Y plan wiring - made simple

How the Y plan heating system is wired, and what actually happens inside the 3 port valve

[@andycroft1952]

Very clear explanation thank you. Wish I had watched this before spending almost a day trying to sort a wiring problem with my heating system!!

[@JPElectric]

Thank you Andy

[@chohanchohan8208]

THE BEST EXPLANATION OF THREE WIRING - and Thank YOU

[@JPElectric]

Hi Chohan Chohan, Thanks for the comment, appreciate it.

[@chriswilkins4951]

I have managed to re do my entire central heating system because of what you've taught me thank you buddy keep them coming.

[@JPElectric]

Thanks very much for your comment.

[@lostinthoughtscalminsilenc8167]

Don’t lie ffs

[@paulrossiter9567]

Very quick and easy way to understand the y plan and it’s wiring 👏👏👏 Top class 👍

[@JPElectric]

Thanks for watching Paul

[@hippopotamus86]

This has helped me understand how it all works, saved me a fortune (that I wouldn't be able afford anyway). Thank you! My heating is getting stuck on when there is no call for hot water or heating, so the mid position valve is sending on the signal to pump and boiler when it shouldn't. I'm replacing both the mid position valve and actuator this weekend thanks to your help.

[@JPElectric]

Hi Joe T. Thank you for watching, and your kind contribution, I really appreciate it. Hope you got your system working again.

[@all4heatinggaslimited40]

Thank very much It is highly appreciated The way you explained in depth Thank you

[@JPElectric]

Thanks for watching, I really appreciate the kind comment.

[@Noaxe_Tegrinde]

An outstanding video with great information clearly discussed AND beautifully and cleverly produced!👍 Thank you! NoAxe

[@JPElectric]

Thats very kind of you to say. Thank you Noacks

[@freezefoot]

As per your last commentator this is a really good video.You can get a bit bogged down on S and Y plans especially if you are not doing them regularly.This video and the one you did on S plans will be my default reference.Great content.

[@JPElectric]

Thank you for your comment. Its very true, if you don't do it all the time, you forget. Really pleased you found it useful.

[@johnjeremiah5914]

§

[@barneyspeed]

Perfectly and simply explained. Thanks

[@JPElectric]

Thanks very much Barney Speed Media.

[@user-km8jz9tp3e]

Really good video mate you deserve way more subs! Keep them coming really helpful

[@JPElectric]

Thanks, yes have plenty of videos planned.

[@philpkhouse1097]

Great explanation of how a Y plan, particularly the three port valve works. I'm looking to utilise switched lives 1 & 2 to give me high and set temperature on my boiler for hot water and heating, respectively. Apparently, to do this I'll need to convert to hot water priority which also (apparently) means I'll have to turn the valve 180. Obviously the wiring will have to be altered to match. Might be a bit of a head scratcher but you might have given me the info I need. Many thanks for that.

[@JPElectric]

Thanks Phil, hope you had good success

[@train4905]

Dear sir,a most brilliant video ineed,very Clear and concise and superb graphics. Very helpfull indeed ,thankyou loads stephen

[@JPElectric]

Thanks very much Stephen appreciate your comments and watching the video

[@truthwillout7909]

Another great video, thanks.

[@davidceredig-evans8772]

Excellent video. Thanks.

[@JPElectric]

Thanks for the comment David, appreciate it.

[@paulduggins9510]

Great explanation many thanks

[@leonardbalint4930]

really good video, thank you

[@JPElectric]

Thanks for the comment

[@Pakistan_zinda_baad]

Well explained 👏

[@Cjrelectrical]

Excellent video. I’ve got an unwanted fault on a 3 port I suspect is faulty!!! Dual channel programmer heating and hot water off yet the orange is energized causing the boiler to run!!

[@JPElectric]

Thanks for the kind comment, I hope you managed to get the fault sorted ?

[@semiacoustic2017]

I stopped to study this video because you explain everything so simply and calmly and very informative, really appreciate your advice mate. Just a question, what is the wiring layout when a one channel timer is used, ie H/W and C/H on or off.

[@JPElectric]

Thanks for the comments. A one channel timer is for a single heating zone, or a combi. If you want to control heating and hot water you will need a two channel programmer.

[@mickeytt4860]

Brilliant video

[@JPElectric]

Thanks for your comment, appreciate it.

