Foundation · Unit 6
The Draw Warm Method: Y-Plan
In short
The same method on a Y-Plan. Start on the unwired Y-Plan template: L, N, E on 1, 2, 3, heating on 4 and 5 to the valve's white, hot water on 6, then 'not wanted' on 7 to the grey and 'wanted' on 8 to the boiler, where the orange joins it. Every wire checked; the last lesson is from memory.
Comes after The Draw Warm Method: S-Plan.
In this unit
The Draw Warm Method: the parts on the wall
Every part of the Y-Plan on the wall, and no wires yet: what each part does, and the story of the numbers.
How it opensIn this course you wire a whole Y-PLAN heating system, one wire at a time. The parts are already on the wall, and nothing is wired yet.
Block 1: the permanent lives
The three wires that belong on block 1, the permanent live block, and why nothing on the 3-port valve is one of them.
Block 2: the neutrals
6 blue wires on block 2: every motor and every powered control gets its neutral, its way back to the supply.
Block 3: the earths, the supply proven
5 green-and-yellow wires on block 3, an earth test, then the spur on and the supply proven live.
Heating: blocks 4 and 5
The heating demand from the programmer's switch, through the room thermostat (stat), to the valve: two blocks, two wires each, the valve opening and springing back.
Hot water: blocks 6, 7 and 8
The programmer's switch, the cylinder thermostat (stat), then its two answers: 'not wanted' to the valve's grey, 'wanted' to the boiler's block.
Block 8: the orange, the boiler, the pump
The valve's orange joins the cylinder thermostat's call on the boiler's block. The boiler runs the pump; hot water off, grey and white take the valve to A, and the system fires.
Commissioning: the truth table
Every demand state of the Y-Plan, proven in turn: the truth table.
The practical: from memory
The supply is in. Wire the 13 sequence wires again: each step names the wire's job, not its block. Recorded.
The practical · recorded, no hints
In the simulator, you practise how to
- Land L, N and E first so only the sequence wires are left
- Know that nothing on a 3-port valve is a permanent live: white calls, grey means hot water not wanted
- Follow a demand from the programmer's switch through the stat to the valve, block by block
- Give the boiler's block its two feeds: the cylinder stat's call and the valve's orange
- Wire the Y-Plan sequence from memory and commission it
Checks and credit
- A timed check at the end of the unit, its questions drawn at random. The score goes on your record.
- A practical with no hints, every step recorded.
- The unit earns the credential The Draw Warm Method: Y-Plan (simulator).
- Also a short course on its own, The Draw Warm Method: Y-Plan, with credit both ways.
Certificates of completion and credentials are DrawWarm’s own. They record practice and tests in the simulator. They are not a formal (regulated) qualification, and they do not show that anyone is competent to work on a heating system.
Where it connects
The parts it uses
Wiring diagrams
Foundation
- The Draw Warm Method: S-Plan
Unit 5, before this one
- Testing
Unit 7, next
Back to the Programme.
Read the explanation
- Y-Plan explained: what white, grey and orange do on a mid-position valve
A Y-Plan’s mid-position valve: white calls for heating, grey says hot water is not wanted, orange fires the boiler. None of its cores is a permanent live.
Practise it in the simulator.
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