Thrush

iTrader: (1)

Central heating isn't working properly - house is cold!!!

Rads are getting hot, all over too - not just bottom, and hot water is working fine.

But the rads aren't getting as hot as normal, so I went to turn the thermostat up. Normally set to 25, if you turn the dial below 20 it "clicks" off - turn it back it "clicks" on and the boiler kicks in. Usually stays on for a while, then goes off, blah blah

Now, even tho it's turned up to 30, the boiler barely comes on for CH, and you don't get a click from the thermostat unless you turn it down past 15!

I put a thermometer on top of the thermostat and left it for several hours and the hallway only got to 17 deg - sitting room about the same, and the upstairs about 15!!!!

So my thinking is the thermostat is fucked and isn't registering the temp setting I am putting it to - ie, I thinks it's set to 15 and is only heating to that temp....

What to do? How can I be sure it is fucked before I spend out on getting a new one and having it fitted, and how do I even know what type I need? (I don't want another of the shitty "dial" ones, a nicer, easier to use digital one would be better - specially if it's remote control and I can have it in the sitting room instead of the hallway!!!!!)

blk-Mk5-zs

well first of all, dont get a plumber out. no offence to them but im an electrician and wire heatings for a living and when i go to fit wireless stats etc i find plumbers just stick combis on a plug and no stat, and they wouldnt know how to wire the system you have properly (im guessing you have a tank to heat and store your water?) there fairly complicated if you havnt been doing them for a while

ring a heating company that employs electricians too and get the electrician round, sounds like a wiring fault as the stat isnt telling the valve to move which then tells the boiler to fire basically, if you think the boiler is fine (your water is ok) then a good spark will sort it.

Paul Eggleton

Or the actuator/valve is buggered. We had ours go this week.

And also discovered we had a frost protection stat on top of the boiler(which is in the garage). The boiler has been coming on around midnight recently in this cold snap and we've been wondering why. Turns out the garage gets fucking cold at night

Thrush

iTrader: (1)

Yeah hot water is fine - soon as you turn the tap on the boiler kicks in and hot water comes out (combi boiler, no storage tanks)

I had a problem fixed last year on the boiler (had a leak inside making it trip out) which I had repaired by the manufacturer (or whoever they send on their behalf) which included a years cover, which I got a letter about the other day saying the "insurance" on it was going to continue unless I cancelled it - I haven't got round to ringing them yet, so wondering if this would be classed as "under insurance" ????

I should ring em in the morning really, but if it's not covered, who should I call? British Gas? they do a boiler care/fix thing don't they? Or should I call out a local private company? And how much should I be expecting this to cost (inspection, fault find and rectification?) I know thats a "how long is a bit of string" question since we don't know what the fault is, but I know fuck all, so hoping somebody else might

blk-Mk5-zs

edit, just read you have a combi

most likely a plumber you need then lol

if its a hardwired stat you have they rarely break down.

if it has, get a honeywell cmt921 wireless programmable stat in. thats all ill fit now, when i have the choice, you get a bracket for the wall and a stand to put them on a table etc too as you want.

Cragrat

iTrader: (4)

if you have a frost stat in the garage you also should have a pipe stat on the return to the boiler mate or you`re gonna waste gas

daz

blk-Mk5-zs

them pipe stats are worse than the frost stats for customers ringing up and saying there boiler keeps coming on in the night when they dont want it to!!

you tell them its to protect from frost and they tell you there wasting gas. better than a burst pipe....

Thrush

iTrader: (1)

Yeah it's a combi, and yeah it's a hardwired stat....

Boiler's just come back on now, bedroom temp reading @ 17.5deg, which means hallway must be 15 or maybe a bit below....

Pissing me off now

Lee Reynolds

Sounds to me like its gone Matt. I personally would just replce it with a hard wired one, the remote stats arent all theyre cracked up to be. The novelty wears off and it ends up on the wall bracket all its life, like a hard wired one

foreigneRS

i have a honeywell remote stat in the lounge as my boiler is in the kitchen and never had a stat before and i didn't want to run wires everywhere until i replace it

Cragrat

iTrader: (4)

had one early this week where woman rang me up saying the system is buggered went one at 3 am wouldnt switch off at the stat(pragrammeable),i went check all the valves stats etc looking in wiring centre when i looked up at the pipe stat and it was set at 55`,i wonder if she had been messing with it,asked the plumber and she is reknowned for fiddling.try as i might she wouldnt have it,paid me today to replace it!!!.........silly cow.

Thrush

iTrader: (1)

Same here. I just can't see the point of heating the hallway to a comfortable when I'm never in it! Far rather the temp control was for the sitting room where I spend more time!

Bit back to what to do - who should I call about this?

foreigneRS

can't advise you on that as i just do everything myself.

the remote thermostat is very easy to wire in. it just needs a power supply for the receiver box that sits near your boiler and that has a relay inside to replace the old thermostat (basically just connect 2 wires. then the thermostat connects wirelessly and is battery operated so very simple.

Cragrat

iTrader: (4)

generally speaking you fit the stat in the coldest place in the house which is usually the hall,other rooms downstairs have other heat sources so will not give a true reading and the rest of the house will be cold kitchen(oven),sitting room (fireplace)

you need an electrician mate,have him wire it in,wireless will only be problematical

daz

Lee Reynolds

Matt the stat goes in the hallway as a rule. As cragrat says its the coldest place in the house usually so that where the boiler temp is set. You then adjust your stats on your rads to suit each individual room!

Steve the Plumber

iTrader: (11)

Firstly,

Is the boiler stat on maximum,

As youve got a combi, when the heating is on does the boiler turn itself on and off quickly? and do the heating flow and return pipes feel hot?