[@goldenconversionssingh1421]

Hi 1 question if I put gray wire straight in to programmer is that would work??

[@steveholloway1963]

Nicely done

[@JPElectric]

Thanks Steve

[@ramphago1240]

Thanks very helpful

[@JPElectric]

Thank you Ram

[@darrenmillar6911]

Hi this is great but could you do a similar wiring diagram when using a y plan 3 port valve with a hive thermostat and hub. Cheers

[@garycon25]

When both heating and hot water are calling for heat but then the room stat becomes satisfied why would the radiators continue to heat up until the hot water is satisfied or until I switch the hot water off and then on, then it behaves?

[@farad5131]

Great,thank you❤

[@JPElectric]

Thanks farad5131

[@imranmuhammad4708]

Hi, I have 3 port valve, however I only have heating and no hot water. When I turn on the hot water the rads come on but no hot water. I have been away for about a year and boiler wasn't used much. This happened last year also when I was away for months, however that time it started working again after a week or two of boiler use. Do you think I have a faulty motor or is the valve stuck in the CH position? Do I need to replace the motor or the whole valve including the motor. It a Salus SBMV32 valve. I felt the hot water pipe feed that goes in to the water tank and its really hot at the port side and relatively warm further along the closer it gets to the water tank. Could I have an air lock in the system? I have a gravity fed system on a Y-Plan. I look forward to your reply.

[@JPElectric]

Difficult to say , but, If you switch off power to the heating system, (at the fused spur) the valve should reset to the hot water, default position. Push the leaver from Auto to manual. If you feel can feel the resistance of the spring and the lever returns to the Auto position, when you let go, the valve is not sticking.

[@suheilhanna873]

Brilliant

[@Sjjsjkjskam722]

When the programmer is set to heating and hot water ON the switch live to the boiler comes from the the HW on terminal through the tank stat call for heat. How does this work if the tank stat is satisfied but the room stat is not? Am I right in thinking when the tank stat is satisfied the live goes out from the tank stat onto the grey of the valve meaning switch 1 energises And then the motor moves to the heating only position Then switch 2 energises the orange to then fire the boiler and pump?

[@tomaszbodz1913]

Hi thanks for the wideo, When valve 3 port is set to central heating it is all the time a hot motor and there is a soft noise coming from it, this is supposed to be ? How do I change to heating water everything is ok

[@JPElectric]

Hi tomasz.. Sounds like last port of call . Its a quirk of the 3 port valve. It sits using a small amount of energy until the next command

[@MP-mu1kw]

Thank you so much for one of the best video's I have found on how the single 3 port valve Y-plan system controls the flow of heated water from the boiler. I retired from the trade 2 decades ago and the firm I worked with only installed single zone Combi boilers. That meant, i never got involved with zone valves. Fast forward now, I am looking to get my Y-Plan old Potterton boiler swapped with a Vaillant heatonly boiler and looking to have to figure out how to wire the 3 port valve to the VR66 wiring centre which only accepts L, N and E wires. The Room Thermostat communicates directly with boiler using Vaillant e-bus it communicates with the Wiring centre to control the mains relays for HW/CH and Thermostat controls. From what I have seen the techs are doing is, the Orange and Grey wires are connected together. Is this considered to be the correct practice?

[@JPElectric]

Thanks for the nice comment MP. Unfortunately I can't really offer any advice. I'm not a heating engineer, just a spark tying to make sense of the basics of heating controls.

[@MP-mu1kw]

@@JPElectric No problem at all. keep doing what you are doing. I found the install guide for the wiring centre and it shows exactly which wires need to go where for 3 port valves.

[@JPElectric]

Glad you got it sorted

[@IanCoxdevonseaglass]

Thanks for the video. My Y-Plan system doesn't have a room stat, but there is a stat on the boiler. When in the last port of call state how can I force the system to provide heating?

[@raidengatlin175]

You all prolly dont care but does any of you know of a trick to get back into an Instagram account?? I stupidly lost my account password. I appreciate any tricks you can give me!

[@andresdrake4422]

@Raiden Gatlin instablaster =)

[@raidengatlin175]

@Andres Drake Thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site thru google and im waiting for the hacking stuff atm. Takes quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.

