that I did not want anything other than what I am paying for and this other duct was not to be installed even temperarally and would wait for the right duct to be available, which was a week later.

We have 4 separate zones each with their own Spectrolink controller.

Then came the time to turn it on... The person who came to commission our heating had not only no knowledge of our job i.e. did not know what was installed or the configuration. He had no knowledge of how the Braemar multi zones each with their own Spectrolink controller worked. He insisted that the main zone had to be actively heating to have any other zone heating and that the other Spectrolink controllers were nothing more than a fancy thermometer that did not have their own on/off function, could not be used to set the temperature or have their own schedules. This could only be done on the main spectrolink controller and that the main living zone would have to be actively heating (note not just on but heating) for any other zone to heat.

I give the person credit for calling Braemar after taking onboard my comments and supporting literature who advised him that my understanding was correct and who then gave him advice on how to setup the spectrolink controllers.

So after setting up the spectrolink controllers/zones; the fan speed per zone as a percentage of the total was done simply by matching the percentage of the total outlets in each zone i.e. tha main zone has 50% of the total zones so the fan speed was set yo 50% of maximum; and giving me a quick rundown he was all set to go, but I was not satisfied and requested he stay while I check each zone and as you might guess my expectations were once again met.

I discovered, not the person commissioning the unit, that 2 zones had been wired back to front and that when these rooms were “on” the zone damper was closed. This was rectified.

I have since discovered that my concern that a draft was coming into one of the zones, which as you have come to expect was dismissed without investigation has through my own investigation been proven to be correct as when the main part of the house is running and the fan is on 80% there is so much air going past the partially closed dampener that it produces a whistling noise that can be heard several metres away when in the ceiling.

Then there is the issue of the main house air intake produces a whistling sound when operating at 100% fan. This is loud enough to be heard in the bedrooms with the doors closed and often wakes my wife up in the morning. It is loud enough to be heard at the other end o the house. At 80% fan it can be heard when standing in front of the air intake.

I believe that the zone fan speed is more than setting the fan to to be a % of maximum which match's the % of outlets. Would I be correct in my presumption that the zone fan speed should be set to obtain a certain volume of air and also the optimum outlet temperature?

What should be the outlet temperature? From my stick N old fashioned thermometer up into the outlet it would appear that most of the house is around 50 degrees with some areas at 46 and one which is at the end being anywhere from 38-44 degrees.

What else should have been done or was done on your install/commissioning?