No Not Water Unless Heating On? Noob Question Alert!

[sad_muso]

Hi All,

Apologies for the silly question but I'm pretty clueless when it comes to central heating. I have a conventional boiler with a water tank, and recently I've noticed that if I turn off central heating on the control panel downstair and keep only the hot water timer on I don't actually get any hot water. It seems as though the boiler won't kick in. As a temporary measure I've had to turn the hot water back on but set the thermostat to low so the radiators don't actually heat up.

My question is this: will I be wasting energy by keeping the central heating on? Is this indication of a problem with my system somewhere?

Many thanks for your help,

sad_muso

 

[Andy™]

you have a fault. something on the controls for the DHW side, but it will need fault finding by someone who knows heating systems to identify what is faulty

 

[sad_muso]

you have a fault. something on the controls for the DHW side, but it will need fault finding by someone who knows heating systems to identify what is faulty

Okay, thanks. And will it be using more gas currently so is actually worth fixing?

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

If it has been operating correctly until now its probably the 2 (depending on what way its plumbed) or 3 port valve that has expired or not moving full travel due to limescale.

 

[Andy™]

possibly a stuck 2 port not fully opening enough to trigger the switch,but enough to let water flow when CH is on

and of course it will cost more heating the house than just the water

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Hi All,

Apologies for the silly question but I'm pretty clueless when it comes to central heating. I have a conventional boiler with a water tank, and recently I've noticed that if I turn off central heating on the control panel down-stair and keep only the hot water timer on I don't actually get any hot water. It seems as though the boiler won't kick in. As a temporary measure I've had to turn the hot water back on but set the thermostat to low so the radiators don't actually heat up.

My question is this: will I be wasting energy by keeping the central heating on? Is this indication of a problem with my system somewhere?

Many thanks for your help,

sad_muso

Where about in the country are you..?

maybe one of our guys are near enough to call in to test and identify which bit(s) have failed.....

To give you a rough idea of what needs to be done.....

1/ A boiler heats up some water, then pumps it down a pipe that then splits through some electrically controlled taps called valves...

there are some different types of valves, bust basically the valve(s) sends the heat from the boiler to heat up either the central heating radiators or the hot water tank.

2/ There is a timer switch that can turn radiators or water on/off at specific times of day..

3/ There are thermostats in rooms and/or on the hot water cylinder to tell the boiler when the radiators or water are hot enough.

4/ The valve(s) have switches in side to make sure that the boiler doesn't start heating up until at least one valve is open to let the hot water go to radiators or hot water..

so the control is typically

Supply ->  Time clock -> Thermostat(s) -> Valve(s)  ->  Boiler!

You need someone with a suitable fault finding ability to check each stage is working correctly...

The confusing bit for a lot of plumbers and/or 'electricians' is that often multi core cable (e.g. 3core+earth Red/Yellow/Blue+earth) is used between these items,

BUT there is no standard colour code...

e.g. one guy may have used 'Blue' as the live trigger from the time clock to the room thermostat and another guy may use 'yellow'!!

etc..   etc..  etc...

Some people use the "replace a bit and see if is now works" approach...

but IMHO the best way Is to identify everything thats there, sketch out how its wired..

then using a logical approach through the circuit and a few checks with a test meter, a competent person can normally workout which bit(s) have failed. 

It will be costing you more money to heat your water if you don't get it fixed.

Guinness