[@raidengatlin175]

@Andres Drake It did the trick and I finally got access to my account again. I'm so happy! Thanks so much you saved my account !

[@andresdrake4422]

@Raiden Gatlin no problem :)

[@andrewforsyth4799]

Thanks mty

[@Midlandsmetalman]

I've just had my 3 port valve replaced and my hot water works normally but when I turn my heating off on the program unit it wont turn off. Its a Worcester Ri boiler and the 3 port valve appears to be a silver box with no make model info. I watched a video that said Ri boilers (and some other makes) suffer from "back feed voltage" could this be whats wrong?

[@JPElectric]

Difficult to say what the issue is, but if it was working well before the 3 port valve replacement, it would suggest that the wiring is incorrect.. I would ask the person who swapped out the valve to have a look.

[@robertskinner4148]

Hello, hope you’ve got your issue resolved, it’s true what you’ve said on the Worcester RI can suffer with “stray voltage” .. the valve wiring would need to be tested to confirm this (usually by removing the white wire from the wiring centre and with no heating demand from the programmer you should have 0 volts ... for example if you have 70 volts this can be enough to bring the being on when not required) fitting a capacitor suppressor will resolve this issue once external controls have been checked for any faults.

[@johnd4304]

I think I must be missing something here. I refer to the heating only diagram. The room stat is shown as open circuit, but the valve is shown in the central heating position, whereas just operating the CH on would not switch on the heating, or operate the valve without the room stat being operated. For what its worth, when I installed the system I still have some 27 years ago I installed it with a mid position Myson valve. Time and time again it would stick in the mid position. I eventually came to the conclusion the the spring (a coil spring) did not have enough tension in it in mid position operate. I was so fed up with it I changed the whole thing for a 3 port Honeywell priority valve. I,m sure some might not like the fact that you can't have both ports open at the same time. But, I've never found it a problem given that it's takes no more that 20 mins to bring the HW temp back up, even after having a bath. Of course, if I was installing a system now, assuming I didn't go for a combi boiler, I would go for 2 port valves.

[@JPElectric]

Thanks John. I will re look at the video, and get back to you.

[@uselessgamer234]

Once my heating has been turned on, it gets stuck on. Plumber has changed 3 port, and said it's getting live to open. Electriction can't find why, but put new programmer on. Turning entire system off.and back on fixes it

[@freezefoot]

Keep returning to this video if I have a problem with Y plan fault finding .@9:27 Heating On only.Both Room stat & cylinder Stat are "satisfied" (both NO).@ 9:29 Heating off(HW off as well.)both room stat & cylinder stat have flipped over to "calling" NC.Is this because this is their default setting (NC) when everything is OFF?I am trying to ascertain whether cylinder stat is faulty.

[@JPElectric]

Hi Freeze foot Honeywell have some guidance on checking cylinder stats basically.... could be a faulty Cylinder stat only if Terminal 1 does not become live when calling for Hot Water, or Terminal 2 does not become live when satisfied. ( Terminal C should be live in both cases). When checking, disconnect Terminals 1 and 2 to prevent backfeed causing incorrect readings

[@freezefoot]

@@JPElectric Thank you for your reply as always.I may be guilty of overthinking this one , but always worth revisiting this video as I always find something that I missed first time round.

[@nealevans3977]

Omg what fab video. Bit I have the dreaded 'last port of call' problem! (what are you plumbers like!) Any fixes?

[@steverostill4186]

When your calling for hw and heating you say the boiler is controlled by the room stat but don't explain how the boiler is kept on for the heating if the room stat isn't satisfied. I believe this is through the 3 port valve electronics and perhaps you could explain that in your video. Otherwise excellent.

[@JPElectric]

Hi Steve, thanks for the comment. When calling for hot water and heating. The heating stat energises the white wire which moves the valve into the mid position. Its the hot water that energises the boiler.

[@turboslag]

Really good instructional vid on Y plan, this and another vid by another youtuber have given me full grasp of how this system works. Now then, I have a question! Is it possible to have an arrangement that turns off the boiler and pump if for some reason the boiler fails to light? This would be to prevent the pump running cold for hours with the boiler not lit. Asking because I have two properties with boilers prone to flame out faults. Both are old boilers, which despite servicing still have this problem, but I can't afford to replace them.