Most new combis have a built in "Boiler Frost Stat"

Chances are the boiler could be playing up, (Thermistor/Sensor probably)

Thrush

iTrader: (1)

Cragat/Lee - Yeah I know they usually do, but I'd rather control the temp to the room I am in the most, rather than "guess" it needs to be x temp in the hallway for it to be x temp in the sitting room etc..... I don't give a shit what temp it is in the hallway, I just want it to sit at 22-24 in the sitting room

Steve - Boiler stat? Is this the same as the dial stat I have on the wall in the hall?

"hen the heating is on does the boiler turn itself on and off quickly?" - yeah, fairly quickly. Usually it's on for longer than it is now, hence why it's not heating the house a lot

No idea about "Boiler Frost Stat" - boiler is about 7-9yrs old tho.... (Potterton Puma)

Guess I shall have to call someone out....

Cragrat

iTrader: (4)

as said stat goes in coldest area as if it is 24` in the living room lovely and warm there but it may be freezing in the rest of the house,great if you are a selfish get,but probly not.but it seems you are determined stat goes in living room,wont make that much difference as its not my house!!!!

dont worry about frost `stat bud as the electrician you will have to get to sort it will advise you accordingly

Steve the Plumber

iTrader: (11)

Boiler stat, there might be dial on the front of your boiler that turns clockwise, that will be your boiler thermostat, your boiler should still have a frost stat built in, are the 2 heating pipes (flow and return) off the very hot when the boiler is firing for heat?

Sounds like your gonna need to get someone out!

foreigneRS

or a sad get that lives on their own

Thrush

iTrader: (1)

Steve - yeah, flow and return pipes are hot....

Strangely, today it seems to be working as normal! It's back to proper warmth in here, and the stat on the wall seems to be working as it should - IE, turn it back to around 20-22 it clicks off, turn it past 20-22 it clicks on, and temp gauge (clock with temp sensor is reporting 21deg.....

I have had it on since midday tho, so maybe it's just that it's taken this long to heat up the house fully. Normally on a weekday it don't come on till 5pm (as I'm at work all day) so I just turn it on manually if it's my day off.

That said, if it's cold as fook in the house as it's been off all day, surely it (the boiler) shouldn't keep going on and off untill it's reached the stat indicated temp of 25deg (instead of it being about 15deg). I would have thought when the CE is set to come on and the house is say, 10deg, then the boiler should fire up and flow the rads with hot water untill ambient temp in the house has reached 25deg, and THEN turn off, and come back on when it drops below that temp.....

Cragrat

iTrader: (4)

the boiler will only heat water up to the the temp requested on the stat on the front of the boiler ie the boiler temp,if you turn up the boiler temp it will heat the water in the system for longer and to a higher temp ergo sending more heat to the radiators and heating your house quicker,so if you turn up the boiler stat it will take less time,turn it down it will take more time

therefore if the heating has gone on at 5pm and you get in at for example 5.15 its had 15mins to heat the house up,alternatively if you get in at 5.30 its had 30 mins to do it,now assuming ite bloody cold outside the latter scenario is gonna present you with a much warmer abode if the house has had a starting point of say 14`,so what we have deduced here is you need to ring an electrician to sit down and explain all this to you over and over again as my fingers are getting weary now

it sounds like your system is ok maybe needs a new stat but please get it checked for your peace of mind and my future dextrous ability

anyway good luck mate

Thrush

iTrader: (1)

Don't think I have a stat on the front of the boiler - unless you mean the two "turn knobs" that change the temp the hot water and CE is heated to - they just say hotter and colder)

But anyway, it comes on around 5, I get in between 6 and 7. Point is today it seems to be working fine, past week it hasn't (like I keep saying, it's as if the stat in the hall believes it should only be heating to 15deg, regardless of what the dial is saying)

So I'm gonna leave it for a bit and see what happens

focusv8

Temperature settings for heating flow and hot water temp, probably just inputs to the Controller but have exactly the same function as thermostats.

Set the Turn knob for heating fully to HOTTER.

And there's nothing wrong with the room stat.

The temperature it clicks and turns of at when you turn it down is the actual room temperature it is seeing.
Yours turned off at 15 you said the thermometer was at 17.

Ther water temperature in the radiators isn't high enough, or the radiators aren't big enough, to overcome the heat loss due to the PROLONGED COLD SPELL we've just had.
The stat seems to work now because it's warmed up outside and the house isn't loosing so much heat.

.

.

Thrush

iTrader: (1)

focusv8 - I see what you are getting at, but what was happening was it didn't seem to matter if I set the dial on the wall stat to 30 - it still turned the boiler off when the temp as around 15-17; as if the stat thought I had set it to 15/17....

In over a year I have never changed the turn knobs on the front of the boiler, and it was as cold as this last year, aswell as within the past 3 weeks or so.....

So I think there WAS a problem with the wall stat, that seems to have sorted itself out now, as yesterday it worked fine, and today it seems to be working fine, just the past week it hasn't wanted to heat past 15/17deg as if that was the temp I had set it to, regardless of what the dial said on the wall stat....

focusv8

Do you know whether it was the Wall stat that turned off the boiler or the boiler heating stat or (turn knob) that did it?
If you could turn the boiler back on with the wall stat then it was that, and it is possibly F-bar.
If not it was the boiler stat and turning that up to max would have kept the boiler on for longer.

It's not been as cold, down to -10, for as long, 10-14 days for at least 10 years.

It's the continuous cold spell that can cause problems.